Minion Madness

It was difficult to locate unique, easy Minion crafts for older kids.  So, we started the program by showing some short videos from this DVD.  Luckily we have public performance rights for it, so we could show it.

Next the kids got to make a variety of crafts and play a few games.

Game: Tic Tac Toe
I took small white paper plates and made five yellow and five purple Minions using construction paper and large wiggle eyes.

Game: Minion Toss
Using yellow and purple cups from Dollar Tree, I added a large wiggle eye and permanent marker goggle lines.  Kids used rolled up socks to knock them down.

Craft: Minion Slime
Slime recipe:
Container 1: 1/2 cup white glue, 1/2 cup water (mix together)
Container 2: 1/2 cup liquid starch, yellow food coloring (mix together)
Add container 1 to container 2 and mix well.
Divide into baby food jars (which the kids then decorated to look like Minions.  Blue painters tape around the bottom for pants, black sharpies around top for goggles, large wiggle eye).

Craft: Finger Puppets
Paper and markers and tape.

Craft: Bookmarks/Puppets
Large popsicle sticks, markers, small wiggle eyes.

Craft: Paper Minions

We pre-cut the Minion body, eyes (black and white circles), goggles strips and grey goggle base.  Kids created the rest out of paper scraps.

Evaluation: This was a super hard program to pull together, although it went extremely well barring some major issues with the slime.  For some reason, some of the mixtures didn't jell together at all.  I don't know if it was the liquid starch or the glue that caused the issue.  We had enough liquid starch for the first program.  For the second we waited to see how many kids showed up and then game them a runnier slime and told them to experiment at home to see if they could "fix" it.  They really enjoyed the other crafts and the mini-movies.  This was a great way for us to start the program as it allowed for late comers to arrive before we got down to the activities.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters

To celebrate the recent release of a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Ghostbusters, we decided to start off our fall session combining the two into one program.  It was a success.  The mix of games and crafts helped keep the kids entertained and they were awesome at helping pick up the mini marshmallows that ended up ALL over the floor.  We had 25 kids at our first session and 14 at our second and two teen volunteers at each.

Group Game: Musical Slimers
At our first session we separated the kids into two groups (grades 1-2, grades 3-5).  At the second session since we had fewer we had them form one group.  We gave everyone a laminated image of Slimer from Ghostbusters.  The kids formed two circles and placed the Slimer image in the middle.  We then removed one and while the Ghostbusters theme song played, they walked around the circle a la musical chairs.  When the music stopped, they had to find an image to stand on.

They had a lot of fun with this, however we had trouble keeping the kids from walking on the images.  It was  a great way to start off the program and helped them blow off some steam before settling down to crafts and other games.

Science Experiment: Toxic Ooze
While the kids were still in a large group, I demonstrated how to make green slime (borax, clear glue recipe) and then divided it into small containers for the kids to take home.

  Game: Ninja Star Toss
I made eight origami ninja stars, gluing two different Ninja Turtle images on four each.  The object of the game was for the kids to pair up and throw the ninja stars into a sand bucket.  Which ever person got the most stars into the bucket was the winner.

I did not see many of the kids playing this game as played our other two.

Game: Frisbee Pizza Game
The object was to toss frisbees into a pizza box.

Game: Feed Slimer
Using marshmallow shooters, try to shoot mini-marshmallows into Slimer's mouth.

This was a favorite game among both sessions.  The marshmallow shooters didn't work as well as they have in the past and maybe that was because they were made ahead of time.  The balloons kept sliding off the cup and they didn't shoot well.  Of course it could have been creator error as well!

Craft: Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Kids used toothpicks and two different sized marshmallows to create their own version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.  We also had Wilton Candy Decorating pens so they could draw edible faces on their man.  They could eat their creation during the program or take it home.

Craft: Glass Stone Magnets
Kids used traced and cut out color images depicting either Ghostbusters or TMNT and then used Mod Podge to adhere it to a glass stone.  When it was dry, they added a magnet to the back.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the completed projects!