6-Foot Tall Party- Celebrate your child growing TALL

Six Foot Party

It’s time for a TALL Party

We have tall genes in our family. We knew our boys would all be taller than six feet as adults. So far, three of them have passed the mark. Our fourth son just turned twelve, so we’ll give him a couple more years.

When our oldest son reached the height of six feet, we decided we should celebrate. We threw a Six-Foot Tall Party for him, inviting our extended family to join in the tall celebration.

Dinner for this party was a lot of fun.  I made a six-foot-long sandwich and a six-foot-long banana split!

I worked at Subway as a teenager, so I felt confident I could make my own sandwich. Years later, when we repeated this party for our younger sons, I just ordered six-foot sandwiches from a grocery store deli. That made it a lot easier, but here’s the instructions if you want to make your own.

6-Foot Dinner

I made enough bread dough for six loaves of bread.  I rolled out 1/4 of the dough into a large rectangle, then cut it in three long strips.  I braided the dough and placed it diagonally on a greased cookie sheet.  I made four of these loaves- each just over 18″ long.  I let them raise until they reached my desired size, then baked them for 24 minutes.  (My regular loaves usually take 30 minutes to bake.)

I made these the day before the party, allowed them to cool, then wrapped them in plastic wrap.

On the night of the party, I lay them side by side on a table.  I trimmed off the ends (except for the two on the far ends) and pushed them together so they appeared to be one six-foot loaf.  I filled them with sandwich fixin’s and it was the freshest, yummiest six footer I’ve ever tasted!

Six Foot Sandwich at the Six Foot Party
Six Foot Sandwich at the Six Foot Party

We made our six-foot-long banana split in a rain gutter.  Plastic rain gutters are very inexpensive at Lowe’s or Home Depot- less than $10.  I scrubbed it clean and it made a perfect 6-foot long bowl for our ice cream.  This is surely against health code, but lots of fun!

6-foot long ice cream sundae at the Tall Party
6-foot long ice cream sundae at the Tall Party

6-Foot Party Activities

When the guests arrived, we measured all of them on our growth chart. We need to know how tall everyone is at a Tall Party.

Growth Chart
How close are you to 6-feet tall?

We included markings for a few famous people, including the tallest man and woman to ever live.  Tallest woman: Zeng Jinlian of China (8′ 1 3/4”)  Tallest man: Robert Wadlow (8′ 11.1”)

Growth Chart

Our first activity was a slam dunk contest in the driveway.  We used a mini trampoline for the contest. Be careful if you decide to do this.  Our little tramp’s legs fell off after a dozen dunks.  Oops! An alternative idea would be to play the basketball game of HORSE but spell SIX instead.

Tall people party dunking competition
Tall people party dunking competition

Next we played volleyball, which is a tall person’s game but is also great for all sizes of people.

The next activity was a game we call “Line Up”.  In this game, you divide your group into two teams.  The person in charge then calls out a sorting category and the teams race to be the first group lined up in the proper order.

Lined up in order by darkest to lightest hair color
Lined up in order of favorite Star Wars character’s height. Chewbacca to R2-D2!

Here are a few examples of sorting categories:  Height (tallest to shortest), Age (oldest to youngest), Hair length, Shoe size, fingernail length, birth date by month- not year (January to December), number of times you’ve been to Disneyland, your favorite Star Wars character by height, your favorite sport alphabetically.  You can think of all kinds of things!  Make the list and give it to the caller. He then begins each line-up race by saying something like, “Think of your favorite food.  What letter does that food begin with? Now line up alphabetically A to Z.)  Fun!

Tall People Game- Describe and guess the famous tall people!
Tall People Game- Describe and guess the famous tall people!

Our last game was one we call the “30 Second Game”.  Again, we divided our group into two teams. Previously, I had printed a long list of famous people (and a few neighbors and friends) who are over 6’0″ tall.  I cut up the list so there was one name on each slip of paper and put the names in a bowl.  The teams took turns having one person give clues to their team.  Their goal was to get their team to guess as many names as they could in thirty seconds.  Teams took turns, trading the clue giver each time, until the bowl was empty. Here’s my list:  Tall People List

Sixlets are a great party favor for a Tall Party
Sixlets are a perfect party favor for a 6-Foot Tall Party

Everyone took home a party favor: a long pack of Sixlets!  Hooray for tall people!

Check out more great party ideas on our website!

Parties for Little Kids Ages 3-7

Parties for Big Kids Ages 8-12

Parties for Teens

Elementary School Chess Club Ideas

Every Grand Master was once a beginner!

Chess Board

My kids love chess.  This is due to a beloved uncle, not their parents.  However, as we saw this love grow, we decided to embrace the world of chess and dive right in.  We started a chess club at the elementary school.  My teenage sons run the club and I serve as the adult supervisor (even though 80% of the kids can beat me.)  We have taught over 100 kids how to play chess and have even ran a few tournaments.  Here are some ideas for starting your own chess club.

