Ah, what a lovely weekend we have had! I am going back to school tomorrow feeling really glad about it.
Last week, my first week back at school was actually fine. You know I was worried about the shelves? Well, although the level of the top shelf IS too high for the little children, because the shelves are double width, I have managed to fit most things on the shelves and it is working out ok so far. I got very, very dusty last Monday getting everything put onto shelves, getting the cupboards sorted etc. The return to school was fine. I had my first choir and drumming club- with 17 children and 10 children, respectively, and both were enjoyable and the children seemed to be really pleased and have a good time. The first orchestra since Christmas was good too and we began an arrangement of Korobeniki, the theme from the Tetris computer game. I WAS tired after the week though.
Friday night, CBC and I bought some Chinese takeaway for dinner which was delicious and a welcome treat after a tiring week.
Saturday morning, we got up at a reasonable hour, not hideously late but not early and I made CBC a brunch consisting of Pain Au chocolat (reduced to 38p for 4 from the Co-op), tea/coffee, juice and then crusty brown bread, scrambled egg with chives, salad leaves (rescued from the bin at school- it was on top and totally enclosed in plastic) and Gravalax with honey and mustard sauce. Whilst we ate that, we had a Zoom meeting with his mum, brother and sisters which was pleasant.
He then opened his presents. I bought him:
Homemade cheeseboard box: rather than buying an overpackaged special box, I bought vintage Gouda, Brie De Meaux, Gorgonzola, Manchego Reserve Gruyere, Somerset Crunchy vintage Cheddar; Oat and Chive wheat biscuits, Rosemary Crackers, Beetroot and three seed oaty biscuits from Lidl and then packaged them in a recycled cardboard box with some straw from my birthday hamper. As I have alluded to, CBC is a cheese fan and he was really pleased.
4 Cliff bars- these are energy bars for long distance cycling.
Lidl special Ginger and Belgian chocolate wafer biscuits; Almond, dark chocolate and sea salt nut bars, Cadbury's Caramel nibbles.
White Stuff navy blue linen Summer trousers (purchased last September in the 70% sale!)
4 pairs of Seasalt Bamboo sailor socks (purchased in January with my 50% off teacher discount code)
I commissioned a lovely young artist called Emily White to do an A4 painting of a Robin, Blue Tit, Sparrow and Blackbird all sitting on Honeysuckle as CBC loves the birds in our garden and spends a lot of time watching them feeding and sitting on our honeysuckle. It arrived on Saturday morning and it is so utterly beautiful.
He was so pleased with all his presents. He was also really pleased with the beautiful RSPB ceramic bird bath that my Mum bought him (which I saw in a catalogue at hers and suggested she buy for him)
After we'd hung some washing, we drove to a village called Stock to meet our friend N. We then all got in his car (with masks and windows open) and drove to a village called Blackmore where we ate lunch at the tearoom. Ah, it was so nice- we sat in the beautiful sunshine and ate our lunch. I had a Hoisin Duck salad and a thick Chocolate Milkshake with cream and sprinkles.
We then walked the stretch of the St Peter's Way from Blackmore to Stock which was around 14km Ah, it was such a wonderfully interesting walk and really pleasant and easy. We saw lots of lovely things, including going through a brilliant Victorian tunnel under the main Norfolk line railway which was really long and dark.
We saw and heard lots of birds and even saw a Barn Owl! We unexpectedly stopped at the Red Lion in Margaretting for a cup of tea/pint for the other 2 plus a bag of crisps. We reached the car back in Stock and then drove N to pick up his car in Stock. We then drove home, via our much missed, beloved Thai restaurant in our old town of resistence to buy a sneaky takeaway before returning home to eat it.
The next morning (today), CBC got up to cycle to the old town to meet another of his old housemates for a social cycle ride. I also decided to get the train back to that same home town to attend church. It was SO lovely to be back in person to church for the first time since last year! It was so nice briefly see people to say hi behind facemasks- and I really enjoyed the calm and peace and thought of the service.
