Beanbag Toss: "Planting Apples"

So just like Johnny Appleseed tossed seeds to grow apples, I thought that I could have my child toss beanbags to grow words... aka, add the past tense -ed onto words. The idea is simple: just like the bowling game, there will be base words and the child will have to write the past tense form of the word on a worksheet. 

I thought of a beanbag toss earlier today but gave up on the idea because 1. I don't have a bean bag toss game and 2. I was feeling too lazy to even think about it. Then my guilty conscience came into play: "Jill, if you don't include fun games he isn't going to listen. And if he doesn't listen then you'll fail." So I decided to make my own bean bag toss game.

Not as easy as one might think. Especially for me. I tend to get impatient and sloppy when making crafts. Funny how I forgot that about myself until I had already started the project. This is what I started with:

3 boxes and some construction paper

I ran to the Dollar Tree to grab some construction basics: duct tape, more construction paper, and a utility knife. Without having a plan, I grabbed the knife and just started cutting holes. Like I said, I'm impatient. And the result was-- uneven circles. "Oh well," I said to myself, "It gives it character."

Next, I used double-sided tape to attach the construction paper to the boxes. After I started, I realized that maybe I should have applied the construction paper before cutting the holes. It was very difficult to try to get the construction paper completely lined up with the edges and I finally gave up and just taped on bits and pieces. After looking at it, I said to myself, "Oh well, maybe no one will notice."

Then, I had to find some way to tilt the boxes up so that bean bags could be tossed through the circles. I decided to use another box. Big mistake. Since the Dollar Tree only had cheapo duct tape (in leopard print, I might add) it did not hold up. I went on a treasure hunt around my house: eating utensils, nope. Bunny stick treats, nope. Paper towel rolls, nope. Long skewers... yes! I taped 5 skewers together on each side of the box and, voila, it worked perfectly. 

Let me explain the concept behind the game:

• Each hole has a base word attached to it
• When the child tosses the bag into the hole, he has to add past tense -ed onto the word and then write it on his apple worksheet
• Retoss

My next problem was: how will I attach a base word beneath each hole? After looking around my craft box I found these:

Dry erase message boards

I cut the message boards in half and then into thirds. After attaching them with double-sided tape, I wrote a base word onto each. This way, I can reuse this bag toss for many other themes/ideas.

Here is the finished result (it's bigger than it looks)

Close-up of the dry erase board on the box

I also created this worksheet for him to write the full past tense word on:

Just like the bowling pins, I need to write the line in once I print it