Ice Cream Stick Balancing Challenge

This week we are playing with the letter I in our series A-Z of Play at Home. We had a fun game called Ice Cream stick balancing challenge!

We played with our little shop toys, but you can play with any small toys/figurines/mini erasers etc and ice cream sticks. (Use the thicker craft sticks for little hands.)

The player had to pick up a toy then walk around the table and drop it into the basket as shown below. For older kids or adults you can use more chairs so that they have to weave through to make the path more challenging.

We started off using two sticks. Here the kids figured out that plastic ones are more difficult to pick up than cardboard ones because it is more slippery. A round shape is more difficult than a flat surface etc.

Then, we used only one stick to balance the toy all the way to the basket:

Lastly, and most fun, the stick had to go between your teeth and you had to balance the toy on the stick while walking around the table to the basket!

With each round you got 3 chances to see if you can get all three toys in the basket without dropping it. If it’s dropped, you lose that point. The one player with the most points at the end won!
This was super fun, and educational as well(again this activity worked on executive functioning skills, proprioceptive skills to name a few. All while having fun at home!