Inkless Tales

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Ring Toss

What you need:

• Hula hoop
• Large coffee can lid
• Optional: several jump-ropes
• old mismatched socks - the more colors, the better, but it's not necessary. In fact, knee socks are a good bet here.)
• bag of dry beans

To prep:

If you haven't already made the bean bags from an earlier game:
The kids can help with this part: Fill the ends of the socks with enough beans to make the socks good bean bags. Knot the end of each sock, good and tight -- or, if you're feeling ambitious, sew it up. (Otherwise, consider a double knot.)

You can absolutely get away with a single bean bag, and each player takes turns -- but for scoring purposes, it's a bit easier if each player has his or her own bag.

To play:

Place the hula hoop flat in the middle of the yard: Place the coffee can lid in the center of the hula hoop. The result, with a little imagination, are three concentric rings: the bullseye is the coffee can lid. The next outer ring is the empty space in between the lid and the hula hoop. The next ring is the hula hoop itself.

If you've got enough jump-ropes, you can have one more ring around that.

Players take 5 giant steps away from the setup and toss their bean bags. There are two ways to play: you can decide in advance what the score will be for each ring, or you can simply declare the winner by whomever lands closest to the bullseye each time. Try to keep the math within the abilities of your players, so you're not constantly called upon to help keep track. In fact, it might even be a good idea to provide pencil and paper to help them.

If 5 giant steps prove too easy, take 6, then 7, etc.

Hang on to those bean bags. We have other uses for them, other games!

Another way to play would be single rounds: closest to the bullseye wins each time.