Tyra brought home this bag of microwave popcorn and instructions quite awhile ago from activity days. She has been asking for months if we could do the games in the bag. Well things have been crazy, and family home evening hasn’t been happening due to late dinners and therefore late bedtimes and we just didn’t want to make bedtime even later by doing FHE first. As we try to create a schedule for our household, we are trying to make FHE a priority again, so we finally broke out the bag and said “Let’s do this!”. 🙂
Opening Song: “Popcorn Popping” Children’s Songbook pg 242-243
Opening Prayer:
Lesson: Parable of the Popcorn, read by Ethan
Parable of the Popcorn
Behold at the time of the harvest, the ears of corn did bring forth kernels which we dried and prepared for the poppers hand.
And then it was that the popper did take the kernels, all of which appeared alike unto him, and did apply the oil and the heat.
And it came to pass that when the heat was on, some did explode with promise and did magnify themselves an hundred fold, and some did burst forth with whiteness which did both gladden the eye and satisfy the taste of the popper. And likewise, some others did pop, but not too much.
But lo, there were some that did just lie there and even though the popper’s heat was alike unto all, they did bask in the warmth of the oil and kept everything they had for themselves.
And so it came to pass that those which had given of themselves did bring joy and delight to many munchers, but those which kept of the warmth and did not burst forth were fit only to be case out into the pail and thought of with hardness and disgust.
And thus we see that in the beginning all appear alike, but when the heat is on, some come forth and give their all, while others fail to pop and become as chaff to be discarded and forgotten.
Activities:
Popcorn mouth toss: wo players stand a marked distance apart from each other and take turns throwing popcorn into each other’s mouths. Take 1 step back after each successful toss and munch. The team that gets the furthest without dropping any popcorn on the ground wins.
Popcorn straw blow: Place a of popcorn at the end of a table for each player. Using a drinking straw, blow the popcorn to the other end of the table. The first popcorn to arrive wins.
Popcorn cup drop: Stand on a chair and drop pieces of popcorn into a cup on the ground. Try to get as many pieces as possible into the target.
Popcorn distance throw: Throw a piece of popcorn as far as you can. Farthest throw wins.
Popcorn relay: Divide into two teams and give each team a cup or plate of popcorn. Have each player take turns walking with the cup of popcorn on their heads, across the room, around a chair and back to their team. Play for a specified amount of time, such as 2 minutes or more. The team that has the most popcorn left in their cup wins.
Closing Ceremonies
Don’t eat popcorn Pete: Send the first player away from the game board or into another room, then have the remaining players choose which one of the twelve people on the game board will be “Pete” for the round. Place one piece of popcorn in each square of the game board. Have the first player come back and begin eating popcorn pieces from the game board. As soon as the player tries to pick “Pete” everyone yells “Don’t eat Pete!” The player keeps all the popcorn picked up before trying to get Pete. Refill the game board and play again with the next player.
We went through and played all the games except the distance throw. I just didn’t want seven kids throwing popcorn across the room. Adam was funny to watch throughout the games though. Instead of tossing popcorn into Kyle’s mouth he just ate it and took off. And instead of standing up straight to drop popcorn into a cup on the floor (we had the kids just stand on the floor instead of on a chair), he bent over to put his popcorn in the cup, then took off with the cup of popcorn. 😉 For “Don’t eat Pete” we let each kids pick which animal on the paper would be “Pete”, and the kid that picked Pete for the first round, got to do the eating during the next round, so they all got a turn to pick and eat.
Treat: Popcorn!
GIFT IDEA:
You need:
1 gift bag
2 bags of microwave popcorn
2 paper cups
2 paper plates
2 straws
1 game board for Don’t eat Pete
Game instructions card