Monster Box Fun

Here's a fun & easy craft to do with your children, for your classroom, to use with your students, or to hold the tissues in your bathroom:  MONSTER BOXES! 

First you will need an empty box -- a rectangular Kleenex box is what was used to make all of the Monster Boxes pictured above.   (The yellow and blue striped one is actually 2 rectangular Kleenex boxes.)   That said, any cardboard box will do - cereal box, snack box, cracker box, etc.

Once you have an empty box, then gather these other materials:

• roll of duct tape
• fun foam (for the eyes & teeth - I used white, but you can use any color)
• googly eyes
• hot glue gun
• Sharpie pen (any dark color)
• sharp scissors or box cutter

 
 Draw where you want the mouth to be.  Cut away that cardboard as well as the plastic area of the Kleenex box.  Cover the box with duct tape.  (Optional = cover the inside of the box also!  Use red so it looks like the inside of his mouth!)

Once you've covered the box with duct tape, randomly cut triangles out of the fun foam.   These will be the monster's teeth.  Using the hot glue gun, attach the "teeth" to the inside of the box so they stick out.   You can attach teeth along the bottom ridge of the mouth only or along the bottom and top.  Next, decide how many eyes your monster will have.  Remember, the more, the spookier!  Cut tombstone shaped pieces of fun foam for the eyes -- you will be gluing the googly eyes to the tombstone piece so the eyes will be able to stand up and watch your entire room.  Glue the googly eyes to the tombstone piece, then glue the tombstone piece to the Kleenex box on the back side so they stick up and peer over the mouth.  As an added reinforcement (and to make the eyes blend into the back of the monster's head), I put duct tape over the bottom portion of the eyes.

VOILA!  You are now the proud owner of a fun and silly monster box!

SAY WHAT?!?!  You don't know what to do with this cute guy?!?!  Here are some ideas:

• official tissue holder in any bedroom/bathroom/classroom/therapy room
• official study helper -- feed him your vocabulary/math flash cards -- but only the ones you get correct!  The ones you don't get correct, you need to study so they're tastier for the monster
• official speech therapy helper -- feed him articulation/vocabulary cards (or anything)!   He loves eating anything!
• official bingo chip holder
• official bouncy ball catcher -- set him on the table/floor, see who can bounce the most bouncy balls into his mouth
• print these tasty "Monster Box Treats" from my TPT store to feed him (if you download, please be a friendly monster and leave feedback!)

The starry monster box (in the above pictures) holds the baby wipes in my therapy room.  My students always complained when I handed them a baby wipe to clean their hands/face; but now they beg to use "monster spit wipes" to clean their hands/face.

Here are some other monster boxes to give you some ideas:

wacky shaped snack box

 

Cheerios box

give him antenna

one-eyed monster box with a full mouth of goodies

 
 
Please share a photo of your monster box creation below!  I'd love to see what monster boxes are living in your therapy room, classroom, or home.

Until next time,

 

Creating a card game - how hard can it be?

Card games... my family can't get enough of them.  Playing them, finding unique and different ones to buy, making them.... 

SAY WHAT?!?!

Yes, we like to make our own card games.

Have you ever tried to make a card game?  It's not as easy as you think.   When my son, M, was 12, he dared me to make a card game about potatoes.   Well, about "poe-tah-toes" as that's his term for "potatoes".  He's a funny kid.  

I accepted his dare but it became a family event.  My family sat around the table brainstorming:  What would be the object of the game?  What rules would there be?  How would the players interact?  Would all cards be shown or some kept hidden?  What type graphics did we want?  Action cards:  how would they restrict players from reaching their goal or help players reach the goal?  

Ideas and suggestions poured out and I scrambled to get them all on paper.  We let the ideas sit for a day then reviewed them, scrapping some, tweaking others.  Now, it was time for a rough draft.   Via powerpoint, I created a card template and began adding graphics and text.  My family wandered in and out, giving advice on graphics and text wording.   Project saved and rough draft printed.

Finally, it was time to play the game and it stunk.  SAY WHAT?!?!  All that time invested and it stunk?  What was the problem?  Inertia.   The game in its neutral state never ended.  That's not a good thing.  When you play a game, you want it to end.  Please don't confuse that last sentence with "You don't want to play the game."    That is not what I meant.  When we play a game, we want to reach the goal of the game.  That's the purpose of the game, right?  Think of a good game of UNO:  when the game is quick and ends "too soon", most of the time the players will say, "Hey... let's play another round!"   There was fun, the fun ended, they want to re-capture the fun.   Now, think of a bad game of UNO:  drags on and on and on and on.  When it does end, the emotion around the table is "Thank goodness that was over... I thought it was never going again... please don't deal another round."

One key element to a good game is that even in the game's neutral state, players are still making gains toward the goal (or end) of the game.  Our poor homemade game wasn't doing that.  Hubby and I figured out we had too many "Lose everything" cards.  Basically, those cards kept sending players back to square one of the game.  No one was winning.  The game was not ending.  Everyone was thinking, "Please... let this madness stop!"

We didn't scrap the entire game.  It had some really fun elements.  We did enjoy the actual game play until we realized the game wouldn't end.  Our first idea to fix that issue was a simple one:  reduce the number of "Lose everything" cards.    Luckily, that was the perfect solution.  We cut the number of "Lose everything" cards in half and the game flowed beautifully.  We enjoy playing it.  My son's friends and my nephews enjoy playing it.  For such a pale, white topic (potatoes); it's truly an entertaining game.


Since creating our "Poe-tah-toe Game"  (yes, that's what we named it), I've created a few other card games to entertain my students during speech therapy.  All of them are "open-ended", meaning anyone can use the games.  They aren't tailored specifically for "students in speech therapy".  I created them to entertain and all of them have done exactly that.

Thinking about creating your own game?  First read this blog post written by Mark Rosewater (the Head Designer for Magic, The Gathering) for the top 10 things every game needs.   It's full of excellent information.

If you do create a game (whether to use in your classroom or therapy room or with your own family), I'd love to hear about it.  My family and I truly enjoy checking out new games.

Keep on having fun....