Paper Plate Ring Toss

Remember playing ring toss at the county fair? Bring that fun home with this homemade version of your carnival favorite. Cut out the centers of paper plates, paint them, and you've got rings ready to be tossed! This game is a fun way to teach young kids about direction and number values, or teach older kids about addition! It's a great creative project to do any day you're yearning for the fair, and it stops boredom in its tracks!

What You Need:

• 4-8 paper plates
• Scissors
• Sharpie marker
• 3 empty plastic bottles
• Sand or pebbles
• Paint
• Paint brushes
• Newspaper

What You Do:

1. Use the scissors to cut out the center of each paper plate, so you have a pile of paper rings.
2. Lay out the newspaper to avoid any mess.
3. Help your child paint each ring a different color; she can even add a design if she likes. Set them aside to dry.
4. As you wait, fill the plastic bottles with sand or small pebbles to weigh them down. Then use the sharpie to write one of the following numbers on the bottles: 1, 2, 3 or 5, 10, 15 or 10, 50, 100. Use smaller numbers for younger kids and bigger numbers for older kids.
5. Give each player the same number of paper plate rings; between 2 and 4 is a good place to start.
6. Set down the plastic bottles and encourage the first player to toss the rings around the bottles as she stands a few feet away.
7. Ask her to describe where the rings land each time (around the bottle, next to the bottle, etc).
8. Each time a paper ring lands around a bottle, grant the player the number of points that matches the number on the bottle. For example, if the ring lands over the bottle with a 3 on it, the player gets 3 points. (Note: older kids should try to add the sum of all points received, whereas little ones should focus more on describing where the ring lands.)
9. Invite the next player to give it a go, keeping track of her points until all rings have been tossed.
10. The person with the most points is the winner!