Boredom Busters

For Aoife and Luke howtobooks Please send for a free copy of the latest catalogue to: How To Books, 3 Newtec Place, Ma...

Author: Tommy Donbavand

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For Aoife and Luke

howtobooks Please send for a free copy of the latest catalogue to: How To Books, 3 Newtec Place, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE United Kingdom email: [email protected] http://www.howtobooks.co.uk

LOADS OF EXCITING KIDS’ PROJECTS THAT WILL BANISH BOREDOM FOREVER

Tommy Donbavand

howtobooks

Published by How To Books Ltd, 3 Newtec Place, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE. United Kingdom. Tel: (01865) 793806. Fax: (01865) 248780 email: [email protected] http://www.howtobooks.co.uk First published 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for purposes of review) without the express permission of the publisher in writing. © Copyright 2002 Tommy Donbavand British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Edited by Diana Brueton Cover design by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford Produced for How To Books by Deer Park Productions Typeset and design by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford Printed and bound in Great Britain NOTE: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in this book. Laws and regulations are complex and liable to change, and readers should check the current position with the relevant authorities before making personal arrangements.

Contents Introduction for Adults Introduction for Kids Boredom Busters on the Web About the Author

8 9 10 11

All the Fun of the Fair Roll up! Roll up! Thrilling ideas fantastic fairground fun!

13

Around the World Take a trip around the globe and sample the food of five different countries.

17

Arty Party Discover your artistic side by inviting your friends to a colourful party.

21

Body Shots Operation time in a gory game that gets your insides out!

25

Comic Strip Quick on the draw - create crazy comics to hand out to your friends.

29

Crazy Golf Hit the green and create obstacles for an indoor crazy golf course. Fore!

33

Dinosaurs! Back to the land that time forgot and party with some prehistoric pals!

37

Funny Formula One Start your engines and take pole position for some cardboard car racing.

40

Get Up, Stand Up Feeling funny? Take to the stage as a stand-up comedian.

45

The Great Indoors Experience life in the wild with an overnight camping trip – indoors!

49

6 / Boredom Busters

Halloween Horrors! Don’t have nightmares – it’s just a horrible Halloween party theme!

53

Hold the Front Page! It’s hot off the press – take the editor’s chair at a classroom newspaper!

57

Hot on the Trail Get to the heart of the matter as you research and film a 10 minute documentary.

61

How to Train Your Teacher Does your teacher work you too hard? Use these tips for stress-free schooling!

65

Knights of the Round Table Join King Arthur at Camelot as you become one of his trusted knights.

69

Let’s do the Show Right Here! Tread the boards as you write, direct and star in your own 15 minute play.

73

Lost in Space Explore the universe as you discover stars, planets, and maybe more!

77

Make a Volcano Cause an eruption in your kitchen with this table-top volcano!

81

The Monster Olympics Monsters compete in gruesome games. Pull on your furry feet and join in!

85

Now You’re Cookin’ Prepare this feast for your family – then they can wash the dishes!

89

Oh, What a Circus! Invite your friends to join you in under the big top for your very own circus!

93

On Safari It’s a jungle out there! Set a Safari hunt for your friends.

97

On the Catwalk Get creative with clothes and model them in your own fashion show.

101

7 / Contents

Personalise Your PC Brighten up your bytes with these cool customisations for your home computer.

105

Pirates Become a wicked pirate captains, and battle against your friends’ fleets!

109

Pop Stars! Be a pop idol and perform a concert as your favourite star!

113

Potty Picture Holder Go potty and make a personalised photograph holder to give away as a gift.

117

Quiz Kids Game show giggles as you become the host of your own quiz show.

121

Really Robotic Engage in some mechanical mayhem with this fantastic robot costume!

125

Redesign Your Room Fed up with your room? Sort your space with this low cost makeover.

129

Science Lab Get chemistry crazy by conducting these exciting experiments.

133

Secret Agents Exercise your detection skills and become a spy. Someone’s watching you!

137

Under the Sea Dive into the deep for some fishy fun with this great party theme.

141

What a Novel Idea Get the writing bug and become the author of an eight page short story.

145

Wild on the Web Add to the information superhighway and create your own web site!

149

Write a Song Ever had a tune going round in your head all day? Now you can write your own!

153

Introduction For Adults Readers of my first two books, Quick Fixes for Bored Kids and More Quick Fixes For Bored Kids, will know that they are packed with fast and fun activities designed to provide instant entertainment for rainy days, car journeys and school playtimes – in fact, anywhere your kids can get bored. However, rainy days can very easily become rainy weekends, and a game that passes a school playtime doesn’t begin to cover an entire school holiday. Sometimes Quick Fixes just aren’t enough. Boredom Busters to the rescue! Thirty-six longer projects that take anything from a day to an entire week to complete. Your kids will be staging plays, designing web sites, cooking meals, and there are even three great themes to help your parties go with a bang. Plus, each of the activities that follow has a subtle educational angle, covering literacy, numeracy, arts and crafts, and more. Learning through fun. So, whether you’re a parent or a teacher, your life is about to get easier, your kids are about to be entertained – and boredom is about to get busted!

Introduction For Kids Go back a page, and read the introduction for adults. I’ll wait here for you... What did you think of all that stuff about the ‘subtle educational angle’? Don’t believe a word of it – I just put that in to get your parents and teachers off your back! If they think you’re being taught something, they won’t complain that you’ve taken over the classroom, created havoc in the kitchen, or that all your mates are charging round the garden in home-made monster outfits. Genius! Don’t get me wrong, if you want adults to join in (and if you’re young there are a few bits where you’ll need their help) then great, but if you’d rather just have fun with your friends – it’ll be a grown-up free zone! You’ll be building volcanoes, racing Formula One cars, and joining King Arthur as a Knight of the Round Table! It’s going to get messy, but as long as you quote a few facts at the end of each project, the adults around you will grin happily because you’ve learned something. I’ve even put the facts in little boxes marked ‘Guess What?’ to help you! There’s a web site, too, stuffed with extra materials for each of the projects. You can even send in your pictures and stories to add to the on-line galleries. OK, learning faces on, and let’s bust some boredom!

Boredom Busters on the Web There is an interactive web site that accompanies this book, filled with extra activity materials and galleries for each of the 36 projects. Simply go to www.wobblebottom.com, and click on Boredom Busters. You can also find details of my other books on the site, including sample activities, additional information and details of where to buy them. If you have any questions about the projects in this book, or about entertaining kids in general, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]

About the Author I was born in Liverpool, and have entertained kids – both as myself and my clown alter-ego, Wobblebottom – for over 15 years, from birthday parties in Lancashire to cruise liners sailing up the Amazon River. I now live in London where I act in the West End, write books, and worry that the wonderful folk at How To Books will decide I’m having too much fun and start charging me for it! I regularly visit bookshops and schools to run events and workshops based on my books. If you’d like to arrange a visit for your shop or school, simply e-mail [email protected] for more details. Don’t be bored! Tommy Donbavand

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All the Fun of the Fair

Funfairs have thrilling rides, tasty food and exciting games. Here are a few ideas for fantastic fairground fun!

1. Hoop-La! A great game at the fair is the RING TOSS, where you have to throw a ring over a peg to win a prize! Paint four cardboard tubes and stick them to the corners of a large sheet of card so that they stand up in the air. To make the rings, draw around a plate on a piece of thinner card and then, inside that circle, draw around a smaller plate. Cut around the two lines, and you’re left with a card ring! Make six of them. Stand a few metres away from the tubes, and take turns with your friends to throw the rings. You get 10 points for each ring you manage to land over one of the tubes. The player with the highest score after six tries is the winner!

Tommy’s Tip Fairgrounds often give goldfish away as prizes. You can make your own by filling clear sandwich bags with water and adding a fish shape cut from carrot!

14 / Boredom Busters

2. A lovely Bunch Of Coconuts At the COCONUT SHY, you throw balls at coconuts on stands to try and knock them off. It’s easy to make, too! For the coconuts, blow up four balloons, and cover them with papier mâché. Then paint them brown and, before they’re completely dry, roll them in a dish filled with lengths of cotton, to make them look hairy! The coconut stands are just empty yoghurt pots stuck onto the top of bamboo sticks and painted. Push the stands into the ground in the garden, and rest your coconuts on top. Stand a few metres back and throw balls made of

Tommy’s Tip Make your papier mâché mix with two glasses of water and one glass of flour!

screwed up newspaper to see how many coconuts you can knock down!

3. Sweet Tooth When you’re at the fairground, you can feast on all kinds of wonderful treats, including my favourite – TOFFEE APPLES! To make four toffee apples you’ll need 110ml of water, 225g of sugar and, of course, four apples! Get an adult to help you in the kitchen. Mix the sugar and water in a bowl, and cook on full power in a microwave for five minutes. Remove the bowl and stir the mixture until all the sugar has dissolved. Return the bowl to the microwave, and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the mixture turns a golden brown. Wash the apples and push a lollipop stick into each of them. When the mixture is ready, dip the apples into the bowl, making sure to cover them completely with the toffee. Stand them on a plate covered with greaseproof paper to cool and harden. Delicious!

All the fun of the fair / 15

4. Scream if You Want to Go Faster! The fairground is always full of screams – the loudest coming from the ROLLER COASTER! You might not be able to build an entire roller coaster yourself, but you can make one of the cars from the ride, and let your imagination do the rest! You’ll need a cardboard box big enough to sit in. Remove the top flaps and the front of the box, and then cut the side panels in half diagonally. Paint the box in bright colours, and invent an exciting name for your ride. Some of the world’s most famous roller coasters are called ‘Viper’, ‘Thunder Mountain’, and ‘Colossus’! Write the name on the back of your car. Next you’ll need a cardboard tube or bamboo cane long enough to reach from one side of the box to the other. This will be the safety bar that stops you from falling out during the ride! Paint it silver, and cut a notch on either side of the box to hold it in place. Now the fun begins! Put your roller coaster car on a wide chair, and sit inside. Slot the safety bar in front of you, and imagine that you’re being pulled up a high hill to start your ride. When you get to the top, grab hold of the bar, and jiggle about in the car as you race down the other side. Imagine that

Guess What? The fastest roller coaster in the world is ‘Dodonpa’ in Japan. It travels at almost 107 miles an hour!

you’re whizzing through tunnels, being flipped upside down, and even splashing through lakes – and don’t forget to scream!

5. Strong Man! The fairground is a great place to TEST YOUR STRENGTH, so here’s a silly strong man game to play with your friends! You’ll need two identical foot pumps with hoses – the type used to blow up inflatable boats or mattresses. On the end of each hose, tightly secure a balloon with a rubber band.


Guess What? The people who work at the fairground or carnival are sometimes nicknamed ‘Carnies’!

Each player chooses a pump and, after a count of three, uses it to blow their balloon up as fast as they can! They can stand on the pump, use their hands, or even sit on it! The first player to blow their balloon up so much that it bursts is the winner!

6. Back to the Future... A popular attraction at old fairgrounds was the FORTUNE TELLER. They would gaze into a crystal ball, and mysteriously tell you what your future would bring! You can entertain your friends by telling some funny fortunes for them! Instead of a crystal ball, you’ll have a crystal BOWL! Any clear glass bowl will do. Cut up 30 pieces of paper, and write a potty prediction on each, such as ‘You will meet a man with a very big nose!’, or ‘Your feet will smell on Tuesday!’ Fold the predictions up and drop them into the bowl. Cover a table with a brightly coloured cloth, and sit behind it wearing a headscarf. Now invite a friend to ‘cross your palm with silver’ (they can give you 5p so long as you give it back later!). To tell their fortune, wave your hands magically over the bowl, then reach in and pull out a piece of paper. Unfold it, and tell your customer what silliness their future holds!

WWW There are some amazing roller coaster car designs on the Boredom Busters web site – why not send in your own?

Around the World

Take a whirlwind trip around the globe as you sample the food of five different countries!

1. All Aboard! The WORLD is an amazing place! With so many different countries, each with its own language, food, culture and traditions – it could take you years to visit them all.

Tommy’s Tip If you don’t like any of the food listed here, look for alternative recipes on the Internet!

This project tells you a little bit about five very different nations – but don’t stop there. The Internet and your local library are packed full of international information, just waiting for you to explore! The first thing you’ll need is a world ATLAS. This is a map that shows all the different countries. You can find one at the library, or go to www.allworldmap.org Pick the following countries out on the map, learn a little about them, and try a meal or two. You could also start a SCRAPBOOK for your tour. Staple together five sheets of paper, and add covers from stiff card (you could decorate the covers with the flags


of the countries you’ll be learning about). For each country, write down what you can find out about it, and tell your guests during the meal! If you are lucky enough to ever visit one of these countries on holiday, you could collect items such as postcards and photographs to add to your scrapbook. Now, on with the trip...

