Learn

Just because the weather isn’t nice doesn’t mean that it’s time to hang up your sneakers and sporting equipment and head straight for the TV or your computer games after school.

It’s important that you keep you body and your mind active during the long school season ahead. As long as the weather permits, try having fun with some outdoor activities for at least an hour a day. If you can’t play outside, try some fun indoor activities to exercise your body and stimulate your mind.

You can be healthy and have fun doing it. What do you usually do during the hours between when you get home from school and when you go to bed? Do you spend that time watching TV, surfing the internet, playing video games and listening to your newest music CD? Or do you spend that time doing your homework, reading books, participating in sports and enjoying fun activities. Well, if you haven’t guessed already, we want to encourage you to participate in the latter list of activities and avoid spending too much time immobilized in front of a screen.

We encourage you to talk with your parents and discuss how much of your free time should be allowed spent engaged in “media” (TV, internet, movies, video games, etc.). During the remaining hours, try doing your homework, reading a book or participating in a fun game or activity.

In order to help you have some “healthy” fun, here are a few game ideas and activities that you can try at home. First, we will list a couple of exciting outdoor activities that you can try with your friends. Then we will list some ideas for indoor fun!

Outdoor Activities

Game: Four Square
Number of players: 4 or more
Equipment: Bouncing ball (standard red “kickball” works best), chalk
Rules: This game must be played on a flat surface that is divided into four equal squares that all touch each other to form one larger square. If you do not have a play area already set-up with four squares, then use chalk to create these four equal-sized squares on the ground (each square should be approximately eight feet by eight feet). See example below for details:

Before the game begins, designate a priority ranking to the four squares. For example, some people use the descriptions “Ace”, “King”, “Queen” and “Jack”, with “King” being the highest ranking square. The game begins with the highest ranking player (the “Ace” player in this example) bouncing the ball first in his/her square and then into another player’s square. The game continues until one of the following occurs:

• A player hits the ball before it bounces once in their square.
• A player hits the ball so it lands out of bounds (the ball must land in another player’s square.
• A player does not hit the ball before it bounces twice in their square

Once a player is “out”, they must move to the lowest ranking square and all of the other players move up a square. If you have more than four players, the remaining players can rotate in to the lowest ranking square once a player is “out”. The top ranking square always starts the next round of play.

Game: Pickle
Number of players:3 or more
Equipment: softball and two softball gloves or lightweight ball, two bases
Rules: Two players stand at the bases, one at each base (the bases should be placed approximately 20-25 feet apart). The remaining players should divide up and start at one the basses. The game begins with the two base players throwing the ball back and forth to each other The object of the game is to time running between the bases without getting “tagged” by one of the base players while they have the ball. Each player should keep track of how many times they touch a base safely. The first player to touch the bases five times safely wins. If a player is “tagged” by one of the base players with a ball, they must switch places and the newly “tagged” player becomes the base player.

Indoor Fun

Here are some great activities that you can do by yourself or with friends while playing indoors.

Project: Egg Shell Garden

What You Need

• 1 empty egg carton
• Empty egg shells
• Potting soil
• Seeds (herb seeds work well for this project)

1. Cut off the top of the egg carton, leaving just the bottom portion that used to hold the eggs.
2. Crack open the eggs carefully and remove the inside. Try to keep about ? of the shell intact.
3. Using a sharp pencil, poke a small hole in the bottom of each of the egg shells.
4. Fill each egg shell about ? of the way full with moist potting soil.
5. Plant several seeds in each egg shell, following the specific instructions on the seed packets. If desired, write the name of the seed on the egg shell that is planted inside.
6. Place the planted egg shells in the empty egg carton and place near a window where it will get plenty of direct sunlight.
7. Water your egg shell garden whenever the soil feels dry. Do not use too much water. Only water your garden until the soil is moderately moist.
8. Depending on which seeds you use, you should start to see your garden grow in several weeks. When ready, you can transplant to a bigger pot or plant outdoors.

Project: Homemade Playdough

What You Need:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 cooking pan

1. In a deep cooking pan, combine all of the ingredients.
2. Cook over a medium heat and mix continuously until the mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and hold together.
3. Remove mixture from the pan and knead for several minutes over a piece of wax paper.
4. If desired, make several different batches using different colors of food coloring.
5. Have fun and use your imagination to create animals, houses, toy cars-anything you want! Store the playdough in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.