After this, I called CBC who was having a cup of tea in his old housemate's garden and so I cycled up the hill a few miles to see them also. We had a happy catch up in their garden whilst admiring their raised bed of vegetable and fruit plants and playing with their 3 year old. They also have a 4 week old who it was lovely to meet. L, CBC's housemate's lovely wife was so pleased to see us and she said it made her weekend to see us. They gave us delicious 'Breaded Vegetable Finger' sandwich. CBC escorted me on his bike (me on mine) to the station and then he was planning to cycle the 15miles or so back to our house. To my chagrin, the moment he'd cycled off, I found out the next train was cancelled so I had to wait 47 minutes for the next train. I had a brief walk up the high street to look in a charity shop. When I FINALLY got home, CBC was already back! Sigh. He's so quick!
CBC and I had a pot of tea along with a M&S Belgian chocolate eclair (the best type!) and then we did a few garden jobs. I then planted some Chard, Pak Choi and Bean seeds to germinate. I'm pleased to report that the 2 sunflower seeds I planted aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago, have FINALLY germinated! I thought all was lost but they were just shy!
We ate the left over Thai food for dinner alongside the remainder of my last batch of Nettle soup.
I thought I'd share my quiz from CBC's Pirate Party Zoom quiz just in case you wanted to use them for a party or just have a go at seeing what you know! I'll publish the answers another time! Pirates and nautical based characters and stories.
1.One eyed Willy is a pirate in which film?
2.“Many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese -toasted, mostly”is a quote that comes from whichnautical-based story? Bonus- which character says it?
3.Which real-life pirate was also known as “Granuaille,” or “bald,” for her habit of cutting her hair short ?
4.Who wrote the book which the sailor and pirate Captain Nemo appeared in?
5.Piratical arithmetic: Multiply the numbermen on a Dead Man's Chest x the distance that the Nautilus submarine travelled, divided by the number of Pirates of the Caribbean films and + the number of the King who commissioned the Spanish Armada (Remember BODMAS)
6.Complete the J.M Barrie quote:”________ star to the ______ and straight on till ____________.” said ___________
7.Name the famous Narnian ship.
8.Name C.S. Forester’s famous Captain.
9.Patrick O’Brian’s nautical books are set during which war?
10. Which composer wrote the music forfilm, The Sea Hawk? (bonus point if you can name who played the hero in this?
Stuck at home and bored? Why not do my Logo quiz with your family. It's got lots that children would recognise and is easy! Fancy something a bit harder? Try my tube quizzes. Why not try a Zoom quiz with your family? Each person will need to prepare a quiz round for each of the others which have the same number of questions. Then everyone presents their quiz for the others. You share the answers and then add up your final scores.
Today, CBC and I took part in a quiz with his family- CBC prepared a Geography round, his sister a History, his mum -trivia, his brother- TV shows, and me- Morse code isolation edition!
If that seems too much effort, here are some to get you started:
The Logo Quiz
The number quiz round
Think historically, think mathematically, think cultural references- decipher what the letters mean in order for the phrase to make sense!
e.g. 4 C B in the T D of C = 4 calling birds in the twelve days of Christmas.
Or 100 C in a M = 100 centimetres in a metre
Clue:
1. 10 G B H on the W
2. 21: K to the D
3. 24 B B in a P
4. 12 D of C
5. 100 D C= B P of W
6. 1066 B of H
7. 12 L of H
8. 7 D S
9. 7 W of the A W
10. 52 C in a D of C
11. 6 D of S
12. 5 G R in the T D of C
13. 1001 A N
14. 366 D in a L Y
15. 11 P in a F T
16. 1760 Y in a M
17. 14 P in a S
18. 10 Y in a D
19. 5 S on a P
20. 13 in a B D
London Underground quiz:..
This quiz is the DOWN THE TUBE quiz based on London's Underground. If you would like to have a go at doing this quiz, you can download the London Underground Tube map from here.