2. Mexico Our first stop is MEXICO - a country that borders the southern edge of the United States of America and became independent from Spain in 1810. The Mexican flag is green, white and red. Use crepe paper Guess What? On their birthdays, Mexican kids hit a papier mâché piñata with a stick until it bursts open, spilling sweets and toys!

in those colours to decorate the dinner table and try out this delicious meal – TACOS! Mexican food requires some special spices, but you can normally find ready-made ingredients, such as taco shells and seasoning, in your local supermarket. Cook some minced beef, and stir in the seasoning

according to the packet. Fill the shells with the mix, and add some salad and grated cheese – delicious! You can also make a kids’ version of the popular drink SANGRIA by mixing 125ml of blackcurrant juice with 75ml of orange juice and 100ml of lemonade. Add some ice and a slice of orange, and you have a tasty kids’ cocktail!

3. Russia Our next stop used to be part of the Soviet Union until it broke up in 1991. RUSSIA!

Guess What? At Christmas in Russia, children are visited by Grandfather Frost!

Russian cities, such as Moscow and St Petersburg, are packed full of history and tradition, and have some of the best architecture in the world. Decorate your table in white, red and blue – the colours of the Russian flag - and make this simple CABBAGE SALAD.

Around the World / 19

Cut a large white cabbage into thin strips, and sprinkle on half a teaspoon of salt. Rub the salt into the cabbage with your hands to make it softer. Cut an onion and an apple into strips, and mix with 125ml of mayonnaise and some grated carrot. Add this to the cabbage. Sprinkle some sugar over the top, and serve cold. You can make a MILK COCKTAIL to serve with this – just mix 200g of ice cream with 200ml of milk!

4. China On to CHINA, the country with the highest population in the world – over 1.2 billion people! Each year in China is represented by a different animal.

Guess What? Ice cream was invented in China in around 2000BC!

2002, the year I’m writing this book, is the year of the horse. Chinese food is some of the most popular in the world – you can’t go far without seeing a Chinese restaurant or take-away! You can also find plenty of tasty Chinese dishes in your local supermarket. Why not try making SWEET AND SOUR PORK? The Chinese flag is red, with five yellow stars – so use red crepe paper, and cut the stars out of card to decorate your table for the meal. TEA is a popular drink in China – but is prepared very differently from how we know it. For a taste close to Chinese tea, try some GREEN TEA without any milk or sugar.

5. Italy The next stop on our worldwide tour is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe – ITALY. Chances are you’ve already tried some Italian food, even if you don’t know it. PIZZA, PASTA and SPAGHETTI are all Italian dishes.

Guess What? Rome, Italy’s capital city, has another state within it – the Vatican, home to the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope!


You can buy pizzas ready-made – but it’s much more fun to make your own. Again, your local supermarket should have all the ingredients, such as pizza bases, sauces, grated cheese – and any other toppings you like. Spread them evenly across the top of the pizza and, with the help of an adult, bake it in the oven according to the directions on the ingredients. Decorate your table in stripes of red, white and green like the Italian flag, and enjoy your meal with a glass of fresh FRUIT JUICE.

6. Morocco Our last destination is a country in the north west of Africa – MOROCCO! Morocco is just packed with culture! You can wander the old towns, shop in the amazing bazaars, and even see snake charmers at work in the street! The Moroccan flag is red with a green star in the middle – Guess What? There is a stall in the market place in Marrakesh, Morocco, that sells secondhand teeth!

but this is one time where you won’t be decorating your dinner table. Meals in Morocco are traditionally served on very low tables, with everyone sitting around on cushions. If you have a low table, decorate that in red, with a green star in the centre of the table. Scatter some cushions

around for your guests to sit on, and serve a traditional Moroccan drink – MINT TEA – as they arrive. You may have to search a bit harder for traditional Moroccan food, but it is appearing in shops more and more as people travel further abroad. Look out for COUSCOUS with LAMB, and EGGPLANT SALAD.

WWW Why not keep your world tour going, and try researching some other countries? There are loads of handy links on the Boredom Busters web site. Send in details of your favourite destination.

Arty Party

Discover your artistic side by inviting your friends to a crazy, colourful party!

1. Doodle Decorations COLOUR is the theme for your party decorations but, in a break from tradition, your guests are going to decorate the party room for you! You’ll need a few rolls of WALLPAPER, which you can buy quite cheaply at DIY stores. It doesn’t matter what the pattern is – you’re going to use the other side. Ask an adult to help you pin up as many lengths of the wallpaper as you can, with the plain back showing. When you’ve covered the walls, leave coloured pens, pencils and crayons around on tables. As your guests arrive, they can grab a pen, and help you draw pictures and shapes around the room, creating the decorations as you go!

Tommy’s Tip Make sure you only draw on the special sections of wallpaper!


2. Starving Artists! Like all artists, your friends will be HUNGRY after they’ve helped decorate the room. Cut a large ARTIST’S PALETTE from card to cover the table, and arrange your party food in groups of colours. Make CUBIST SANDWICHES by cutting the crusts from bread before making the sandwiches, and leaving the filling – such as squares of ham or cheese, sticking out all the way around. Fill bowls with crunchy CARROTS, crisp CELERY and tasty TOMATOES to add to the colourful theme – they’re good for your party guests, too! Complete the feast with glasses of PICASSO PUNCH – a delicious fruit drink served with lots of ice. Simply mix together orange juice, Tommy’s Tip

pineapple juice, and a dash of lemonade!

Use other fruit juices if you prefer the taste

Don’t forget to have several different colours of paper napkins available!

3. Smock Horror! For the rest of the party, everyone should wear traditional ARTISTS’ COSTUMES! Ask everyone to arrive in old clothes, and bring an old shirt belonging to an adult. Wear these shirts backwards over your old clothes to look like artists’ smocks – you can help each other button them up the back, and fold up the sleeves so that your hands are free! For the traditional artist’s beret, cut a large circle from crepe paper, and carefully sew around the edges of the circle with a needle and cotton (you can get an adult to help you with this bit). When you have Tommy’s Tip

stitched all the way around, gently pull the ends of the

Make sure it isn’t too tight!

cotton together to draw the edge of the circle inwards. When it’s small enough, tie a knot in the cotton, remove

Arty Party / 23

the needle, and slip it onto your head. Press the middle of the circle down so that it flops over the side of your head – and you have a silly artist’s beret! Everyone could make a beret in a different colour!

4. Impressionists Time for a GAME! The first one is filled with quick-fire sketching silliness – DOODLE WHO? Write the name of everyone at the party, and some of your school friends and teachers on slips of paper, fold them up, and drop them into a bowl. Players take it in turns to remove a slip of paper from the bowl, and read the name. This is where the fun begins! That player must then grab a pen, rush to an empty spot of the wallpaper decorations, and draw the person whose name they have picked. They aren’t allowed to write words, or speak – only draw. The other players have to guess who the person being sketched is. They can shout out names as they watch the image take shape, and keep shouting until someone guesses correctly. The player drawing isn’t limited to a picture of their ‘model’ – they can add other clues, too. If the person they’re drawing plays football a lot, they could draw a ball and a boot beside

Guess What?

them. Or, if they have a dog that they take everywhere,

The famous artist, Rembrandt, painted over 700 pictures!

sketch the pooch, too! When a correct guess has been made, the next player pulls out a name, and the fun starts all over again!

5. Clay Play MANIC MODELS – a giggle-filled game of modelling clay madness! Put plenty of different coloured modelling clay in the centre of the table, and get everyone to stand around the edge. In advance, write the names of around 30


items on bits of card – such as ‘house’, ‘snake’, ‘teapot’, etc. When the game starts, one player grabs a card from the top of the pile, and reads out the word. Everyone then has 30 seconds to grab some clay, and make a model of the item named! After 30 seconds are up, everyone stops modelling, and takes a look at each others’ efforts. Chances are they won’t look very much like the item on the card! Everyone then puts their clay back in the centre of the table, another card is chosen, and more madcap models are made! Keep going until you’ve used all the cards, or everyone’s hands are tired!

6. Brush Strokes To end the party, take everyone outside for the game SELF PORTRAITS. This is why I told you to ask everyone to wear old clothes to the party! Cut open plenty of plastic bin liners, and spread them over the ground. You can use stones to hold them in place if it’s a windy day. Next, place several pots of poster paint mixed with water around, and enough brushes for everyone. When the game starts, everyone grabs a brush, dips it

Tommy’s Tip To be extra safe, buy goggles from your local DIY store, or ask everyone to wear sunglasses!

into a colour and has to paint – each other! Yes, you have 3 minutes to paint each others’ artists’ smocks (the old shirts you’re wearing), while being painted yourself. You can paint patterns, designs, pictures – anything so long as it covers the shirt! Be very careful not to paint any higher than people’s chests, and keep away from each others’ faces – getting paint in your eyes can hurt! When the 3 minutes are up, everyone stops to admire each other’s work. I bet you’ll look a picture!

WWW Send pictures of your party to [email protected]!

Body Shots

You and your friends become surgeons in a gory game that gets your insides out!

1. Body Line The first thing you’ll need is the OUTLINE of a human body. Tape several sheets of paper together until you have a piece big enough to lie on with space all around you. Take off your shoes, and lie on your back on the paper. Open your legs slightly, and spread your hands flat, with your fingers apart. Now get a friend to draw around you with a marker pen. Don’t press too hard, or the pen might rip through the paper. It doesn’t matter if it’s not too neat – you can always use the pen to go over the line again later. It’s a good idea to make two outlines, in case one gets damaged. Fold the spare outline up, and keep it safe.


2. Dem Bones! Now you can start making the bits that go inside your body – starting with the BONES. Although the human body has over 200 bones, you only need a few of them for this game: two for each arm, two for each leg, your hands and your feet. Measure a piece of card from your shoulder to your elbow, and cut out a bone shape, so that it fits inside the outline on the paper. Do the same for the bone that runs from your elbow to your wrist, and repeat this for the

Guess What? You are born with 300 bones but, by the time you’re 18, many of them will have joined together to leave you with just 206!

other arm. Now, trace your hands onto card, and cut them out. You can draw the bones onto these hands – can you work out how many you have in your fingers? Time for your legs – make bones that fit the outline from your hips to your knees, and from your knees to your ankles. Trace your feet from the side, cut them out, and draw in the bones on your toes. Store your bones somewhere safe, and it’s time to get messy…

3. Brain Box & Heart of the Matter Now you can make your internal organs – starting with Guess What? The human brain has more than 30 billion parts!

your BRAIN! Although your brain is actually quite soft, and feels like dough (don’t ask me how I know that!), we’ll be making yours from newspaper.

Screw up several sheets of newspaper, so they make a ball shape that fits inside the top of your head on the outline. Press one side of the ‘brain’ against a table top so that it flattens out a bit, then use sticky tape to stop the newspaper from unravelling. Paint your brain grey (that’s why they call it grey matter!), and leave it to dry. To make the HEART, you’ll need an old sponge, like the type used in the kitchen or bathroom.

Body Shots / 27

Make sure the sponge isn’t wet, then carefully use a

Guess What?

pair of scissors to trim it into a shape like a potato, about

Your heart beats

the size of your fist.

40,000,000 times

Paint it red and set it aside to dry.

a year!

4. Hot Air & Hungry! Next you have to make your LUNGS – the parts of your body that keep you breathing! These are the simplest parts to make, as you just have to blow up two identical balloons. Make sure that they are small enough to fit inside the chest section of your outline, with the heart in between them. Your STOMACH is also quite easy to make. Screw up some small pieces of newspaper, and drop them into a paper bag. Now, blow some air into the bag (but not too much, you don’t want it to burst!), and twist the top closed to trap some of the air. Use tape to secure the opening – and you should be able to hear the contents of your stomach rattling about inside! Yuk! Paint the stomach pink, and leave it to dry.

5. Doctor, Doctor... You’re now ready for surgery – so you’ll need to make a DOCTOR’S COSTUME. For the doctor’s coat, ask if you can borrow a large white shirt from an adult, and wear it backwards. You can make a STETHOSCOPE (the thing the doctor listens to your chest with) by winding wool around the wires of a pair of personal stero headphones, and making a tin foil circle for the end. Hook the earphone part around your neck, and let it dangle! Wear a pair of rubber washing-up gloves on your hands, and you’re ready to operate!

