4th of July Bowling

The possibilities are endless when you have some empty bottles on hand. This is similar to my ring toss game but I have made a different game board to set it all up on. This time I used the "Betsy Ross Flag" as my inspiration piece. Her flag had 13 stars in a circle on a field of blue with the 13 red and white stripes. I changed this a bit to suit the game. It would be really hard to try to knock down all the pins if they were set up in a circle formation.

For this you will need:
-12 bottles (13 if you want to put one bottle in the middle of the circle)
-1/2 a sheet of poster board (you can make the ring toss game board on the back and make it a double sided game)
-Some scrapbook papers, stickers or whatever you want to decorate your bottles with
-double sided tape or glue to attach the embellishments
-A star shape to trace and cut out 12 stars (markers for where the bottles should be set up).

I made 7-1inch red stripes. Because I wanted my bottles to be arranged more or less in the center of the game board I decided to extend the field of blue all the way across the top of the poster board. I glued down the 12 stars in the same arrangement I wanted the bottles to be set up in. This will help the kids to be able to set up the game for themselves. I recommend using contact paper to laminate your game board. That way it will last longer.

For bowling balls I decided to use some wiffle balls that we already have and they happen to be in red, white and blue!! These are the kind that come with plastic bats for young children learning to hit a ball with a bat. You can also get them with out the bat. You can use any ball you have around the house. Just be sure that it is small enough that it is still a bit of a challenge to knock all the pins down. For an added challenge fill the bottles with water. The more water in them, the harder they will be to knock down. Another idea is to fill one full of water for bonus points if they knock it down.

Draw a line on the sidewalk and give them a "bowling ball" and watch them have lots of fun.

This is my 5 year old doing a victory dance after knocking down most of the pins. He had a great time testing this out for me.

This would be a great thing for students to make for a school carnival. If you want to set up more than one lane, just lay a piece of wood or some other barrier on the ground to separate the "lanes."

Katrina