You could also do your own version based on your own train system.
Disclaimer: SOME of these are made up by me (the bad ones like the Channel island one!) some were ones I obtained in a quiz night some time ago so thank you to whoeever thought these up and I am sorry I can't acknowledge you directly.
I'll post the answers in a separate post.
All the answers to the following riddles are the names of London Underground Tube stations.
CLUE:
1. An angry monarch
2. Make ‘em sick
3. Monks with dirty hands
4. Ecological vicars
5. Richard Whittington’s Des.Res
6. Charred quercus robur.
7. Dorian Green’s domain?
8. Cockney rabbit ‘ole
9. Woof woof
10. Created a valley
11. A mound of dyslexic mosquitos
12. She was not amused.
13 A place to Live and Let Die!
14. Would you find a branch of Lloyds Bank here?
15. Babar and Balmoral
16. Could this be where the chief executioner lives?
17. Catches a rabbit by a stream
18. Alpine Dwelling
19. A university with a big top
Elliptical
20. Flockwatcher’s flora
21. Chelsea’s home by a stream
22. A lucky number of nuns
23. Where you cultivate calcium carbonate
24. An ancient thoroughfare
25. A description of the enormity of this station
26. Gabriel?
27. Doctor Foster practices here
28. Is this station falling down?
29. Oriental pig
30. 1980's TV school
31 Patella’s lair
32. A Scottish thoroughfare
34. Chopped this man a smaller channel island?
35. Bigger than?
36. A just cutting?
37. Trumpeting New York thoroughfare
38. A big house for a tea party?
39. Famous ursine visitor?
40. The home of capitalism’s swine?
Back in my January post last year Fun goals and aims for 2019 , I talked about my English Heritage membership and wanting to try and visit some EH places.
I thought I'd share where I have been so far.
The piece in question...
AIM 1: Piano: Learn Chopin's Waltz in C# Minor. I have dabbled with learning it before- as a teen and a point last Summer but I would really like to learn to play the whole piece confidently and, if possible, from memory as to be able to perform it to the children at school for example.
RESULT: Well, I did work at learning it and I am MUCH better at it- I can play most of the first two pages from memory but I didn't keep up with this so I haven't learnt or perfected the middle section of this piece. One to continue with. AIM 2: Composing/arranging: Last Summer, one of my aims was to arrange 'Another Day of Sun' from Lala Land for my flute quartet which I did and it was super to have something to arrange and satisfyingly finish it. Alas, the quartet is not now a quartet so we are yet to perform it but I still did it. Therefore, instead, I would like to arrange Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter for my flute trio. I would also like to arrange Clara's theme from Doctor Who and Princess Leia's theme. from Star Wars because I love this tune!
RESULT: I HAVE done some more composing and arranging. Maybe not as much as I would have liked but certainly I've done so more than usual. This year, I wrote THREE Christmas songs for school- Mary, Christmas, Christmas AND Caesar wants a census. For school last January, I did an arrangement and mashup of Baby Shark and another famous animal-themed tune which was incredibly successful- the kids at school loved it and at the borough Recorder Festival, after my 52 children performed it, I was asked by several schools if they could have a copy of it. In addition, I arranged 'Singing in the rain'and Portsmouth point for Drumming Club and Recorder Club combined. For our school orchestra, I arranged several pieces andwrote a brand new piece called Montpelier waltz. Outside of school, for my flute trio, I arranged You raise me up for flute trio and it has been performed at 3 gigs already. I also rearranged Moon River for flute duo for another paid gig as we needed some duos and it worked really well- also been played at two more gigs. I've actually written a new flute trio this month especially for my trio, which will be debuting at our Chelmsford Cathedral recital on Friday 21st February (should you be in the area) So, quite a successful year compared to the previous year I would say! AIM 3: Flute: Learn Hypnosis by Ian Clarke properly. for flute and piano. I was lucky enough to be taught by Ian Clarke when I was at university, at a time when not so many people had heard of him- in fact, I am honoured enough, in the composer's words, to be player no.11 in the world of his piece, Zoomtube, but I've never really learnt one of his easier pieces, Hypnosis. I would like to learn it. If you would like to hear some of his amazing pieces, you can hear extracts on his website: http://ianclarke.net/page3.html
RESULT: Er- not done! I DID learn to play Beverly by Ian Clarke but not even looked at Hypnosis! FAIL! I have bought a few new other flute pieces so maybe I'll give those a go!