Tommy’s Tip Remember to remove the wool and tin foil before you plug the headphones back into your stereo!


6. Operation! Gather your friends together for a session of surgical silliness! Stick the outline of your body onto the wall (ask an adult to help), and place all the bones and body parts on a table nearby. Fold pieces of tape over so that they are sticky on both sides, and stick them to the back of each item. Now, choose a doctor, and dress him or her in the costume. Tie a blindfold on so that they can’t see (a piece of material cut from an old t-shirt will do), and your body is in their hands! They will have two minutes to pick bones and organs from the table and stick them into your body outline on the wall. But, as the doctor is blindfolded – who knows where they’ll end up! The arm and leg bones should go back into your limbs; the brain in the top half of your head; your heart in the middle of your chest, with a lung on either side – and your stomach below. The rubber gloves will make it harder for the doctor to feel which item is which! When the time is up, or all the body parts have been put in place, remove the doctor’s blindfold, and show him how well he has done – then carefully peel the items from the outline, choose another doctor, and operate again!

WWW Take

a

photo

of

your

operation

in

action,

[email protected] for our gruesome gallery!

and

send

it

to

Comic Strip

Be quick on the draw as you create crazy comics to give to your friends!

1. Character Witness The first thing you need for your comic are CHARACTERS. You’ll need a main character, a baddie, and other smaller characters to help tell the story. Perhaps your main character is a superhero who fights evil and helps rescue those in danger? Or maybe she’s a naughty girl starting a new school, and always getting into trouble? Whoever your main character is, take a piece of paper, and write about them.

Tommy’s Tip

First, give them a name. If the character is a superhero,

Read some of your favourite comics to get ideas for your characters!

does he have a secret identity? What are his super powers? Invent a history for your naughty schoolgirl. Where was she born? What do her parents do for a living? You don’t need

to know everything about your character – just enough to guess how they will react in your story.


Create a baddie to oppose your main character – an arch villain for your superhero, or a strict headmaster for your schoolgirl. Write a little about them, and how they get in the way of what your hero wants. Keep these character biographies safe – you’ll need to refer to them when you start writing your stories.

2. Quick on the Draw Now it’s time to DRAW your creations. Don’t worry if you think that you’re not very good at drawing – some of the most popular comic strip characters in the world have been created the way they are because the artist wasn’t very good! Take a sheet of paper, and draw your main character in black and white. Keep the picture as simple as possible – you’re going to have to draw it again and again.

Guess What? Most cartoon characters only have three fingers, because hands with four fingers are harder to draw!

When you have a design you’re happy with, try drawing the character from different angles. How does your superhero look from the side, or when he’s running? Can you sketch your schoolgirl sitting down and standing up? Now draw your character with different facial

Tommy’s Tip The longer you spend on this section, the easier the rest of the project will be!

expressions. Change the shape of their eyes and mouth to make them look happy, angry or sad. Draw your other characters in the same way, and pin these sketches to the wall where you draw. You can glance up at these sketches for help when you’re creating your final comic.

3. Story Time You need to invent a STORY for your characters to act out. An interesting and exciting story will keep your readers turning the pages, eager to find out what happens next.

Comic Strip / 31

Tommy’s Tip

On a sheet of paper, write down as many ideas for your

Your story will be told

main character as you can. How many rescues can you

in pictures – so avoid

think of for your superhero? How many ways can your

making it too complicated!

schoolgirl get into trouble? When you have nine or ten ideas, pick the one you like

the best and write a short story about it that lasts between one and two pages. You’ll need a start, middle and end to your story – and make sure that your hero wins!

4. Toon Time! It’s time to start creating your COMIC! Take a sheet of paper, and draw a panel at the top left of the page – a panel is a single square of a comic story. In pencil, draw the first picture of your tale, remembering to leave space for any speech balloons to show what your characters are saying. Don’t worry about making it too neat at this stage – you’re only planning at the moment. Now add another panel, and draw the next frame of your story – remember to keep the action moving, and try to use as little speech as possible. Keep adding panels of different sizes until you have filled the page. Then continue on a fresh sheet of paper. When you have finished a rough draft of your comic strip, show it to one of your friends to see if they can follow the story. If they have a problem understanding something, erase that panel, and redraw it. Keep going until the story is easy to follow.

5. Pen and Ink! The next stage is to go over your pencil drawings with a black felt tip pen. In comic strip production, this process is called INKING.


It is worth taking your time over this – you can’t erase any Tommy’s Tip Use a new felt tip pen to keep the lines clear!

mistakes once they’re made in ink! Rest the first page of your rough draft on a table, and ink over the outside of the panel. The next thing to go over is any speech, as this must be easy to read. Continue with

the drawings until the panel is complete – then take a blank sheet of paper, and lay it over the inked area. This will stop you accidentally smudging it as you move on to the next panel. Keep going until you have inked the entire page, then place it carefully between two sheets of blank paper, and put it somewhere safe. Now move on to your next page. When you have finished, design a cover for your comic, and ink that too.

6. Copy, Copy, Copy! When you have completed your inking, you can COPY your pages to hand out to your friends! Your local newsagent may have a photocopier that charges a few pence for each copy – or perhaps there is one at school that your teachers will allow you to use. Make the same amount of copies of each page. There’s nothing

Guess What? A lot of popular comics and famous cartoonists started out this way!

worse than finding you have one sheet missing! Staple your pages together, and give the first edition of your comic to your friends. If they like it, you might have to get started on your next adventure right away! You could even write a longer story and split it into segments, so that your friends have to wait for the next edition to find out what happens!

WWW There are loads of comic character ideas on the Boredom Busters web site. Scan in your comic and send it to [email protected] for everyone to see.

Crazy Golf

Take your clubs and hit the green as you create obstacles for an indoor crazy golf course. Fore!

1. Club Culture A golfer isn’t a golfer without a CLUB to hit the ball – and each of your players will need one of their own. All you need is a bamboo cane and an empty stock cube box. Tape the box closed, and paint it grey. When it’s dry, carefully make a hole in the side of the box, near the edge, and push the end of your bamboo cane into it. Secure the cane in place with some tape, and you have your own golf club! For the golf ball, it’s best to use a table tennis ball, but if you haven’t got one, screw up a sheet of newspaper, and completely wrap it in sticky tape. Keep squeezing it until it’s as round as you can get it, and it rolls quite well. Now you’re ready to play!

Guess What? Writer Rudyard Kipling painted his golf balls red so that he could play in the snow!


2. In the House In crazy golf, you score points by hitting your ball through some weird and wonderful obstacles. The first of these is the HAUNTED HOUSE! Take a cardboard box, remove the top flaps, and turn it upside down. Now carefully cut a doorway and four windows out of one side of the box – two windows near the top, and two windows near the bottom. Make sure that they are all big enough for your golf ball to fit through. Next, paint your box to look like a haunted house – you can draw crumbling brickwork, add a few bats flying around it and so on. Finally, tear up some strips of tissue paper, and tape them to the tops of the doorway and windows. They should dangle in view, but shouldn’t stop the ball from passing through. When you play this hole, the aim will be to hit your golf ball from a short distance away to see if you can get it inside the house. You’ll receive 1 point if you get it through the door, 2 points if it goes through either of the lower windows, and 3 points if you can hit it through one of the top windows. A spooky way to score!

3. Jumped Up The next obstacle you’ll make is the SKI JUMP. For this you’ll need a sheet of stiff card, a few books and three plastic cups.

Tommy’s Tip A few bits of Blu-Tac will keep the card in place against the books!

Number the cups 1, 2, and 3 with a black marker pen, and put them to one side for a moment. Now stack your books on top of each other, and rest the sheet of card against the side, so that it forms a ramp. Place your three cups one behind the other – starting

with ‘1’ – on the far side of the ramp. The aim of the hole is to hit the ball hard enough so that it rolls up the ramp, and lands in one of the cups on the other

Crazy Golf / 35

side. You may have to experiment a little to see how far away to place the cups for the final game. Now on to the next obstacle!

4. Bowled Over A very simple obstacle to make is GOLF BOWLING. Tommy’s Tip Take six empty toilet roll tubes, and paint them white, with a thin red stripe around the middle, to make them look like bowling pins.

To make the obstacle harder, use ten pins and add a final row of four at the back!

When they’re dry, simply stand them in traditional bowling style – one at the front, two behind, three behind that – and see how many you can knock down with your golf ball. It’s not as easy as it sounds! Each player will have two tries to knock down all the pins. Your score is however many pins you knock over during your turn.

5. Standing Tall PERILOUS PILLARS is the final obstacle you need to make before you can play. Blow up six balloons, and attach a 4cm length of string to the knot of each. On the other end of the string, tie a small weight, such as a paper clip. Now, stand six toilet roll tubes in different places around the room (you can use the same tubes you used for the bowling obstacle), and rest a balloon on top of each one – making sure that the paper clip weights dangle freely inside the tube. At the far end of the room lay a plastic cup on its side. The aim of this hole is to get your ball into the cup, without knocking any of the balloons off their pillars! Experiment with different positions of the pillars to make this hole harder or easier to play. You’ll get 3 points for getting the ball in the cup within six shots. Tricky stuff!


6. Game On! Now you have all of your obstacles, it’s time to play CRAZY GOLF! All players should gather together with their clubs and balls, and make a scorecard. This has the name of all four

Tommy’s Tip

obstacles, and a space to jot down each player’s score

Remember to remove any breakables

beside it. If you want a longer game, you could play each

before hitting balls

hole twice, so leave two score spaces beside each name.

about indoors!

Chances are you’ll have to set the obstacles up one at a time (unless you have a really big room!), so start by

Guess What?

placing your Haunted House at one end of your ‘golf

The starting point of a golf hole is called the ‘tee’!

course’, and mark a spot to play from with a circle of card a few metres away.

Take it in turns to hit your ball towards the house, and see how many points you can score – marking them all down on your cards. When everyone has played the first hole, remove the Haunted House and set up the Ski Jump. Keep playing until you’ve played all the holes, then add up the scores to see who is the Crazy Golf Champion!

WWW There are scorecards for you to download and print off on the Boredom Busters web site!

Dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs are huge creatures that wandered the Earth millions of years ago. Go back in time and play with these prehistoric pals!

1. You Old Thing! Scientists know all about dinosaurs through finding FOSSILS. Fossils are the remains of creatures that died a long time ago, and were covered with mud or sand. The flesh of the creatures rotted away, but their bones turned into a material like rock to be discovered millions of years Guess What? Most dinosaurs lived to be over 100 years old!

later. Fossils can be very hard to find but, with a few simple materials, you can make your own! First of all, make a flat circle out of modelling clay. Then

take a seashell, and carefully press it into the clay to create an image. This will be your mould. Now take a sheet of card and cut off a strip approximately 10cm wide. Tape the ends together so that it forms a tube slightly narrower than the circle of clay. Press the tube into the clay around your mould.


Mix together some plaster of Paris, and pour it into the tube, down over your mould. Make sure it covers the modelling clay completely. Leave it to dry for 12 hours, then remove the tube and carefully peel away the modelling clay. You should be left with a perfect fossil which you can paint in stone colours!

2. Walking with Dinosaurs Imagine going into your garden and finding fresh dinosaur FOOTPRINTS! You can fool your family that there has been a dinosaur on the lawn by making some fake dino feet! On the side of a cardboard box, draw a huge foot with

Guess What?

three sharp claws. Cut the shape out and draw around it

99% of all dinosaur footprints have been eroded over time!

on another piece of card from the box. Cut out the second foot, and you’re ready to play your trick!

Wait for a day when it has been raining. When the rain stops, attach the dinosaur feet to the bottom of your shoes by making two small holes in the middle of the card, and threading a piece of string through. Tie the string over your own shoes to hold the giant feet in place. Now you can take giant strides through the mud, and leave behind a set of scary footprints!

3. Scary Skeletons Take your bedroom back in time by covering the wall with a huge dinosaur SKELETON! First, find a picture of a dinosaur skeleton – you could Tommy’s Tip Never trace directly over a library book – you could damage it!

search online, or visit your local library to find a book. Copy the picture, and then lay a sheet of tracing paper over it. You can hold it in place with a small piece of tape.

