Catapult Birds

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Last week we made catapults out of clothespins, so this week we used those catapults to play a game and work on writing. I made a target to shoot pom poms at, and use the pom poms as birds that we shoot with the catapult (kind of like angry birds). Inside the target, there are numbers, letters, or words so that you get a score and have to write.

I made several targets, some have letters, words, or birds on them, and there is a blank one to write your own items on. The bird ones have different colored birds, and correspond to cards that have letters, words, or questions that have to be answered. Included is also a score sheet to write your numbers and words on. Here is the free target that is blank.

It is challenging to aim the catapult, so I had the kids work together to gather points and words. They each got 3 shots with the catapult and we went around the circle to have multiple chances. If anyone scored, everyone wrote down the score and the word. Once we had several words, we created a sentence with the words and wrote it down to practice writing.

I also created cards with questions on them to have the older kids write the answers to the questions. If you don’t want to make a catapult (which is the fun part really), you can play the game with dice or use a flat bottomed decorative marble to roll to the target and get a score.

This game is quite fun, and I think that we shall be practicing it for a bit to see if the kids can get better at aiming their catapult. I did glue some popsicle sticks against the clothespins so that I could stabilize the clothespins to make the catapult aim better.  It also works best when you put the target in a box or have built up sides so that the pom poms don’t roll away.

You can buy the download of the full catapult birds game here.

Materials:

• clothespin catapult
• targets
• pom poms
• pencil

Skills:

• visual motor
• bimanual
• handwriting