Outdoor Cookie Cutter Games for Kids

Summertime is the perfect time for outdoor play and games. Deidre from JDaniel4's Mom has so much fun with her son. Today, she is here to share some outdoor play they enjoyed with cookie cutters and bean bags. Here's Deidre........

On a beautiful summer  day when the grass was green from summer rainstorms and the sun is shining children love to get outside to play.  I introduced a new outdoor game to my son and the boy next door to explore called Cookie Cutter Targets on such a day. They in turn shared with me several other ways to play the game.
As I headed outside to supervise the boys outdoor play, I grabbed two bean bags from an old tossing game and several cookie cutters. We have quite the collection of plastic cookie cutters in various sizes. I tried to grab some large and medium size ones.
Once we were outside, I explained to the boys my new game.  “I am going to scatter these cookie cutters on the ground and you are going to try to have one of the beanbags land on one. You can have one point for each cookie cutter target you hit,” I explained. 

Each boy stood in a designated spot and tried to hit a cookie cutter when it was their turn. At first they both over or under threw the bean bag. It took a couple of minutes to get their eye and hand coordination working. Once they both were focused, they both started hitting the targets.

After awhile they both noticed that if you hit the edge of the cookie cutter targets hard enough, you could make them flip.  They decided that was very cool and within seconds the game changed to a new outdoor game called Flip The Cookie Cutter Targets.
Later the game changed again to Tell Me What Target To Hit. One boy would tell the other which cookie cutter to aim for. If they hit the correct cookie cutter, then they got a point. I noticed that neither of the boys was selecting the large cookie cutters for their friend to hit. They went for the trickier,  smaller ones. 
The boys had a great time with the original outdoor cookie cutter target game, but I think they had a better time creating their own outdoor games with cookie cutter targets.  Watching children create and change the outcomes of a game is such amazing fun.

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a teacher, she became a stay at home mom . Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page.