Dinosaurs! / 39

Trace the major bones in the skeleton with a pencil – don’t worry about getting them all, just concentrate on getting the main shape of the dinosaur. Now give each bone on your traced picture a number. There could be a lot of them, so it might take a little time. Once you have all your bones numbered, start to draw larger copies of them on card. You can use any colour card – but yellow or brown would look most like old bones. Cut these cardboard bones out, and use the traced image as a guide to help you position them on your bedroom wall. Stick them in place, and transport your bedroom to the land that time forgot!

4. Dino Eggs! Dinosaurs gave birth to babies by laying EGGS. You can make your own dinosaur eggs to give to your friends and family – but with sweets and toys inside instead of baby beasts! Blow up a balloon, and sit it in a glass or mug to keep it steady. Then make some papier mâché mix by stirring two glasses of water and one glass of flour together in a bowl. Add extra flour or water until the mixture is smooth. Tear up strips of newspaper, then dip them in the mix and lay them over the balloon. Cover it with four layers of papier mâché, leaving it to dry between each layer. Leave the space where the balloon is inside the glass uncovered. When it’s completely dry, turn the egg over, burst the balloon with a pin, and remove it. Fill the egg with treats, then cover the hole with more papier mâché. Now you can paint your egg with a strange design, and give it as an ‘eggsalent’ gift!

5. Meteoric! Scientists believe that the dinosaurs became extinct (they all died) when a huge METEOR hit the Earth. In the same way that you made dino eggs, you can make a meteor to hang from your ceiling.


This time, use a larger balloon, and cover it completely.

Guess What?

Screw up bits of newspaper, and stick them between the

A meteor is a rock

layers of papier mâché to make the meteor look like a

flying through space!

jagged rock. When it’s finished, paint it in a stone grey colour, and make two holes in the top. Thread some string through, and pin the other end to your ceiling! That rocks!

6. Dinosaur Droppings! There’s something else that dinosaurs left a lot of behind... POO! Surprise your friends by making this recipe for Prehistoric Poo Pie! First you need to melt a large bar of chocolate. You can do this by boiling some water in a saucepan – ask an adult to help – and taking it off the heat to cool slightly. Break up the chocolate, and put the pieces into a bowl. Wearing oven gloves, carefully lower the bowl into the hot water, and stir the chocolate until it melts. Now add some other tasty ingredients such as nuts, Tommy’s Tip

small sweets, or raisins. When the mixture has cooled, tip it onto a plate, and use your hands to form it into a disgusting poo shape! Put it in the fridge to set for a few hours – then watch

Never put the chocolate straight into the saucepan – it will ruin it!

everyone’s faces when you serve it up for tea!

WWW You can find links to great dinosaur sites on the Boredom Busters web site!

Funny Formula One

Start your engines for some crazy car racing!

1. Box Cars To BUILD your car, you’ll need a cardboard box that is wider than your body. Remove the two smaller flaps at the bottom, then fold the two larger flaps inside the box, and secure them with tape. Next, fold the two large and one of the small flaps on the top of the box inside, and also tape them in place. This should leave you with one of the smaller flaps on the outside. Make a small hole in each corner of the box, and tie the ends of two lengths of string to these holes – one on the left side, and one on the right. You should now be able to step inside the box, and hang it over your shoulders. Adjust the length of the string so that the box hangs around your waist.


2. Paint Shop Time to PAINT your car! Create a design on a sheet of paper and, when you’re happy with it, copy it in pencil on one side of the box. Paint the design in bright colours. While it’s drying, repeat the image on Tommy’s Tip Each of your friends should choose a

the other side of the car and paint that, too.

different main colour

Now paint the front and back sections – and add your name

for their car to make it look like a real race!

to them so that the crowd can identify you during the race. Next, paint two cardboard tubes, and tape them to the

back of the car, so they stick out like exhaust pipes. Finally, paint a display panel on the front flap of the car. You’ll need a speedometer to tell how fast you’re going, and a petrol gauge so you know how much fuel you have left.

3. Safety First All racing drivers wear HELMETS to protect them in the Tommy’s Tip

event of a crash – and everyone in your race will have one.

Don’t use string to tie your helmet in place. It could dig into your neck and hurt you.

For this, you’ll need a smaller cardboard box that fits over your head. Remove the flaps, and cut out the front section so that you see!

To keep it in place, attach a piece of ribbon to either side so that you can tie it under your chin. Paint the helmet in the same colours as your car, and write your name across the front.

4. It’s The Pits! During a race, cars have to stop to refuel, or replace their tyres. This part of the track is called THE PITS. All the cars in your race will share the same pit area – so all your friends can join in and help make it!

Funny Formula One / 43

You’ll need another big cardboard box, which you can paint with dials and displays. Tie a long length of string to one side of the box, and tape a cardboard tube to the end – this will be your fuel line. When a car comes into the pits in Formula One, one of the mechanics holds a sign in front of the driver to tell him

Guess What? If a Formula One driver commits an offence, he can be forced to take a 10 second ‘stop-go’ penalty in the pits!

when to stop and go. You can make one by cutting a circle from card. Paint one side red, and write STOP on it, then flip the circle over, paint the other side green, and write GO. Tape the circle to a stick or broom handle, and you have a sign to hold out in front of drivers who enter the pits. The last thing you need to make is a chequered flag. This will be waved as the winning car crosses the finish line. Tape together four sheets of paper, and divide each side up into squares. Paint each alternate square black and, when both sides are dry, attach your flag to a stick.

5. Build Your Track You only need one more thing in order to race – a TRACK! The size and shape of your track will depend on where you are racing. Design your track on a sheet of paper. Add a few twists and turns to keep the drivers working hard, and don’t forget to include the start/finish line. When you have a design all the racers are happy with,

Guess What? Two quick turns together – such as right/left or left/right are called a chicane!

mark it out by laying string on the ground. You’ll need a long length of string for either side of the track. If it’s a windy day, hold the string down by placing stones over it at regular intervals. Mark the start/finish line with more string, and place the pit area beside it.


6. The Race! Finally it’s time for the RACE! You can decide who starts from where by drawing positions. Write each driver’s name on a piece of paper, and drop them into a helmet. Shake them up, and pull them out one at a time. The first driver out gets POLE POSITION (the front spot), and the second name stands beside him. The third driver starts behind the first car, the fourth next to him – and so on until all the names have been drawn out. One of your friends can act as STEWARD for the race (the person in charge). He will decide how many laps you need to complete, hold the stop/go sign in front of the cars

Tommy’s Tip Take it in turns to act as steward!

as they enter the pits, and wave the chequered flag. On his count of ‘three, two, one, go!’ the race will begin! All the drivers grip the front of their cars, and run around the track, staying inside the string. Each car must stop in the pits to refuel one time during the race for seven seconds. The steward holds out the stop/go sign until the time is up. The winner of the race gets 10 points to add to his driver’s championship score, second place gets 8, and third place gets 6. Then it’s time to design a new track, make any necessary repairs to the cars – and race all over again!

WWW There are some amazing car designs to print off and use on the Boredom Busters web site. Don’t forget to e-mail pics of your race in action, too!

Get Up, Stand Up

Entertain your family and friends as you take to the stage as a funny stand-up comedian!

1. Funny Ha-Ha! Are you the type of person who is always telling JOKES? Do you always see the FUNNY side to a situation? Then try your hand at being a COMEDIAN (or COMEDIENNE if you’re a girl!), and make others laugh, too! The first thing you need to be a successful comedian isn’t a collection of jokes – it’s CONFIDENCE. You can learn the funniest jokes in the world, but if you can’t tell them clearly and confidently, no one will laugh. Practise telling the jokes that you know to your friends, and also to yourself. If you have a microphone that plugs into your stereo at home, practise talking into that. You’ll be amazed how much difference it makes hearing your voice amplified. Keep the microphone steady in front of your mouth as you talk, and try recording your voice and listening back to it to see if you can make improvements. Now it’s time to build an ACT.


2. Joker In The Pack! The first rule here is WRITE ALL YOUR JOKES DOWN! You may be able to remember dozens of jokes, but if you start writing down every joke you hear, you’ll have a great resource of material to refer to in the future. Where do you get jokes? Well, start by writing down all the ones that you already know, then keep adding to them as you hear them from your friends. You can buy or borrow joke books, and pick the best of those – and there are

Tommy’s Tip Use a special notepad for your jokes and keep it safe!

some great joke-filled web sites to explore, too! www.kidsjokes.co.uk It does exactly what it says – a site filled with jokes for kids! My favourite from here is: Why doesn’t Dracula have any friends? Because he is a pain in the neck! www.schooljokes.com Funnies about school life. Although this is an American site, you can easily adapt the jokes, such as: I’m going to lead a long life – it’s the only way I’ll be able to finish all my homework! www.wicked4kids.com.au This Australian site has a great joke section with some real corkers: Why did the baby wear a nappy on his birthday? He didn’t want to be a party pooper! Time to go joke picking!

3. Get In On The Act When you have a good collection of jokes, it’s time to put them together into a ROUTINE. This means you have enough jokes to tell for ten minutes.

Get Up, Stand Up / 47

Use lots of different types of jokes. Tell a long joke, then a short joke; a joke about people, then a joke about a place.

Tommy’s Tip Ten minutes is a good length to start.

If you have a joke about a teacher, you could change it so that it’s about one of your own teachers – but be

You can perform longer routines when

careful not to offend anyone. Though you’re only joking,

you’re more experienced!

it’s easy to hurt people’s feelings. Remember not to tell any rude jokes! They may be funny in the playground, but your teacher won’t appreciate them! When you have enough jokes to fill your routine, it’s time to practise.

4. Making Perfect When I say practise, I mean PRACTISE! You now have to go over your act again and again until you can almost say it in your sleep! Start rehearsing by reading your jokes from your notebook then, when you can remember them all, try practising without the book in front of you – this is quite a hard jump to make, so be prepared to spend a little time on it. A good way to practise is in front of a MIRROR. That way, you can see if you look natural or not, and whether your hands have something to do (another good reason to hold a microphone!) You could also record your act and play it back to listen for any bits where you stumble over your words, or leave gaps. Now, practise some more!

5. Stand Up and Be Counted The big day, your first PERFORMANCE! Ask your teacher if you can perform in front of the class, or at the school assembly – they’ll be thrilled that you’ve been working on your routine (unless


some of the jokes are about them!). Or, you could plug your microphone in at a friend’s party to tell some birthday jokes. DON’T WORRY IF NO ONE LAUGHS! Every comedian goes through this (I have, many times!), it doesn’t mean that you’re not funny – it just means that the jokes aren’t suitable for the occasion. Go back to your notebook, and pick some more for next time. As your confidence grows, try expanding your act to 15 or 20 minutes. You could even add some of the techniques listed below...

6. Other Stuff Why not try performing in a DOUBLE ACT? This means you have another person on stage with you and, normally, one of you is trying to be serious while the other is being silly. Watch video tapes of famous double acts to see how they work together. My favourites are MORECAMBE AND WISE. COMEDY SKETCHES. You don’t have to tell jokes as a double act – you can perform comedy sketches where the humour is very physical. Rent tapes of LAUREL AND HARDY to see how well this can be done. IMPRESSIONS. Can you sound like a famous person? If you can, work a few impressions into your act, where you pretend to be a celebrity or two. Impressions are quite hard to do, as you have to sound exactly like the person you’re copying. Try recording yourself doing the voice, and playing it back to one of your friends to see if they can guess who it is supposed to be. Remember to pick easily recognisable people – not everyone will know what your postman sounds like! Remember – keep practising!

WWW Send your favourite jokes in to [email protected] to be added to the joke file!

The Great Indoors

Experience life in the wild with an overnight camping trip – indoors!

1. Loitering within Tent... To start your adventure, you’ll need SHELTER. Time to make a two-person tent! Stand two chairs a short distance apart with their seats facing away from each other. Lay a broom on the backs of the chairs, and tie it in place with string. Throw a bed-sheet over the broom, and pull the sides apart to form a tent shape. Hold the edges of the sheet in place with some heavy books or rocks. Inside your tent, put two sleeping bags or quilts to keep you warm in the night. You can also add a torch, and a store of sweets for a midnight snack!

2. Ready, Aim, Fire! Every camp site needs a FIRE so that you can keep warm, and cook your food. Because fire is dangerous (and you can’t start one indoors!), you can make your own fake fire!


Start by collecting as many twigs as you can find. You’ll

Tommy’s Tip

also need some pebbles, and a plastic bin liner.

Draw around a large plate to mark your

Cut a circle from the bin liner, and lie it on the floor outside

circle!

your tent. Now arrange your pebbles all the way around the edge of the circle, and stick them in place with glue.