AIM 4: Visit English Heritage Properties: When CBC and I visited Audley End House in September, we joined English Heritage as it was only an extra £28 compared to our admission price of £20 for 15months of membership and we thought it would be good to join EH and visit some interesting historical places for a year. We had a lovely time there and on the 30th December, we visited Dover Castle which was wonderful and put us £22 closer recouping our £48 membership cost- that means £6 more to recoup! So, I've been perusing the EH guide and have decided I would like to visit the following places that are achievable from where we live:
Deal Castle
Down House
Walmer Castle
Eltham Palace
Framlingham Castle
Lullingstone Roman Villa.
You can find more out about these places here. You never know, we may also visit some other places too!
RESULT: Well, we visited ALL the above except for Framlingham Castle and a few more...
1. Audley End- Price £20.00
2. Dover Castle- Price £22.00
3. Landguard Fort- £5.80
4. Eltham Palace- £17.00 (plus free entry for my sister £17.00 with free admission voucher)
5. Walmer Castle and Gardens £13.50
6. Deal Castle-£8.40
7. Down House- £14.00
8. Corbridge Roman Town £8.70
9. Ashby-de-la-Zouch castle £6.90
10. Battle of Hastings battlefield £12.30
11. Lullingstone Roman Villa £8.10
12. Chesters Roman Fort, Corbridge £7.20
We definitely utilised the cost of our EH membership and forgot to cancel the Direct Debit so I guess we have another year of EH to explore then:
Places I want to visit still:
Pevensey Castle
Wellington arch
The Jewel Tower
Framlingham
Orford Castle
Dover Castle again
Lullingstone Roman Villa
Tilbury Fort
Carlisle Castle
Birdoswald Roman fort
Housesteads
Aydon Castle
Belsay
Prudhoe Castle
My image from the Doctor Who exhibition
AIM 5: Doctor Who cosplay: I've had a few little Doctor Who dressing up tasks that I have had kicking around for a while and I would like to stop procrastinating and just get on with them: The first is finish skirt for Clara Oswald cosplay for Sleep No More.I bought a great scalloped skirt with an incredibly similar pattern for about £4 and a blue fabric pen to colour it in. I wish, oh I wish, I hadn't bothered as it is an incredibly tedious process which is going to take hours than it has already but I've started so I must finish!!!
Also, to complete this outfit, I wish to Finish the Sleep No More t-shirt. I bought a navy t-shirt and a pleated navy top in a charity shop for £3 and £2.75 respectively which I want to try and turn into a one t-shirt with a collar so I really just need to find a way to get on with that!
I have some Shrink plastic and I would also like to make a couple of sweetie brooches for a Romana City of Death cosplay I've had the elements for for years but not actually put together so I would like to make that happen too. RESULT: WIN! Thanks to the wonderful Ang Almond who helped me out with the above Clara cosplay with her amazing skills AND another cosplay, I managed to complete this AND another one. I have a few more Cosplans this year which I would like to have a go at if possible!
AIM 6: Visit an Escape Room: I've been hearing about these fun escape rooms for a while now and I think they sound like great fun so I would like to do one of these. Actually, this may be a bit of a cheat since my sister has already talked about us doing one of these at half term. RESULT: Well, as I intimated above, we DID have an escape room planned- My Dad, Stepmum, sister and I went to the 'Escape from Oz' room at the Panic Rooms, Grave End in Kent which was great fun- to our shame we DIDN'T escape! In the Summer, we reunited the same team with CBC this time and N, my sister's new boyfriend who we met for the first time that day to do the escape room! It was called The Don and it was a mafia themed challenge. I LOVED it!!! Definitely want to do more soon. I hear there's a Doctor Who one in Oxford AND the Gravesend place has a new Alice-themed one!
