Classroom Party Game! “UNWRAP A PARTY BALL”

I am excited to bring you an idea even your BIGGEST kids will love to partake in during your holiday classroom party. The images below are from when taught primary grades, but I can tell you that even middle school students enjoy the challenge! If you are looking for a fun idea for those last days of school before the winter break, you have to try this plastic wrap party ball idea…

Holiday parties are events that students really look forward to at EVERY age. Even my BIG KIDS love celebrating holidays with one another throughout during this festive time of year.  I am one of those teachers that loves to have fun, too!  However, it can be difficult to find cheap and easy games to play within a classroom setting!

I am ALWAYS on the hunt for new ideas…I have seen this “UNWRAP A PARTY BALL” idea on Pinterest and decided that I just had to give it a try.  Because I had the fun task of planning, organizing, and implementing a game at my oldest son’s classroom holiday party, I thought this was the perfect time to give it a shot.  So here is a very simple “how-to create” this plastic wrap ball to use with even your BIGGEST kids…

I bought the following items:

• Saran Wrap-200 sq ft.
• Clear Mailing Tape
• clear tape
• 1-Ring Pop
• 2-bags of candy (Smarties and Laffy Taffy) due to peanut allergies
• 1-box of candy canes
• 3-bags of holiday erasers and bouncy balls

To CREATE:

1. Use a Ring Pop for the center/core.
2. Wrap a layer of Saran Wrap and tape.
3. Tape candy or trinkets to the Saran Wrap.
4. Layer over the candy/trinkets with more Saran Wrap.
5. Tape over that with the Mailing Tape.
6. Repeat until you run out of goodies or until your ball is the size of a soccer or basketball.

How to PLAY:

1. Students will sit in a small group.  The student with the birthday closest to Christmas goes first.  Then the game goes in a clock-wise order.
2. The first student will roll a pair of dice.  In order to begin trying to unwrap the ball, the player with the dice must roll doubles.  Once the player with the dice rolls any doubles, he may begin unwrapping the ball.
3. The player may continue trying to unwrap the ball until the next player rolls doubles.  Each treat that is acquired can be kept by the student that unwrapped it.
4. The ball continues to be passed around and the dice are rolled until the teacher calls time.

I wrapped this thing up REALLY well, so it was pretty challenging.

Here is how it went…

Fun was definitely had by all and I would totally do this again! High-interest and fast-paced. Perfect for keeping enthusiastic kiddos’ attention.

Tweaks I made to directions:

1. Put the kids in a circle on the floor.
2. I used 3-dice as I wanted it to be pretty fast-paced so I kept their attention for the 10-minute game time.
3. I gave the ball to the person with the closest birthday to Christmas.
4. Then the person to their right had the dice.
5. The person with the ball got to tear at it until the dice roller
   rolled a double. As soon as a double was rolled, it was passed to the roller.
6. The dice kept moving and the ball kept passing.
7. I had them roll in a little plastic container so the dice stayed contained.
8. With three dice the chance of rolling doubles was higher, so the game moved quickly keeping everyone’s interest.
9. Students got to keep the candy they pulled out and eat at a later time.

I hope these tips help you make your own saran wrap ball for your next classroom party. It is a fun activity for elementary up to middle school students! Find more ELA holiday activities here!