Using the largest twigs, form a pyramid in the centre of the circle – you can jam the bottom ends of the twigs against the pebbles to hold them in place. Keep adding twigs until you can’t see the bin liner through the pile. To make the fire itself, cut flame shapes from yellow, orange and red crepe paper, and stick them onto more twigs. You can push these into your fire so that it looks like it is burning brightly! To make the campfire look more authentic, tie two sticks together in a x shape with string, and rest another stick between them over the top of the fire – now you have a skewer to cook your freshly caught food on!

3. Food Glorious Food! You’ll need a good meal before you climb into your tent for the night. A great campsite meal is jacket potatoes with crunchy beans! Choose a good sized potato for each person, and cook them for around 10-15 minutes in a microwave oven.

Tommy’s Tip

When they’re done, put them into an oven on a medium

To spice up the beans, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce!

heat to crisp them up while you prepare the beans. Get an adult to warm some beans in a saucepan, and transfer them to a large bowl. Crush up a packet of ready

salted crisps, and mix them in with the beans – then sprinkle some cheese on top. Using oven gloves, remove the potatoes from the oven, and wrap them in tin foil to keep them warm. Then place them on the pebbles around your campfire to make them look as though they have been cooking there! Take your bowl of beans along with some plates and forks to your campsite, choose a potato from the fire, unwrap the foil, and pour on the crunchy bean mix. Delicious!

The great Indoors / 51

4. Spooky Stories! It’s traditional to tell GHOST STORIES around a campfire! Here’s a ghoulish game that will keep the tales funny as well as spooky! Tommy’s Tip

Cut a sheet of paper into ten pieces, and write a different

To make the story even spookier, each

word on each piece. Then fold them up and drop them into

player can hold a torch under their chin as they speak – it makes your face look really creepy!

a bag. When you’ve finished your meal, dim the lights, and gather around the fire. The first player pulls a piece of paper out of the bag, and tells the first minute of a spooky story using the word they’ve chosen.

So, if they picked ‘snowman’, the story could start, ‘Many years ago, during a really cold winter, people in a village near here were terrified by a strange snowman that came to life and chased them through the streets at night...’ After a minute, the next player pulls a word, such as farmer, out of the bag, and continues the story: ‘Just when Christina thought the snowman was going to catch her, the local farmer swerved around the corner in his tractor, and ran the snowman down. But, instead of stopping it, the snowman split into lots of little snowmen, and carried on chasing her!’ Keep the story going until all the words are used up!

5. In The Shadows Once the campfire has died down, it’s time to go inside your tent for the night – but the fun doesn’t stop there! Once you’re in your sleeping bag, you can use your torch to make SHADOW PUPPETS on the sheet above you! Hold the torch in one hand, and aim the beam into the air. With your other hand, form a shape in front of the beam, and see if you can make the shadow that’s cast onto the sheet look like an animal.


Try making a fist, then sticking two of your fingers out to make a rabbit’s head with long ears – or hold the torch underneath your arm, link both thumbs together, and flap your fingers like the wings of a bird! When your friends can guess which animal it is you’re making, pass the torch on for them to try. Or why not use two torches, make two animals, and let them have a conversation!

6. Hit The Tracks The next morning, before you pack your campsite away, go outside and see if you can find evidence of some of the ANIMALS that have been around during the night. Guess What?

Look for things such as bird tracks in the mud, or

The Wildkids site has loads of other great nature activities too!

perhaps you can find footprints that have been made by an animal such as a hedgehog or fox. Make drawings of any tracks that you discover,

then check out the excellent web site at www.wildkids.org.uk to find out which animal they belong to!

WWW There are even more great campsite games on the Boredom Busters web site!

Halloween Horrors!

Create dreadful decorations, ghoulish games and creepy costumes for a Halloween Party. Don’t have nightmares...!

1. Decorate the Dungeon Before your guests arrive, you’ll need to DECORATE the room you’ll be using for the party. This will be your creepy dungeon! Ask an adult to replace the main light bulb with a red or green one. This will give the room an instant eerie glow, and get everyone in the Halloween mood as soon as they arive. You can make beastly bats to hang from the ceiling by cutting bat wing shapes from thin card, and clipping them into clothes pegs. Attach lengths of cotton to the pegs, and use drawing pins to hang them above your guests’ heads. Create chains by cutting lots of 2cm x 15cm strips from kitchen foil. Make a loop from the first piece of foil, and stick the ends together with tape. Then, when you make the next loop, thread it through the first before taping it together. Keep going, adding more and more loops, until you have a long chain to pin to the wall. Finally, visit your local charity shop and buy some old net curtains. Rip holes


in them, and hang them over the windows to give the room a chilling, haunted house look.

2. Things that Go Bump in the Night! As your party guests arrive, you can play a tape of SCARY NOISES in the background – it’s great fun to make! Tommy’s Tip Get all your friends to add some ghostly sounds to the tape!

Start recording on a blank cassette with some moans and groans. Add a few screams to make everyone jump! Tie a handful of cutlery together with string and jangle it near the microphone to make the sound of chains being

rattled. Record water dripping into a metal pan for an authentic dungeon feel. Make some ghostly footstep noises by banging a pair of shoes onto a cardboard box – and if you have a squeaky door in your house, hold your microphone close to the hinges as you slowly open and close it! Finally, if you have a musical instrument, such as a guitar or piano, a few eerie chords will finish off the tape perfectly. Even something as simple as random notes blown on a harmonica can sound spooky!

3. Haven’t a Thing to Wear Of course, you and your friends will need some CREEPY COSTUMES to wear for the party – so here are a few quick and easy ideas. Guess What?

To make a VAMPIRE costume, wear black trousers and

There’s a great recipe for home-made face paint at www.wobblebottom.com!

a white shirt, and use a length of red or black ribbon as a bow tie around the collar. Cut open a black plastic bin liner down one side, and loosely attach it around

your neck with more ribbon as a vampire’s cape. Slick your hair back with gel, and use white face paint to give your skin an unhealthy, pale glow. Finally, paint some sharp teeth below your bottom lip to complete the scary look!

Halloween Horrors / 55

If you want to be a WITCH, make your cape in the same way – but this time wear all black underneath. Colour your skin with green face paint, and press a couple of bits of breakfast cereal (such as Rice Krispies) against the paint before it dries to look like warts. Make a witch’s hat by rolling a sheet of black card into a cone shape, and holding it in place with tape. You can add stars cut from tin foil to make it look more mystical!

4. Ghoulish Grub! You’ll want to give your guests something to eat during the party, so why not try these ideas for FIENDISH FOOD? Start with BOILED EYEBALLS! Simply hard boil some eggs in a pan of water (always get an adult to help) and, when they’re cold, crack and remove the shells. Paint a scary looking pupil onto each egg with food colouring, and put

Tommy’s Tip Cover your food table with black crepe paper and tin foil stars!

them together in a bowl. Next, your guests can enjoy DRACULA’S DIP! Plain tortilla chips have the same shape as vampire’s teeth. Empty a packet into a bowl, and stick some scary looking paper fangs onto the front of the bowl to show what they are. You can provide a red salsa for everyone to dip their teeth into. Finally, present your guests with WORM SURPRISE! Fill bowls with a chocolate flavour dessert (such as Angel Delight), and add a few sweet worms, or short lengths of licorice to each serving. Yuk!

5. Heads Up! Here’s a great game to make for your Halloween Party – SKULL DUGGERY! Make four skulls by covering balloons with several layers of papier mâché, painting them white, then adding black eye and nose sockets, and some grinning teeth! While the skulls are drying, tape open the flaps to a large cardboard box, and


cover it in black crepe paper. Use wool to make a spider’s web over the opening of the box (you can carefully punch

Tommy’s Tip Make your papier

holes through the box to tie the ends in place). Make sure

mâché by mixing two

that none of the skulls will fit through the gaps in the web.

glasses of water with one glass of flour!

The aim of the game is for players to stand with their backs to the box and throw the skulls over their shoulders

to see how many they can get to land in the web. Remember to remove any breakables before you play!

6. On a Roll... A simple but exciting game from the crypt – I WANT MY MUMMY! Players find a partner, and each team is given a whole toilet roll. When the game starts, each team has two minutes to transform one of their pair into a ghastly mummy by covering them in toilet paper! You can wrap it round your partner’s arms and legs, down their body, and over their head. At the end of the game, the team with best-looking mummy wins!

WWW There are more ghastly games at the Boredom Busters web site. Send in a picture of your party in action!

Hold the Front Page!

These days, there are newspapers for every different part of life – home, sport, or business – but nothing for kids at school. Here’s your chance to change that by going to press with a paper for your class!

1. It’s a Scoop! The first thing you’ll need are STORIES – and lots of them. Ask around the school to find out what’s going on. Good newspaper editors are very nosey! Perhaps the football team is having a winning streak, or maybe there’s a school play coming up? If you manage to find an exclusive story that no one else knows about, it’s called a SCOOP! Find out as much information as you can about your stories. You can do this by reading school notice boards, or asking your teacher – but the best way is by arranging interviews. After all, who knows better about the subjects you’ll be covering than the people they involve? You could ask a player from the football team how many goals he’s scored this season, or the director of the school play whether the cast are looking forward to the opening night.


Arrange a time to meet for an interview (don’t be late),

Tommy’s Tip

and have a list of questions prepared in advance. There’s

If you have a tape

nothing less likely to root out juicy information than sitting

recorder, you can record the interview

with nothing to say!

and write the

Be sure to ask questions that require more than a ‘yes’

answers down later!

or ‘no’ answer, and write the answers down in a notepad to use later. If you have a lot of stories to cover, ask your friends to be reporters for the newspaper. The more people you have out there, the more scoops you’re likely to find!

2. Picture Perfect To accompany your stories, you’ll need PHOTOGRAPHS. Newspaper photographs show important parts of the story that would be difficult to tell with just words. If you have a camera, use it to take pictures that relate to the story. A good idea is to have both a reporter and a photographer at an interview, so one person doesn’t have to do everything themselves.

Tommy’s Tip If you haven’t got a camera, cut pictures from magazines instead!

Make the pictures as exciting as possible. If you were writing a story about the school football team, you could take photographs of the goalkeeper diving to save the ball - or if you’re covering the school play, capture a rehearsal in full swing. Ask permission before you take someone’s photograph, and remember to thank them afterwards.

3. The Write Stuff! Stories in newspapers are called ARTICLES, and it’s time to write yours. Good articles tell the facts of a story, and don’t allow the writer’s feelings on the subject to show through.

Hold the Front page / 59

If you have access to a computer, type your articles on it. Guess What? The average reading age of a tabloid newspaper is just 7 years old!

Keep the sentences simple, so that your readers can understand what the story is about as quickly as possible. Make sure that all the important facts are at the start of the article, in case you need to cut the end out to make it fit into your finished newspaper.

Be very careful not to say anything bad about anyone. Apart from the fact that it could hurt their feelings, in real newspapers people often take editors to court for writing things they claim are untrue. While you might not end up in court, it’s wise to avoid saying anything hurtful. Press day is getting closer!

4. I’m Filling Up! Newspapers don’t just contain news stories. There are horoscopes, jokes, reviews for TV shows, and much more. These are called FILLERS. Write as many fillers as you can to put in your newspaper. You could make up some hilarious horoscopes, such as ‘Sagittarius: Today you will meet a man with five legs - his trousers fit him like a glove!’ Tell your readers what you thought of a TV show this week, and write down a few jokes. If you find it hard to think of fillers, you can copy them out of old newspapers. The more fillers you give your readers, the more likely they will be to watch out for your next edition. They’re fun to read!

5. Putting It All Together Now it’s time to assemble your newspaper, ready for PRINTING. If you have access to a PC, you can do it in a word processing program. If not, simply cut the stories out, and stick them in place on a sheet of paper. First of all, think of a name for your newspaper, and create a MASTHEAD. Include the date and edition number too.


Below the masthead, insert your top story. Think of an eye-catching headline to go above it that will grab your readers’ attention, and make them want to know more. Type or stick your story in place, and add one of the pictures that you took earlier. If you include a quote from anyone (the actual words that they said), you have to put it on a new line, and enclose it in quotation marks. ‘Just like this,’ said Tommy. When you’ve put all your articles in place, and filled in any spaces with your fillers (that’s how they got their name), you should end up with three or four pages. You’re ready to go to print!

