Australia Day - Jumping Kangaroo Races

Happy Australia Day to all of our Aussie readers! 

We have been doing lots of Australia themed activities today in celebration and this one is by far the girls favourite.

We actually did this activity years ago with aeroplanes (link to Elastic Aeroplanes post here) and I thought the girls would enjoy an Australia Day version using kangaroos instead. Squeak was only a baby when we first played this game so it was a first for her and she loved it!

WE USED:

* paper

* pens/textas/crayons

* scissors

* glue

* thin elastic

* dining chair or barstool

To start with I drew some kangaroo outlines on paper for the girls to colour in. You could print them from the net but I just traced them from the computer screen.

 

Once the girls had finished colouring their kangaroos we cut them out with scissors.

We folded some paper to make our launcher (see Elastic Aeroplanes post here for photo instructions on folding your launcher) and glued the kangaroos to one side. On the other we wrote the names the girls had given their kangaroos.

To make our slingshots we upturned some bar stools and tied our elastic around the legs. You could use a small table or chair for this too, or use an actual slingshot.

* Be sure to place the elastic way down the legs so it doesn't slip off when they pull back on it.

We set up one slingshot station for each of the girls so they could race their kangaroos.

They slid their launchers over the elastic, pulled back and let go to watch their kangaroos jump right across the room!

Squeak loved this part and would give herself a count down before letting her kangaroo go.

Once all the kangaroos had jumped we would check to see who had gone the furthest and who had done the fanciest 'jump'.