Directions

For directions with pictures, click here.

1. Gather your pipe cleaners together and altogether fold them in half. Don’t bend them all the way. Instead, use your finger as a placeholder. You’re going to need this extra bit of pipe cleaner to be able to spread out later to become the roots of your tree and help it to stand up.

2. Twist the looped end of the pipe cleaners around your finger. Then continue twisting the pipe cleaners about 1/2 way to the end. This will be the trunk of your tree.Do not twist all the way to the top. You’ll want to leave the last half or third of your pipe cleaners free.

3. Remove your finger, and spread the loops out, about 90 degrees to the tree trunk. These loops, when spread out, will help to make the base of the tree more stable.

4. Twist, bend and spread the upper half of the tree to make branches.

5. Tape the base of the tree to the table. This step is optional. Kids may become frustrated because the tree keeps falling over. There are a few different solutions that you can try: Encourage your child to hold the tree themselves while they thread, instead of expecting it to stay in place. Hold the tree for them. Tape the base of the tree trunk down, (I used painters tape and stuck ours to the table top).

6. Thread the beads onto the branches so that they look like leaves.

Connection: Talk about how the tree kept falling over with we were threading the beads. That is a good example of how our important roots are! If we are firmly rooted in Christ, we are less likely to fall in our lives. 

Directions

1. Choose someone to be the Mother. If you are playing with a very young group of children, have an adult play this part.

2. Whoever is designated Mother stands at one end of the room and faces away from the Children, who line up on the other end of the room, close enough to hear and be heard by Mother.

3. Children take turns asking, “Mother, may I ____?”

4. If the answer is yes, the child is allowed to make whatever movement they requested.

5. If the answer is no, the person playing mother makes an alternative suggestion, by saying, “No you may not do that, but you may _____.” The Mother uses this answer if children are reaching her too quickly.

6. The children continue taking turns and the first one to reach the other end of the room wins and becomes the Mother.

Examples of commands:

Take ____ steps forward

Take ____ giant steps forward (a small number)

Take ____ baby steps forward (a large number)

Take ____ umbrella steps forward

Hop forward like a frog ____ times

Run forward for ____ seconds

Crabwalk forward for ____ seconds

Take open-and-shut steps ____ times (jump forward with feet apart, then bring the feet together)

Do a lamppost (lie face down, stretch arms forward, and then bring your feet to the point reached by the fingertips)

Other suggestions are Scissor steps, jumping jack steps, karate steps, and jump steps.

Take fewer steps (Instead of granting permission for five steps, allow two).

Take ____ steps backward

Run backward for _____ seconds (Mother does the counting.)

Walk backwards _____ steps (Or until Mother says, “Stop!”)

Return to the starting line (Can be used in for players who are not observing the rules.)