6. Hot Off The Press! PHOTOCOPY your newspaper and hand it out to your friends and family. While they’re reading it, you can start finding stories for

Guess What?

your next edition. You may even find that people will

For every 1.5 metre thick pile of newspapers that is recycled, a 12 metre high tree is saved!

contact you with ideas once they see how good the finished product is – everyone loves to see their name in print! Don’t forget to RECYCLE any copies of your newspaper

that people have finished with. You could even ask your friends to bring old newspapers from home to add to the recycling pile!

WWW Why not send a copy of your paper to the Boredom Busters web site and reach even more readers? There are some great fillers you can use for your next edition there, too!

Hot on the Trail

Get to the heart of an important matter as you research, write, and film your own 10-minute documentary!

1. Subject Matter Every documentary has a SUBJECT – a topic that your viewers will be interested in. You could choose yours by looking at your own daily routine. You get up in the morning and have breakfast – maybe you could make a documentary on what different people have for breakfast. You go to school – how about a 10-minute

Guess What? Documentaries are very powerful things. They can help prosecute criminals and get innocent people released from jail.

look at what your headteacher’s day is like? Whatever you choose, it should be something that your audience – your friends and family – would like to learn more about. When you have chosen a subject, you need to do some RESEARCH. Researching a subject simply means that you discover as much as you can about it. For example, if you were researching your headteacher’s day, you could find out what time he or she arrives at school. Do they leave later than the pupils


when classes are finished? How many meetings with the other teachers do they have each day? Write down all your research in a notepad – you’ll need to refer back to it when you are writing your script.

2. Question Time The best way to research your subject is to INTERVIEW people. By asking them questions, and making note of their answers, you can learn a lot about your chosen topic. You could arrange to interview your headteacher to ask Tommy’s Tip Always ask for permission before you record someone’s voice.

about their day. But don’t stop there, interview some of your fellow pupils and teachers to ask for their opinions on what a headteacher really does. How do they think someone gets to be a headteacher? Is it a job they would want to do themselves?

Whoever you interview, you should always arrange a time to meet them, and don’t be late – they’re doing you a favour by answering your questions. Write their answers down in your notepad, or you could take along a cassette deck, record the interview, and write their comments down later. You might be surprised by what you hear.

3. Video Diary Now it’s time to FILM your documentary. Ask one of your friends to operate the video camera while you DIRECT the action. In the headteacher example, you could film your headteacher arriving in the morning, and entering their office. Perhaps you could be allowed to film a short portion of the teachers’ staff meeting to see how the day’s classes

Tommy’s Tip Use an external, plug-in microphone on the camera if you can. They give better sound quality.

hot on the Trail / 63

and events are planned. As with interviews, always ask for people’s permission before you film them. While your friend is filming, you can add a VOICEOVER to the documentary. That means you talk about what is happening, and explain it to the viewers who will be watching. Try not just to describe what is going on, but give extra details that the image on the screen doesn’t show. For example, if you’re showing a meeting in the staff room, give a few details on what the meeting is about, and why it is important.

4. The Write Stuff! When you have completed your video footage, you can write the SCRIPT for your documentary. The script will show you the order in which events in your film will happen. Watch all the video you have shot in one go. Make notes in your pad as to which scenes are the most interesting. Now, put those scenes in order. Remember to check that everything happens in the script

Tommy’s Tip Ask a friend to watch the scenes in order with you, to see if they can follow what’s going on.

as it does in real life – you can’t show your headteacher having lunch in one scene, then have them arriving for work in the next! When you’ve finished your script, use the rewind and fast forward controls on your video camera to watch your scenes in the order of the script. Does the documentary make sense? If not, go back to the script and correct it.

5. The Big Edit Time to EDIT your footage, and arrange your scenes in the right order. Plug your video camera into a video recorder, and follow the instructions in the manual to tune the video into the camera. Ask an adult to help if necessary. Put a blank video cassette into the video.


Following your script, fast forward to the start of the first scene. Press record on the video, and play on the tape. The scene will be recorded onto the cassette. At the end of the scene, press stop on the video, then move the camera on to the next scene. Repeat this process for each of your scenes until the documentary is complete. Unless you make a mistake, avoid the temptation to rewind and watch what you have recorded onto the cassette – it’s very tricky to line the scene changes up again. Editing is a painstaking process and, in professional television, is undertaken by highly qualified people. So don’t worry if your video jumps a little in between the scenes – everyone should be too interested in your subject to worry about a few blips on the screen! When you have finished editing, make a copy of your video cassette if you can, and press in the tab to avoid anyone accidentally recording over it. Decorate the video cassette box with the title of your documentary, and the names of everyone who worked on it.

6. On The Box Finally, you can show your documentary to your friends and family. It’s also polite to invite the people in the documentary to watch it too – they should enjoy seeing themselves on TV! Dim the lights and play your tape. Allow your audience to watch the entire documentary, then ask if they have any questions. If there was something they didn’t understand, you may have to go back and re-edit part of your video. Congratulations! You’re now a documentary film-maker!

WWW If you can capture video to your computer, send a one minute clip of your documentary to [email protected] for others to see.

How to Train Your Teacher!

Ever felt that your teacher works you too hard? Use these tips for stress-free schooling!

1. Hey, Teacher... It may seem a little odd to have a chapter about SCHOOL in an activity book – but this section is filled with hints and tips that will give you the free time to try out the other projects in this book! The information you’re about to learn is very powerful! Use it wisely...

2. Class Action If you’ve ever sat in CLASS, dreading the moment when your teacher asks you a question – here are a few ways of dealing with it: ALWAYS PUT YOUR HAND UP – even if you’re not sure of the answer! That may sound stupid, but if there’s one thing that teachers like more than someone who knows the answer, it’s someone who doesn’t, and is prepared to have a go!


GO TO THE LIBRARY. Get a text book on the subject you’re learning about, and leave it open on your desk. Not only will this impress your teacher as you’ve made the effort to find out more, but you’ll also have the answers to every question, right at your fingertips! DO SOMETHING EXTRA. OK, so doing more work than you’ve been asked to may require a little effort – but the rewards are worth it! If, for example, you’re learning about your home town, spend five minutes tracing a map of your local area, and naming the streets. Watch your teacher’s face light up when they see it – and watch your marks improve as a result!

3. Homework Horrors Everybody hates HOMEWORK! I’m sitting at home writing this, when I’d rather be out visiting friends or going to the cinema! However, there are ways to make your after school assignments a little more enjoyable. These techniques have been tried and tested, so give them a go for a week, and see if they work for you. DO YOUR HOMEWORK AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME. I know, I know! The last thing you want to do is carry on working when you’d rather open this book and get on with another exciting project, but if you get it over with as soon as possible, you can have the rest of your evening to yourself, and don’t have that essay hanging over you all night. The same goes for homework that doesn’t have to be in for a few days. Do it on the day you get it, and then relax as your friends hurry to finish it the night before it’s due! HAVE AN OPINION. If you have a long essay to write, and can’t think of enough information to fill it out – Tommy’s Tip

include your opinion on the subject. So, if you’re writing

Doing your homework early stops your parents asking about it, too!

about the Battle of Waterloo, say why you think it was a mistake for Napoleon to position his troops where he did. It won’t only fill up extra space – your teacher will be

How to train Your Teacher / 67

impressed that you’re interested enough in the subject to say what you think, rather than just list facts and figures!

4. Testing Times Another unpopular part of school are TESTS and EXAMS. There’s nothing worse than having to remember everything you have learned, and use it to answer questions. But, again, there are some useful tips to help you get through them. ASK FOR MORE! Yes, you read that right, ask for more tests! In particular, ask your teacher for some copies of old tests to practise on. This technique works in lots of ways. First, your teacher is convinced that you really like the subject. Second, you get an idea of how the test will look – how many questions, etc. Third, and most importantly, tests are recycled! Chances are, you’ll get one or two questions during the test that you’ve already done on the old exams! ONE PAGE WONDER. This is a great trick that I used to get through my school exams – it really works! Take a sheet of paper for each subject and write, in tiny writing, everything you have learned about it so far. You don’t need to go into detail, just go through your text book

Guess What? Writing facts down again also helps you to recall them on the big day!

and make basic notes. Draw a line around each topic to separate it from the next and, when the sheet is finished, revise for your test from that. Provided you haven’t missed anything out, you’ll have all the important information right in front of you, saving you loads of time flicking backwards and forwards through your books!

5. Web Wise There are some great sites on the INTERNET that are packed with just about every bit of information you’ll ever need to finish your homework, or revise for a test. Check some of these out, and make your education easier!


HOMEWORK ELEPHANT – www.homeworkelephant.co.uk Packed with information you can search, subject by subject, more homework hints and tips, and even help for times when you’re worried about your schoolwork. ATKIDZ.COM – www.atkidz.com A great site that not only has homework help, but also online games, cheats, and you can even sign up for your own e-mail address! USELESS KNOWLEDGE – www.uselessknowledge.com My favourite! Trivia, facts and info on just about any subject imaginable! Add some of this to your homework, and watch the reaction!

6. Works on Parents, Too! Of course, the tips in this chapter aren’t only for use on teachers – try these out on adults at HOME! LEAVE SCHOOLBOOKS OPEN EVERYWHERE! Not only will they think you’re hard at work all the time, but you’re not likely to be asked to do the washing up if you have homework to get on with! ASK TRICKY QUESTIONS. After a few questions that they don’t know they answers to, they’ll leave you to get on with your work at your own pace!

WWW If you have a tip for getting the most out of your teacher, send it to [email protected]!

Knights of the Round Table

Join King Arthur at Camelot for adventure as you become one of his trusted knights!

1. Knight Names KING ARTHUR and the KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE are legendary figures in British history. No one is really certain whether they actually exisited or not. It was a great honour to be a Knight of the Round Table. You were charged with quests (special jobs), and had to travel the land keeping law and order in the name of the King. Now it’s your chance to take your seat at the Round Table, and become a brave knight yourself! Some famous knights were Sir Lancelot, Sir Bedivere and Sir Gawaine. See if you can create a

Guess What?

name for your knight. It needs to sound brave, old

There is a web site that explains more about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table at www.kingarthursknights.com

fashioned and mysterious. Maybe you could think of a version of your own name?


2. Fly The Flag A knight was also known by his BANNER. Each knight had a different banner that flew whenever they were on a quest. Many of them had symbols on that gave clues as to the knight’s character. For example, Sir Lancelot’s banner had three lions on it – meaning he was very brave and fierce in battle. Sir Bedivere had a sword on his banner, as he was a great swordsman. Design a banner for your knight on a sheet of paper. Keep the symbols and colours simple – the banner must be easy to recognise from far away. When you’ve completed your design, tape several sheets of paper together, and copy your design onto them. Colour your banner in, and hang it on your wall to mark your kingdom!

3. Suits You, Sir... Every knight had a SUIT OF ARMOUR to wear into battle. These were made of metal and, although they protected the knight from injury, they were incredibly heavy. Some knights even gave their horses suits of armour, too! Your armour will be a lot lighter to wear, as it will be made from card and tin foil! Start by wrapping a sheet of thin card around your chest, and taping it in place. Now cut lengths that will wrap around your arms and legs, and tape those in place. Now, carefully remove the tape, and lay the pieces of card flat on the table. Glue tin foil to the outside of the card, and leave them to dry. To cover your hands and feet, simply wrap a pair of gloves and pair of shoes in tin foil, and tape it in place. For your armour helmet, cover a baseball cap in foil and wear it backwards. You can make a visor for the helmet by cutting a slotted mask from card, sticking foil to it, and tying it around your head with string. Ask a friend to help you get into your armour. Real knights had servants especially for this task!

Knights of the Round table / 71

4. Wield Your Weapon King Arthur had a very special SWORD called EXCALIBUR, which was given to him by the Lady Of The Lake. It was said to be the most beautiful and powerful sword in the land. To make your sword, cut a blade shape from a piece of stiff card, and cover it in foil. It’s best to measure the length of the blade against your leg – it should be shorter than the distance between your hip and your ankle. For the handle, cut two cross shapes from stiff card, and glue them together, with the end of the blade between. Round off the points of the cross, and paint the handle gold. Excalibur had jewels embedded in its handle, so why not stick sequins, or coloured sweet wrappers to yours to create jewels of your own? You now have your very own Excalibur!

Tommy’s Tip While your sword is only made from card, it can still hurt – never hit anyone with it!

