Fun, Games, Dance & Exercise:

Stick Horse Whoadeo

 

Today's Snack: Let's make Horsie Gorp Trail Mix! First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and rub vegetable oil on a cookie sheet. In a medium bowl, measure 1½ C. dry oatmeal cereal and mix with ¼ C. vegetable oil, ¼ C. honey, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Drop onto cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool. Break into clumps. When thoroughly cool, mix with 1 C. peanuts, 1 C. raisins and 1 C. M&M's and place into serving-size zip-lock bags. Yahoo!

 

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Supplies:

Stick horse, either made out of an old sock with yarn, felt, plastic bags or newspaper for stuffing, and a stick or dowel . . . or from a paper bag with stuffing stapled or hot-glued inside two sides of the horse's head, or older children can punch holes all around the two sides with stuffing between and lace string through the holes to sew together; a giftwrap tube makes a good stick for short-term use, but if you expect a lot of ropin' and ridin', go with a real stick or dowel cut to the child's height, because cardboard sticks get bent

 

For whoadeo games:

 

Ideally, you'll have at least eight kids, each with a stick horse,

but for larger groups, it's easy to share stick horses and take turns "riding"

 

10-12 soccer cones or some other way to mark out an "arena"

(milk jugs half-filled with sand will work)

Two 55-gallon barrels, two tall orange cones or two soccer flags

Duct tape or masking tape, or marking chalk, to mark starting lines

One red bandanna or colorful fabric square

Stopwatch or watch with a second hand

2 cowboy hats

 

If you can borrow or buy cowboy hats for all to wear, it adds to the fun

 

 

1. BARREL RACING

 

Two racers go at a time

 

On the playground or other flat space, place the two barrels, cones or soccer flags fairly far apart. Organize the children or youth into two lines. Show them the figure 8 shape they should ride their stick horses for the race. Usually, the two racers want to go to the left of the far barrel and around it, back to the near barrel and around it, then back to the far barrel, and then race back to the starting line. No pushing or contact with the other racer is allowed. Whoever wins the race gets two points, and the other racer gets one point. After everybody has gone at least three times, see if anybody has six points, and arrange run-offs if they do, until you have a winner.

 

2. TEAM SORTING

 

Team of two riders and one "calf"

 

Select a student to be the "calf." The "calf" will not ride a stick horse. Stick the bandanna or colorful fabric square in the student's waistband of pants or shorts. The "calf" is supposed to try to elude the "ropers," while the "ropers" try to pull the bandanna out as fast as they can. To start a round, the "calf" stands in the middle of the "arena," and the two students on the first team can either start from the same end or two different ends. It will quickly become apparent how important teamwork is to this game. Start the stopwatch or mark time with a second hand, and see how many seconds it takes for one of the two "ropers" - while riding their stick horses -- to pull the bandanna off the "calf." Keep going 'til everybody has tried it on a team at least once. Then it's fun to let the "calf" try roping and get a new "calf" for some more turns, to see if they can knock seconds off their time.

 

3. COWBOY HAT RELAY

 

Teams of four riders

 

Mark two starting lines with duct tape or chalk, fairly far apart. Line up two equals lines of students behind each line, opposite their teammates. It works best to have four students on a team, two behind each of the two lines. The two students on the two opposing teams who are going to go first wear a cowboy hat and are straddling their stick horses. When the adult yells "Go!" both students on the two different teams ride off toward their teammate on the other end. They have to get behind that line, take the cowboy hat off, put it on their teammate, and then the teammate rides back across the field to the original starting line and does the same thing - gets behind the line, takes off the cowboy hat, puts it on the third team member, etc. The first team to have all four of its team members done with the relay first is the winner. You can have heats and a championship relay if you wish.

           

 

Fun, Games, Dance & Exercise 11 • © 2012