Shaking hands at chess tourament

Chess Club Strategies

We have one major obstacle at our chess club:  We don’t have enough teachers to keep all of our kids busy.  We have done a few things that seem to work well. The first is to put the kids in teams where they can teach each other.  The teams are a mix of strong players and new players.  The experienced kids teach the newer kids.  We can also use these teams to have team competitions.  The kids rank themselves in their teams and then the number ones play each other, twos play each other, etc.

Little Chess Players

Chess Club Curriculum

The other thing we have used is a self-starter worksheet.  We have a file with the worksheets organized by the kids’ last names.  When they come to club, the kids can pull out their worksheet and begin working on rank advancement.  Here’s a picture of our worksheet:

Chess Worksheet

The back side of the worksheet has a table with 30 squares.  The kids are supposed to sign a square when they play someone.  Our hope is that they’ll play 30 different opponents by the time they reach King Level.  Each number in a level has a requirement to complete.  When a student completes a requirement, we circle the number on their chart.   We are happy to share printable versions of our worksheets:

Chess Club Worksheet Page 1

Chess Club Worksheet Page 2 (Print on Back)

Below is the list of requirements for each level.

Printable Version: Chess Club Worksheet Requirements

Pawn Level
  1. Demonstrate how the rook moves.
  2. Know how to take the other player’s pieces.
  3. Demonstrate how the bishop moves.
  4. Know how to attack and defend pieces.
  5. Demonstrate how the queen moves.
  6. Demonstrate how the king moves.
  7. Know what “Check” means.
  8. Know what “Checkmate” means.
  9. Demonstrate how the knight moves.
  10. Show how the pawns move and capture.

Girl playing chess

Knight Level
  1. Know the names of all the pieces.
  2. Learn the three ways to get out of Check.
  3. Know the number of points each piece is worth.
  4. Show the teacher how the board is setup.
  5. Learn how to castle – including the rules and restrictions to castling.
  6. Know the scholar’s mate (or fool’s mate).
  7. Learn how to defend against the scholar’s mate.
  8. Demonstrate what stalemate is.
  9. Know what it means to draw.
  10. Play 6 games in the club (you can count any you’ve done in prior weeks).

 

Boy Playing chess

Bishop Level
  1. Know the 3 important opening principles (Control the center, develop pieces, get your king to safety). Explain them to a friend or coach.
  2. Complete at least one exercise on each page from pages 18-25 of “Chess Tactics for Students” You can do this with a friend.
  3. Know the rules of En Passant.
  4. Complete at least one exercise on each page from pages 26-33 of “Chess Tactics for Students” You can do this with a friend.
  5. Demonstrate how to checkmate with 2 Queens + King vs. a lone King.
  6. Show an older player or teacher how to checkmate with 1 Queen and 1 Rook + King vs. a lone King.
  7. Demonstrate how to checkmate with 2 Rooks + King vs. a lone King.
  8. Know how to notate your games (Bishop = B, Rook = R, Queen = Q, King = K, Pawn = none).
  9. Notate one complete game.
  10. Play 10 games in the club (you can count any you’ve done in prior weeks).

Boy notating chess

Rook Level
  1. Demonstrate how to checkmate with 1 Queen + King vs. a lone King.
  2. Demonstrate how to checkmate with 1 Rook + King vs. a lone King.
  3. Introduction to forks (or double attacks). Complete at least one exercise on each page from pages 34 – 40 of “Chess Tactics for Students”. You can do this with a friend.
  4. Teach another student about knight forks.
  5. Know the rule of the square.
  6. More forks. Complete at least one exercise on each page from pages 50- 56 of “Chess Tactics for Students”. You can do this with a friend.
  7. Teach another student about forks (using a piece or pieces other than a knight.).
  8. Introduction to pins. Complete at least one exercise on each page from pages 2 – 8 of “Chess Tactics for Students”. You can do this with a friend.
  9. Teach another student about pins.
  10. Play 16 games in the club (you can count any you’ve done in prior weeks).

6th grade chess players

Queen Level
  1. Opposition: Know how to win with 1 Pawn + King vs. a lone King.
  2. Know how to use a chess clock. Play three games using the clock.
  3. Play one game of speed chess. (Two minutes on each clock.)
  4. Play a full game against each of the coaches.

Finn

King Level
  1. Play 30 different opponents. (You should be keeping track on the back of your chart by having each opponent sign a square.)

When you complete this level, you will have reached the King Level and will be declared a Mini Master!

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Chess Club Awards

When the kids complete a level, we award them with a colorful chess piece key chain.  We buy these from wholesalechess.com.  They are inexpensive and the kids love to display them on their backpacks. Everyone can see the level they have reached by the chess piece hanging on their backpack!Chess Piece Key Chains

Chess Club Etiquette

One more thing: Here’s our rules for chess etiquette.  It’s important to teach your students these expectations.  Chess Etiquette

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You are welcome to ask questions in the comment section. We’ve learned a lot over the years and are happy to help others who want to make their schools a great place to learn and grow!