Paper Football

 

Today's Snack: They call a football a "pigskin," so let's have "Pigs in a Blanket." Cut hot dogs in half. Around each, wrap a triangle of refrigerated dough. Try to make it look like a football! Pinch the two ends together. Bake in the oven according to package directions. Enjoy with a big glass of milk.

 

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Supplies:

 

Five pieces of paper

 

Scotch tape

 

Five "goals" - sour cream container, large cup, wastebasket, box, can, etc.

 

 

            For "Paper Football," make five "footballs" out of paper. Then see if you can flick them into five different goals, using your fingers to "kick."

 

            For each football, fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise, and then fold it in half again. It will be a long and skinny rectangle, NOT a square shape.

 

            Now fold the bottom corner over to the side, forming a triangle. Make your fold sharp and crisp. Fold that triangle to the other side, again make the fold as tight as you can. Continue folding triangles until the entire piece of paper makes one small triangle. You probably will have a little extra paper at the end. Tape this down tightly with a couple of pieces of Scotch tape.

 

            When you've made your five footballs, practice "kicking" by putting a football triangle on one of its ends and holding it with your left hand. With your right hand, put your middle finger and your thumb together in a circle. Take aim right behind the paper football. Then "flick" your middle finger forward, "kicking" the paper football in the air.

 

            Set your own rules: you can try to kick the five footballs into each of the goals one at a time and win a point for each one you can get in, and then move on to the second goal. Or you can line up all five goals different distances away and give yourself more points if you can kick it in to the farthest goal, etc.

 

            Like any game, this one is more fun if you have a partner or even teams.

 

            You can make this game more elaborate by using a measuring tape to decide how many feet away the goals will be. Or you can make a scoreboard out of some posterboard and keep "stats" (statistics) on things like how many footballs you got in the five separate goals and how many you "missed" when you aimed at each goal.

 

If you have a stopwatch, you can set a time limit, too. See if you can get all five footballs into the goal in only 10 seconds! Now, THAT'S more pressure than an NFL quarterback has to face!