AIM 7: Walks: Walk along the front in Southend. I've heard from a friend that it is a lovely walk along from Leigh-on-Sea to Shoebury so I'd like to try this.
RESULT: We did the aforementioned walk at the end of August or possibly September. We walked from Thorpe Bay to Leigh which was great although we chose THE windiest day- it was really hard to move! In addition, we did a great walk near where we lived which was circular and helped us to discover some beautiful scenery near where we lived. We did a few other fun walks to Essex Wildlife Trust reserves and went on a Seal-watching boat ride a few miles from home. We also did a massive 10 mile walk (felt very hard in the scorching heat) from home to a village with a village fete which was fun on the last day of our Summer holidays. There's definitely more local walks I'd like to try. And a few honorable mentioned: There are, of course, many things I would like to do in terms of resolutions like GO to BED at a reasonable hour, finally commit to one church instead of dithering over it so much and ensure I avoid buying as much as possible in plastic but more on that another time. The Bed time thing was a FAIL- I seemed to get worse. I have been going to one church though I don't think I have fully committed to it but I have done well on the avoiding of plastic.
Maybe, I'll come up with some aims for this year soon!
I LOVE Boardgames. And yet, I don't play them very often. But I gladly would. Sadly, CBC is not as keen as I to play them. Mainly, I believe, because I beat him! Sore loser I say.
Anyway, I thought I would share my favourites here. I'd love to hear which ones you like best!
1. The Big Taboo
The original game, Taboo, is a game where you have a limited time to describe a word/topic/item to your team without using 5 taboo/forbidden words, e.g. the word is RAINBOW and you can't use 'colours', 'spectrum', 'refraction' 'arc', 'sky' to describe it.
In the BIG Taboo, there are 4 different challenges that you might land on on the board.
The first of these is as described above but you have to describe as many cards as possible within the egg timer and you move on one space for each one.
The second challenge is 'Draw it'. Within 2 turns of the egg-timer, you must draw what is on the card and your team guess it. E.g. You might draw a saucepan with steam coming out of it to describe 'Cooking'. Every time your team get one right, you move on a space and you try to draw as many as possible within the time limit.
Challenge 3 is called 15 words. Within 2 turns of the egg timer, you must say as few words as possible to describe a topic/item/word- your team have as many guesses as possible. Within the round, you as the player are only allowed 15 words IN TOTAL to describe as many of those topics as possible. E.g. answer 1 may be 'Triangle'- I might say, "Shape" and hope my team guess it quickly- that way I have only wasted 1 word and I have 14 words left for the round to describe other words.
Challenge 4 is the funniest and is called 'Bendy Bob.' You have a purple puppet and the puppet has to act out as many of the categories on the card as possible within the time. This is hard as one of the clues I had in the past was 'Balloon modelling!'
This game is SO much fun. I absolutely adore it!
2. Party Edition Pictionary
Oh, SO many happy Christmases spent playing this game at my Godmother's house. We would always go over to her house on Christmas eve, or the 23rd December or Christmas day evening or New Year's Eve and we would play this game. It is like Pictionary but instead of drawing on paper, you have two big whiteboards hinged in the middle which slot into the box and you draw big for your team to guess the answer. So many hilarious games of this as several of the annual players were TERRIBLE at drawing!!! If you don't know the original game, 'Pictionary', then in this game, you have to draw in order to reveal what the answer is- your team have to guess it. There are different categories for this such as 'Science, Film and TV, People' etc.
3. The London Game
This is a game that I was introduced to by my original blogging inspiration, my uni friend Rach when I went to see her to get some books that she had used for her PGCE. I LOVE this game but it is incredibly frustrating! I was delighted to find this in a charity shop fairly soon after I was introduced to this game which I do think is utter serendipity!