5. On Horseback Every night had a HORSE to ride into battle. Yours will be easy to make, and won’t leave any mess behind! You’ll need a cardboard box which you can step inside whilst wearing your armour. Fold the top and bottom flaps inside the box, and tape them in place to strengthen it. Now, attach two lengths of string – one to either side – and hang the box over your shoulders. You now have your horse! Paint the horse brown, and stick a copy of your banner

Guess What?

on either side, as real knights did. You could even cut a

This is exactly the same way you created a racing car in Funny Formula One!

horse’s head shape from card to stick to the front, and make a tail from wool for the back to complete your trusty steed!


6. Joust A Minute! Another reason knights had horses was for JOUSTING TOURNAMENTS! This was when competitors tried to knock each other off their horses as they rode past to win great prizes – sometimes they got to marry the Princess! Our jousting will be a lot safer (and you won’t have to marry anyone at the end, either!). You’ll need a dry day outside, a bamboo cane, a few balloons and a pin. Stick the bamboo cane into the ground at the far end of the garden or park, and tie an inflated balloon to the top of it with string. The balloon may blow around in the wind, but that just makes the game more of a challenge. Tape a pin to the end of your sword – being very careful not to hurt yourself, or anyone else with it! Now, all you have to do is dress in your armour, mount your horse, and take turns in charging towards the balloon. As you ride past it, strike out with your sword, and see if you can burst it. You only get one chance per joust! The first person to burst the balloon wins the game. Then, blow up another balloon, and play again! Bravo, Sir Knight!

WWW There are some great banner designs for you to print off and use on the Boredom Busters web site – and send pictures of your jousting tournament to [email protected]!

Let’s do the Show Right Here!

Tread the boards as you write, direct and star in your own 15-minute play! Not only will it be great fun, but it could be the beginning of an exciting career – this is exactly how I started out as an actor!

1. Something To Say, and Someone To Say It! People who appear in a play are called the CAST – you can ask your friends to be part of yours. Some of them might not want to appear on stage, but they can still be involved by making costumes and scenery (working back stage), or handing out tickets and programmes (front of house). As well as a cast, a play also needs a SCRIPT – the more exciting the better! You could write about deep sea divers, searching for treasure, or space adventurers, landing on a strange world. Whatever you choose, write down the story so that you don’t forget it. Create characters for the story. You’ll need a hero (the good guy - or girl), a baddie, and a part for every other actor in your cast. If there are only a few of you, you could double up and play a few roles each. Take a sheet of paper, and write your script, setting it out like this:


SCENE 1. SPACE SHIP CAPTAIN:

Snotty, take us in to land.

SNOTTY:

Aye Aye, Captain.

Suddenly, the doors open, and an alien enters. ALIEN:

You can’t park here! That’s my carrot patch!

Write about 15 pages, and add some jokes to get the audience laughing. Make a copy of the script for everyone in the cast telling them which part (or parts) they’ll be playing. Now they can start learning their lines!

2. Setting the Scene SCENERY is the background in front of which you perform your play. It shows the audience where the action takes place. On a sheet of paper, design the picture you want to use, and colour it in. To make the scenery, lay out 30 sheets of paper – six across and five down – and tape them together. Copy your design onto the back of the paper so that it fills the whole sheet, and paint it. When it’s dry, you can fold it up until it’s time for the play. Any items that you use in the play, like binoculars or moon rocks, are called PROPS. You can make props from just about anything. Glue two cardboard tubes together and paint them black for binoculars. Moon rocks can be made by screwing up sheets of newspaper, and covering them with tin foil. Make any props that you will need for your production, and then store them away. It might be a good idea to make some extra props in case they break or get lost. Your production is coming together!

3. I Haven’t Got a Thing to Wear! COSTUMES are not only useful so that everyone has something to wear – they also show the audience who a character is, even before they speak. You

Let’s do the Show Right Here / 75

can easily make costumes by using your own clothes, Tommy’s Tip

and adding a few extras.

Get permission before you raid

You could create a space suit by wearing a white shirt and trousers, and painting a cereal box white to hang on your

anyone’s wardrobe for costumes!

back with lengths of string as an oxygen pack. To look like a deep sea diver, wear a black jumper and trousers, and paint two large lemonade bottle to look like oxygen tanks. You could use a big pair of sunglasses as goggles, too! Get each person in your cast to make their own costumes and show you how they look. Each costume should be different so that the audience doesn’t get confused and mix the characters up – unless you want them to!

4. Have a Go! Time for a REHEARSAL, where the cast get together to practise the play. You don’t need costumes or scenery for this, but you should use your props, so that you get used to handling them. Run through the script a couple of times, so that you can

Tommy’s Tip

decide where everyone stands to say their lines, and comes

Ask everyone to learn extra part, in case someone has to drop out at the last minute!

on and off the stage. You can also tell the other actors how you want them to perform. This is called DIRECTING. Remember to be nice - countless plays have been ruined by arguments between actors and directors!

Things will go wrong during the run through, but don’t worry - that’s exactly what rehearsals are for! The more you practise, the better you’ll get. Anyone not on stage can make TICKETS to hand out. Cut sheets of paper into squares and, on each piece, write the name of the play, and the date and time it will be performed.


5. Once More with Feeling Another rehearsal, this time wearing your costumes, and with the scenery pinned up on the wall behind you. This is called a DRESS REHEARSAL. This time, rehearse without using your scripts, and see if Guess What?

you can remember your lines. If someone forgets their

There’s an old theatre saying:

words – keep going! You’ll need to do that when you

‘Bad dress rehearsal, good opening night’ – so it’s good luck if things go wrong!

perform for the audience. Your front of house friends can now make PROGRAMMES to tell people about the play. On a sheet of paper, write the name of the play, and a list of everyone who’s in it. Copy enough to hand out to the audience.

6. On with the Show! Guess What? Instead of saying ‘Good luck’, actors say ‘Break a leg’. This is because if an actor really does break a leg, his understudy (the person who has learned the part in case the actor can’t do it) gets their big chance.

The BIG DAY! Pin your scenery onto the wall, and arrange chairs in front of it (or your audience could sit on the floor.) The front of house staff can collect tickets, and hand out programmes. When the play starts, keep going even if things don’t go right – just like you did in the dress rehearsal. It might feel scary with the audience laughing and clapping, but it means they’re having fun! At the end of the play, take a bow – and you might even have to sign a few autographs!

WWW On the Boredom Busters web site you’ll find a script for a 15-minute play – and don’t forget to send in pictures of your show in action!

Lost in Space

Explore the universe without leaving home as you discover stars, planets and maybe more...

1. The Sky At Night STARS are huge balls of burning gas and, although there are billions of them, there are some that you can easily recognise from here on Earth. Some groups of stars form shapes called CONSTELLATIONS, and they’re the best ones to look for. Different constellations are visible at different times of the year, so you need to know which you can see on a clear night right now. The best way to do this is to visit the superb web site at www.stargazers.freeserve.co.uk and click on the ‘Stars’ link. There you’ll find loads of information, and a chart telling you which constellations you can see from your window! Draw a star chart showing the constellations you spot on the next clear night.

Guess What? The Sun is the closest star to Earth – just 93 million miles away!


2. Planetarium! Of course, stars aren’t the only things in the night sky, there are PLANETS, too! The Earth is one of nine planets that revolve around the Sun in a group called the SOLAR SYSTEM – and you can make a model of it to hang from your bedroom ceiling. The first thing you need to make is the SUN. Do this by blowing up a large balloon and covering it in layers of papier mâché. Make your mix by adding two glasses of water to one glass of flour in a bowl. Then tear off strips of newspaper, dip them in the mix, and lay them over the balloon. Allow the balloon to dry, then add three more layers. Paint your Sun yellow, and hang it in the centre of your ceiling with a length of cotton. Now you can make your planets in the same way, and hang them around your sun as though they are travelling in their ORBITS (big circles). They won’t be exactly to scale, but you’ll get an idea of their size if you make them like this: Mercury – 4cm across. Paint it an orange colour. Venus – 6cm across. Yellow. Earth – 6cm across. Green and blue! Mars – 4cm across. Bright red. Jupiter – 16cm across. Brown and yellow blobs. Saturn – 14cm across. Brown with a yellow ring around it. Uranus – 10cm across. A blue/green colour. Neptune – 10cm across. A blue planet. Pluto – 2cm across. Grey in colour. Your solar system should cover your entire ceiling – and you could cut stars from foil to stick in between the planets!

3. Walking on the Moon! The very first man to walk on the MOON was Neil Armstrong in 1969.

Lost in Space / 79

He soon discovered that the GRAVITY on the Moon isn’t as strong as on the Earth. This means that there isn’t as much pressure holding you on the ground, and that simple things like walking and running are hard to do!

Guess What? The second man on the Moon was Buzz Aldrin!

See if you can mimic what it is like to walk on the Moon. Take long, slow steps – almost as though you’re moving in a slow motion replay! You could even make a space suit to do it in by wearing a white shirt and trousers, and painting a cereal box white to tie onto your back with string. Make a flag to stick in the ground, too – and claim the Moon in your name!

4. Alien Attack! Some people believe that the Earth is not the only planet with life. They think that ALIENS live somewhere out in space! Despite what action films like to show, if aliens exist they are almost certainly not planning to take over our world! However, many people have seen strange shapes in the sky, called UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). Could they be aliens visiting Earth? If an alien did come to Earth, what would it look like? Would it have arms and legs? A large or small head? What colour would it be? Get together with your friends and, without showing each other, draw how you imagine an alien to look and colour it in. When you’ve finished, swap papers and see how they compare. Wouldn’t it be weird if they all looked the same?

5. Out in the Field Every now and again, strange shapes appear in fields of wheat and corn, called CROP CIRCLES. Some people think they are nothing but a trick, but others believe they are marks left by visiting aliens! To see some crop circles, visit www.artbell.com.circles.html


Whoever makes them, crop circles are created by flattening down the crops, leaving a shape behind – and you can make one of your own! To start, you’ll need a field, and your crop will be cress! Take the lid of an old shoe box, and cover the area inside the lid with kitchen film. Over this lay a layer of cotton wool, and dampen it with water. Sprinkle a packet of cress seeds over the cotton wool, and place the lid on a bright window sill. Keep the wool damp and, soon, you’ll have a ‘field’ of cress. Using glasses, bottle tops, and anything else you can find, make a symmetrical pattern by flattening areas of the cress. Take a photo of your crop circle, and send it to [email protected] for our gallery!

6. Is There Anybody There? Could YOU be the one to discover real ALIENS? SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) need help to decode the data they collect from space, and they’ve come up with a way of getting millions of computer users to help. They’ve invented a screensaver that processes chunks of data on home PCs, and sends it back to their lab. They’re looking for radio signals that may have come from other worlds and your computer could be the one to find it! Go to http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ and click on ‘Download SETI@home’. Follow the instructions to set up the screensaver, and join the race to find alien life!

WWW Check out the great space links at the Boredom Busters web site!

Make a Volcano

Volcanoes are holes in the Earth’s crust caused by red hot molten rock – called magma – forcing its way up to the surface. Now you can cause an eruption at home with this table-top volcano!

1. Got the Bottle? When magma bursts through the surface it becomes LAVA which cools and forms a cone-shaped crater. Some volcanoes remain ‘active’ meaning they could erupt, sending more scorching hot rock and ash into the air – and that’s what you’ll make in this fascinating project! The first thing you need is a 50cl plastic WATER BOTTLE. Wash the bottle thoroughly, and make sure it is completely dry inside. Now, use a large plate to mark a circle on a piece of sturdy card (the side of a cardboard box is ideal) and cut it out. Paint the card a dark grey colour, and leave it to dry. To paint the bottle, you’ll need to cover it in a coat of PVA glue first. This helps the paint stick to the surface. When both the card and bottle are dry, glue the bottom of the bottle to the centre of the card. Stage one of your volcano is now complete!

Guess What? The largest known volcano is on Mars and is three times taller than Mount Everest!


2. Adding Shape You can now make the SHAPE of your volcano. For this you’ll need a piece of thinner card that is wider than the height of your bottle. Guess What?

Roll the card into a cone, and hold this shape in place with

The Italian city of

sticky tape. The bottom of the cone should be a few

Pompeii was covered in a 10 metre thick layer of hot mud when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD!

centimetres smaller than the circle of card onto which you’ve glued your bottle. Carefully use scissors to cut a series of 2cm long slots every 6cm around the base of the cone. Fold the flaps in between these slots upwards so that they lie flat when you sit the cone on the table.

Lower the cone over the bottle. The flaps should fit neatly within the edge of the card circle. Use tape to stick the flaps to the card, and hold the cone in place. Now, squeeze your fingers around the top of the cone, and work your way down until you find the mouth of the bottle. Cut the point of the cone off, leaving it open at the same height as the bottle. Use modelling clay to fill and seal the gap between the bottle and the card.

