~ Now the night is nigh its noon
Nimble gnomes beneath the moon ~
It is a winter's evening and there is much time to be together. All in one place, we have listened to our nightly book.
In Jul time, gnomes love to play games. This evening laid out by the fire are three of our favorites:
- Tap the Hat
- Animal Call Out
- The Tray Game, one of our all time favorites
Tap the Hat is a conflict solver and peace maker at heart. Played almost every evening during Jul, it helps decide who will light the candles and who will blow the candles out. It also solves such mysteries as who will lead the tray game. Oftentimes, this game can get quite rowdy, especially with the young at heart sort, children between the ages of 15-20.
Make five little gnome hats out of felt.
Wrap them around your fingers and stitch or glue them to size.
To play this game take a bead, felt ball,wax ball or anything small that can fit under the hat. Secretly, away from prying eyes, hide the ball under one of the hats and place all five hats on your fingers. One hat per finger.
The youngest person goes first.
Tap,Tap the Hat
Tap,Tap the Hat
Where’s the ball at?
Under which hat?
1,2,3,4,5 which one do you pick?
If they pick the hat with the ball they get to light the candles. If not, it's the next youngest players turn. Keep playing until you get a winner.
Another fun thing we like to do when we are counting the five numbers in the poem is to replace them with numbers in other languages.
Animal Call Out
Our next game is Call Out but during Jul we play Animal Call out. A combination of charades and follow the leader, this game will have everyone screaming with laughter.
On pieces of small paper write the letters G and P. G stands for Guess and P stands for Player.
All of those with the letter G will be guessing so please have a seat on the sofa. All of the others who will be playing need to stand in a line in front of those who are guessing.
In a sack you will have placed pieces of paper which will hold an animal plus an action. The first player in line takes a piece of paper and once they have read it starts to do the action. All of the other players in line do the same action the playing leader is doing.
The guessing people have to guess what type of animal it is and what is it doing. When someone guesses, it's the next player's turn. Everybody is a winner in this game. Once all of the players have had their turn it's time for the guessers to become players and the players to start guessing.
Need some help on the animal clue end? Here we go:
The easy ones:
- A chicken sitting on an egg
- A sleeping cat.
- A dog wagging it's tail.
- A chewing rabbit.
Mid-level difficulty
- A beaver making a house.
- A kicking donkey.
- A herd of buffalo stampeding. (move any breakables.)
Advanced Playing Action
- A snake doing Yoga,pretzel pose is popular.
- A giraffe itching it's head with the bottom of it's foot.
- A gargling whale.
Note of warning:
Millipedes,centipedes, and spiders or any other animal with many legs are absolute mischief makers. Only try these moves when you have reached the expert level.
The Tray Game
Needed:
- 1 piece of paper and pencil/pen per person
- 1 tray
- a variety of items to place on the tray
- 1 towel to cover the tray.
The tray game leader goes into the other room to place a variety of items on the tray and then places a towel over the tray.
Bring the tray into the room and place it on a coffee table or other central location until everyone is ready.
Paper and pencils are down and no one is touching them.
When the towel is lifted everyone has 30 seconds to look at the items on the tray. At the end of 30 seconds the towel is replaced on top of the tray.
How much do you remember? Write down everything you can remember without conferring with "neighbors". Remember no texting, sign language, pig latin or speaking any other language common to you or another. The person with the most correct guesses gets a little piece of chocolate.
Here are just some of the fun games the gnomes have taught us. Don't forget about our giveaway. Mamakopp has made a tomte and a fox for us to giveaway over at Jumpintoabook. For your chance to win go here and leave a comment. Blog about our giveaway and link to it and you will get three more chances to win. The giveaway is open until Thursday at 9 pm est when comments will be closed. Winner announced Friday morning. Enjoy and good luck.