So, the game takes place on a London Underground tube map. My edition is quite old and I am not sure if it has been updated. In my version, the Jubilee line ends at Charing Cross and Aldwych only just shut! Each player receives 6 destination cards and the aim is to visit all 6 destinations on the board, declare your destinations as you arrive and get back to the main line station that you started the game at. You can choose which mainline station you start at once you have got your destination cards and strategically plan your journey. Every time it is your go, you throw the dice and you can move any number of stops along your tube line up to number you threw. So, if you threw a 5, you can move, 1,2,3,4 or 5 stops. If you want to change tube lines, when you get to an interchange, you must declare that you are changing lines and then take a HAZARD card. These can be good or bad to either you or the other players and they can make or break a winning streak! e.g. a card might say, "Gather all the other players and go boating on the Serpentine. All go to Knightsbridge." and you may have JUST worked your way right across the board to Liverpool Street and be highly annoyed. OR, like me in the above picture, your dear husband with one Hazard card, sent you to Wembley central and with the next hazard card, trapped you with an OPEN AND CLOSE station card at Wembley Central (the only way to open a closed station is to throw a 6....). This is SUCH a strategic fun game but is incredibly frustrating at times. I am hoping CBC is feeling more benevolent towards it as he won both games we played of it this week!
4. Screwball Scramble
When I was a little girl, at the end of each term, you were allowed to bring in your own toys/board games to play. I was always envious of the people who owned Screwball Scramble. This game was a race against the timer to get the metal balls through an obstacle course. I loved it so much and remember the year my Dad bought it for me for Christmas. It stayed at his house so I never got to take it to school but I always liked to play it at his house.
It is a race against the clock. You have a large silver ball bearing which you have to get through an obstacle course before the time runs out. I found a Youtube video of it. Watch from 1:30 to see the game in play (without timer)
5. Pass the Bomb.
I think my favourite games are to do with words. In this game, you have a BOMB. This clever device has a button you press that begins the bomb ticking. It has a clever variable timer which counts down a different amount each time. At the end of the countdown, the bomb 'explodes'.
So, what do you have to do? Each person starts off with 5 lives. Well, you throw the dice which has 3 symbols on it which appear twice on the dice. 1 symbol means 'Not allowed at the start of a word', the 2nd means, 'Not allowed at the end of a word' and the 3rd means, 'Allowed anywhere in the word'. You then pick a card which has a letter string on it, .e.g ED. Once you have revealed it, the person whose go it is starts off the bomb timer which begins ticking. You must say a word that has that letter string in that order but depending on which dice symbol you threw determines where it can go.
So if you threw the 'Not allowed at the start of a word' symbol, then you cannot say, EDucation, EDit, EDitor but you COULD say, callED, rEDdening. And you see what I mean?
Once the person has said a valid word, they pass the bomb on as quickly as possible to the next player in the circle who has to then say another word which obeys the same rule. Other players can challenge any repeated words or forbidden/tenuous words. The bomb will 'explode' at some point and whoever has the bomb in their hand at that point loses a life. The winner is the person left with most lives at the end of the game. Again, this becomes highly heated and frantic. Just the way I like it!
6. Junior Edition Trivial Pursuit
I really like normal Trivial Pursuit but some of the questions are tough. And the Genus edition is impossible. But the vintage Junior edition from the 80's/90's which I happily found in a charity shop but was made to get rid of when we moved from our rental house 2 houses ago (grr, regret it) is much easier and is full of answers I know. Anyone who doesn't know this game, it's basically a trivia quiz and you move around a board with a 6-space mini-pie dish. Every time you land on a colour, you must answer a question. If you get it right, you gain a piece of pie in the category colour for your pie. First player to get back to the middle with their rainbow pie complete is the winner!
7. Articulate
Articulate is actually very similar to Taboo which I described in no.1 but there aren't taboo words. You have to try and describe something to your team without saying that word and if they guess it right, you win a move.
