Equipping Catholic Families

10 Things to DO with our Plunk! with the Saints template:

Use a 1.5″ hole punch to cut the 30 Saint disks and glue to poker chips to:

=&0=& Use with your homemade =&1=& board (instructions included below!) =&2=& Use as checkers or as other board game pieces =&3=&Play=&4=& by sliding them on a smooth surface towards the Saint categories/questions (also included in this template) =&5=&Leave them face down and let everyone choose their new patron saint to research or ask for intercession =&6=&  Make 2 sets, coloring each pair of saints identically and use as a matching game =&7=&Attach magnets to the bottom of the poker chips and use them as markers on the fridge calendar. =&8=& =&9=&Match up with your favorite Saint pictures (on Holy Cards) and display in a =&10=&or=&11=& =&12=&Glue to chocolate coins for an =&13=& =&14=& Use as part of a relay/obstacle game at an =&13=&: each child grabs one Saint disk and must blurt out a fact about the Saint =&16=& Color each disk and glue to the inside of a baby food jar lid to hang on a =&17=& =&18=& Plunk! with the Saints! =&20=&=&21=&=&22=& Does anyone remember Plinko? It was on The Price is Right…which began in 1956, was revamped in 1972, hosted by Bob Barker and since 2007, is now hosted by Drew Carey. =&23=&=&24=& was a cool game where these little disks are dropped at the top of a steep platform with little pegs.  Depending on which path the disk zigzags down, money was won by which exit route the disk took. It looked like this: Look at that pink carpet! I’ve had my eye on the little Happy Saints for a while and after my Happy Saints Tokens Tutorial, (adding these awesome Saint images to poker chips) I present…Plunk! with the Saints!  See the PDF downloadable below for the back template with all the Saints’ info! These little poker chips, now decorated with 1.5″ circle punched Happy Saints, printed on full sheet label paper, slide easily on my picture frame. Incidentally, I have used this same picture frame for my DIY Light Table! This picture frame has plastic, instead of glass and is easy to work with.  I had thought about using a peg board and dowels, but then I thought of these little double suction cups, and it was a lot less work, flexible (to position the little obstacles properly) and can easily be taken apart to use the picture frame for other purposes.

So here’s the tutorial for my
Happy Saints Tokens

I borrowed a handful of these double suction cups from the “Suction Cup Critters” Klutz Craft Kit belonging to one of my kids, but realized that I needed many more for my Plunk! game. I went looking for these little double suction cups, but they are difficult to find! I finally decided to buy this suction hook at the dollarstore where I found the poker chips. (It’s our own Canadian “Dollarama” store…not everything is a dollar, but we still find neat stuff there!) The “As Seen on TV Suction Hook” has 36 little double suction cups, all attached to a clear plastic base, for attaching something to the kitchen or bathroom tiled wall.  Careful cutting would allow the double suction cups to stay intact. I decided I could cut these apart carefully. I figured that even if my cutting isn’t perfect…it would add a little ‘random’ factor to the way that the disks bounce off the suction cups. I think you could use simple single 1/2″ suction cups found at the dollar store…I just figured the double cups would help guide the little disks …and they work well! Once I had the 36 double suction cups cut apart from each other, I carefully lined them up on the clear plastic surface of the picture frame. I staggered the rows, placing the suction cups at equal distances, so that a single poker chip would bump into the suction cups and slide, zig-zagging down the slanted surface. I put a few little graphics together for my PLUNK! PRINTABLE and I added cut colored paper to the sides to try and make it look like the original Plinko game, even though my kids didn’t really know the original Plinko! I thought that it would be fun if the exit paths for the Saint tokens reflected either questions or categories about Saints.  If you know the Feast Day of a particular Saint, you will want to aim for that particular exit path.  When you correctly identify the Feast Day (Birth/Death years or patronage…), you get to keep the Saint Token. I created a variety of different categories, depending on how well you know the Saints and what level of information you’d like to focus on.  If you’re using the categories: “priest, nun or monk” and “doctor, mystic, stigmata” you’ll find that some Saints could easily fit in more than one category (like St Therese!). This adds a little more flexibility to aim for a satisfying exit path for the Saint Token.  read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!