8. Scrabble
Scrabble is a game which is a bit like Marmite. Some love it, some hate it. CBC does not like playing it with me because he always beats me. My mother-in-law always beats me but I still like it lots. If you don't know it, the premise is that you pick 7 letter tiles from a bag and try to build words on a board, strategically positioning your tiles so they garner bonus points from 'Triple word score' or 'Double letter score'. You can build words off other words.
My friends Tacye, Amy (who used to blog here- Stev/phen you remember Amy?!?) and I invited our own version of Scrabble once on a rainy afternoon. We sometimes get really frustrated because we have made great words but there is no available space on the board. So we invited 'Collaborative' Scrabble and the aim of that game is just to play together and try to build the best words you can with your letters for the sake of enjoying interesting words, not to win points. I play Scrabble by myself, against myself too if there is no one who will play with me.
Here's some cards I made with a Scrabble tile box.
9. Slam
This is a simple card game which I was first taught aged 13 by my friend Liz's German penpal Johanna. You only need a pack of cards for this and you can play with a minimum of 2 players or more. The aim is to get rid of your cards as quickly by laying them on top of consecutive cards as fast as possible and SLAM the smallest pile of cards eventually ending up with cards to be overall winner. It may take me a WHILE to explain this, so I googled and discovered that the Guardian wrote a guide for how to play it which you can see here. I giggled to read about SLAM rage. Yes, I can get a bit vicious when I play this!!
10. Spoons
This is another card game and a great one for parties. You need a quantity of spoons, one less than the quantity of players. You sit in a circle and the spoons are placed in the middle. Each player is dealt 4 cards. The aim of the game is two gain 4 identical cards or a run of 4, e.g. four 5's or a 3,4,5,6 in spades. The first player or dealer picks up one card from the pile and refers to their own cards. They either swap it for one of their cards or immediately lay it down between themselves and the player next to them and then pick another from the remaining Deck (the next player does the same and then there is a constant stream of cards. The person who is last before the dealer lays down the cards into a new pile. When a player has got the 4 cards they need, then they take a spoon. As soon as the other players realise someone has grabbed a spoon, they too must grab one. The last player to grab, i.e. who ends up with no spoon is out. Each time you play, you take away one spoon until it gets to the final and there two players and one spoon. Again, this is a great fun party game and gets incredibly competitive! A variation on this is called PIG and instead of grabbing a spoon, the player who has won puts their hand on their nose. Last player to put their hand to their nose is the loser and adds a P to their name. When someone has added PIG to their name is out!
11. Boggle
Any games involving making words using a set of letters are one of my favourite things. I can tell you the exact time in my life when I realised this. My year 4 teacher, Mrs Linton used to give us challenges. One day, she put the words, HAINAULT FOREST up on the board and gave us 5 minutes to make as many words as possible out of those letters which we had to write down, e.g. 1.Fire, 2. Rain, 3. Let, 4. Rest. I made the most words and gained 5 points for my house team in class, the Yellow team. That was one of my happiest moments in year 4 and I have always loved those word building games from that point onwards.
In Boggle, you have a set of 9 letter dice which sit in a box, you shake them and they fall into position. Within the egg timer, you must try to make as many words using the letters as possible but they must be in consecutive order and you can't use a letter twice.
So let's say this was the set of letters you got
E A R T F C S O E
The words you could make include:
1. Tar, 2. Farce, 3. Fat, 4. Soft, 5. Race, 6. Cafe E ARE A RE A R E AR T F C T FCTF C T F C S O E S O ESO E S O E
But you couldn't make CARE because the E is not next to the R. You couldn't make ACT either because the T is not next to the C.
The winner of the round is the person who gets the most points. The longer the word, the more points you get, the more words you get, the more points you get.
I've got a brilliant book by Giles Brandreth which is full of fun games to play, most of which only use paper and pencils or eyes so maybe I will share some of those at some point!
What about you? What are your favourite board or card games?