3. Papier Mâché To cover the volcano, and give it some texture, you’re going to use PAPIER MÂCHÉ. To make the mix, pour one glass filled with flour, and two glasses filled with water into a bowl. Use a spoon to stir the mixture until it becomes sticky. Add extra water or flour until it feels like glue. Add a tablespoon of salt to the mix – this will stop it from going mouldy. Now take as many sheets of newspaper as you can find, and tear off strips around 10cm long, and 3cm wide. Dip the strips into the mix , and press them around the sides of the cone. Don’t make it neat – you want a rough, rocky texture.

make a Volcano / 83

Remember not to cover the opening at the top of the bottle – but you can go over the modelling clay around it. When you have finished the first layer, leave the volcano aside to dry.

4. Getting Boulder! Add another layer of papier mâché. This time, create some ROCKS and BOULDERS on the surface by rolling up bits of newspaper, and sticking them to the side of the cone, before laying more papier mâché over the top. In all, add four layers of papier mâché, leaving the volcano to dry between each layer. Screw up some green tissue paper, and stick it around the card around the bottom of the volcano to look like bushes and shrubs. Paint some tiny pebbles black, and glue them among the bushes to look like giant rocks that have fallen down the side of the mountain. You can even make little cardboard houses to sit at the foot of the slope – some people actually like living near a dangerous volcano!

5. Paint and Seal Use poster paints in black and grey to PAINT the sides of the volcano. Again, don’t worry about being neat as you need a rough appearance. Allow the paint to dry, then add another coat. To give the appearance of bubbling lava flowing from the mouth of the volcano (the name for the hole at the top), stick on some more papier mâché and paint it red when it’s dry. Finally, seal your volcano. You can do this in two ways – either by asking an adult to help you give it a coat of clear varnish, or by covering it in a layer of PVA glue. Leave your volcano to dry completely.

Tommy’s Tip When using varnish, always open a window nearby!


6. Time To Erupt! Now comes the fun part! Your volcano is about to Guess What?

ERUPT!

Lava erupts at a

Roll a sheet of paper into a funnel shape, and stick it into

temperature of over 1,000° Celcius!

the top of the bottle. Pour two tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda (sometimes called baking soda) into the paper funnel, and down inside the bottle. Now remove the funnel, and drip in a few drops of red food colouring. Cover a work surface with newspaper – and have a handful of kitchen towels at the ready. This is going to get

Tommy’s Tip Try adding other ingredients to your bicarbonate of soda, such as a tablespoon of flour, or a squirt of washing-up liquid.

messy! Fill a measuring jug with 200ml of vinegar, pour it inside the volcano, and stand back! The vinegar reacts with the bicarbonate of soda, causing it to bubble up and out of the bottle. It will hiss and bubble down the sides of your volcano like molten lava! When the volcano starts to die down, pour in more vinegar until the earth shattering explosions have finally finished. Wipe down the volcano with a damp cloth, and let it sleep – until it’s ready to erupt once more!

WWW Check out the explosive volcano links on the Boredom Busters web site!

The Monster Olympics

Every year, monsters get together to compete in gruesome games and scary sports. Pull on your furry feet and join in!

1. Beastie Boys... You may not know it, but MONSTERS are competitive beasts. They like nothing more than taking part in their favourite scream-filled sports – and get together every year for THE MONSTER OLYMPICS. Of course, the monsters are you and your friends! You’ll make costumes and play the games– a fantastic way to spend a sunny day in the garden. Each of your friends should bring with them as many empty boxes, toilet roll tubes, bits of fabric and sticky tape as they can – anything that will help make a monster outfit.


2. Dress to Impress Time for everybody to pile their materials in the centre of the garden to make COSTUMES. Spend a while searching through the pile of boxes, tubes and cloth, etc. Then, dive in and start to CREATE. You can make your monster costume in any way you like, but here are a few ideas to get you going: ◆

FEET. Cut holes in two cereal boxes to make monster feet. Slip your own feet inside, and secure the boxes in place with string. You could even stick on some furry material if you have some to make them look real!

◆

MONSTER MASKS. Cut holes in a paper plate for your eyes and mouth, and draw a horrible looking face. You can tie the mask to your face with string, and add some horrendous hair with lengths of wool.

◆

HANDS. Why not cover an old pair of rubber washing up gloves with material to create some fiendish fingers? You could draw long claws on the front of the gloves to make them look scarier!

Don’t stop there. You could make extra arms, legs, humps, tails – anything you can imagine! Keep going until everyone is dressed looking monstrous! Give yourself a scary sounding name for the afternoon, then it’s on with the games!

3. Running Wild! Time for the first event – the ROTTEN RELAY! Tommy’s Tip Split everyone into two teams, and give each side a bone made from a long tube with screwed up paper stuck to the ends. This will be each team’s BATON.

Although it looks funny – remember to be careful. Don’t get hurrt!

At the start whistle, the first monster from each team must run towards a marker at the other end of the garden, around it, and back

the Monster Olympics / 87

again to pass the bone on to the next player. Of course, running in monster feet isn’t easy – so the game will look hilarious! Should a monster drop their bone at any time, they must go back, pick it up, and carry on from that point. The first team to have all their monsters run around the course are the winners!

4. The Monster Match! The two monster teams now take their places for a ten minute FOOTBALL MATCH! Use an old football, and draw a face on it with a marker pen. Glue some wool on for hair, and it will look like your monsters are playing the game with a human head! Yuk! Stick two bamboo canes into the ground at each end of

Guess What? The first Olympic Games took place in the year 776BC!

your pitch as goalposts – and select your largest monster to be the keeper. The other team members should position themselves around the pitch, ready to play. When the game starts, each team has to score as many goals as they can – but be careful of those huge feet swinging around. Any fouls result in a penalty for the other team! After five minutes, stop for a half time rest, then play the second half to decide the game. The team that scores the most goals are the winners. For added fun, you could think up some silly names for your two teams. How about ‘Monst-chester United against Rottenham Hotspur’?

5. Cute Gets the Boot The next event may be upsetting for those of you who have cuddly toys – it’s the TEDDY TOSS! The game works exactly as it sounds. Monsters take it in turns to throw a cute, innocent teddy bear as far as they can. The monster that throws it the furthest is the winner!


Tommy’s Tip To make the game

Of course, no one wants to volunteer their favourite teddy for this game, so why not pay a visit to your local

more gruesome, why

charity shop to buy a toy to use (remember to take your

not sit other toys along the course as

costumes off first – you might scare the staff!).

targets! 10 points if you hit one!

When you have a terrified teddy, mark a line to throw from on the ground, and step up to it one at a time to throw. Be careful you don’t step over the line during your

turn, or you will be disqualified! Throw the teddy as far as you can and, wherever it lands, place a piece of paper with your name on, and hold it down with a stone. No cheating here – the other monsters saw where it landed! The monster with the furthest throw is obviously the one who dislikes the cute toy the most, and wins the event!

6. The Big Bang! The final event is just silly – POP DROP! Quite simply, each monster blows up ten balloons, and places them on the ground around them. At the start of the game they have to sit on each of their balloons in turn, and burst them. The first monster to burst all their balloons is the winner. Monsters are not allowed to stamp on the balloons, or squeeze them with their hands – all bursting must be done by bouncing on them with your bottom! If it’s a windy day, the game becomes even more interesting, and each monster will have to chase their balloons around the garden. It might be a good idea to write your monster name on your balloons with a marker pen to avoid accidentally bursting someone else’s!

WWW There are even more monstrous events on the Boredom Busters web site! Send some pics of your events to [email protected]

Now You’re Cookin’

Everyone loves to sit down to their favourite meal – but did you know it’s just as much fun to cook one? Prepare this three course feast for your friends and family – then they can wash the dishes for you!

1. If You Can’t Stand the Heat... Every chef has his or her own way of working, but one thing they all agree on is that you need a clean, tidy KITCHEN in order to prepare a meal. The first thing to do is wash all the work surfaces in warm, soapy water. This will kill any germs, and make your food safer to eat. Next, wash all the cooking utensils you will use, such as spoons and bowls. Always ask an adult to wash any knives. Finally, if you have an apron, put it on to protect your clothes. If you don’t have one, wear an old t-shirt over your clothes – then you can get as messy as you like!


2. In The Dragon’s Lair! The first stage of the meal is the STARTER, and for this you’ll be serving your guests a DRAGON’S EYEBALL! To start, you’ll need half a grapefruit for each person. Ask Guess What? Grapefruit got their name because they grow in clusters, like grapes!

an adult to slice the fruit in half with a sharp knife for you, and lay each half face up on a small plate. Next, you’ll need a few sheets of rice paper – this is a type of thin wafer that is perfectly safe to eat. Cut oval shapes from the rice paper and place one on each

grapefruit half as the whites of the dragon’s eyes! Finally, cut a few red glacé cherries in half, and place each one in the centre of a sheet of rice paper. To make the eye look more authentic, dip a cocktail stick in a bottle of red food colouring, and use it to draw blood red veins across the white rice paper. Gruesome! Place your eyeballs in the fridge to keep them cool until it’s time to serve.

3. Dish Of The Day For the MAIN COURSE, you’ll be making a bowl of ATOMIC SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS for your guests! The great news is – it’s quick and very easy to prepare! To start, cook enough spaghetti for everyone – you’ll need around 100g for each person. Ask an adult to boil some water in a pan (1 litre of water per 100g of spaghetti). To make your spaghetti look atomic – add a few drops of blue food colouring to the water as it comes to the boil. This will Tommy’s Tip Check the cooking instructions on your packet of spaghetti in case it differs!

colour the spaghetti as it cooks, and make it look as though it’s glowing eerily! Add the spaghetti to the coloured water, and let it boil for approximately 3 minutes. Now you can make your ELECTRONS and NEUTRONS

Now You’re Cookin’ / 91

(parts of an atom if you want to get scientific) out of meatballs! Simply empty a can of meatballs into a non-metal bowl, cover with a plate, and cook on full power in a microwave for around 3-4 minutes. Simple! When cooked, drain the water from the blue spaghetti, and put it onto a large bowl. Arrange your meatballs on top and, for the centre of the atom (the NUCLEUS), simply place the largest mushroom you can find in the middle! Heat some pasta sauce to cover your atomic pasta, and serve to your guests immediately!

4. Jelly Belly! You can prepare your DESSERT earlier in the day, and keep it in the fridge until the main course is over. You’ll be making JELLY BABY JELLY! To make the jelly, it’s better to use jelly crystals than the type that comes in solid blocks. Mix the crystals with boiling water in a large bowl or mould as specified on the packet (again, always get an adult to help with this), and place it in the fridge to set.

Guess What? You can make fizzy jelly by replacing some of the water with a can of lemonade!

Keep an eye on the jelly and, before it hardens completely, push a handful of jelly babies, one at a time, into the bowl. The jelly will set around them, trapping them in the dessert! Leave your jelly baby jelly to set completely, and serve as the final course of your meal.

5. Colourful & Cool! Of course, your guests will need something to drink with their meals – so try this idea for ice-cold RAINBOW-ADE! Fill an ice cube tray with water, and add a drop of food colouring to each of the compartments. If you have more

Tommy’s Tip To make the drink even more refreshing – cool the glasses in the fridge before you fill them!


than one colour – make a few of each shade. Put the tray in the freezer compartment of the fridge so that the cubes can set. At your meal, simply fill glasses with lemonade, and add one of the ice cubes to each drink. As the ice melts, it will slowly change the colour of the lemonade, creating a whole rainbow of colours across the table! Try putting two different coloured ice cubes into the same glass, and see what happens!

6. At Your Service! Your meal is cooked – time to SERVE! If you’ve ever been asked to set the table at home – you know how boring a job it can be, so why not liven things up by giving your table a colourful theme to match your food? Use a different colour paper napkin for each place setting, and you can make rainbow table mats and coasters by cutting out squares of card, painting them, and covering each square in a layer of kitchen film to protect them from spillages. Why not use a different colour plate for each guest, and tie their cutlery together with brightly coloured ribbon to finish the effect? When your guests are seated, start by serving your dragon’s eyeballs and glasses of rainbow-ade. Next, let them enjoy your atomic spaghetti and meatballs, and finish off with a serving of jelly baby jelly for each person. Delicious!

WWW If you have a favourite recipe, send it to [email protected] for others to try!

Oh, What a Circus!

Invite your friends to join you in under the big top for your very own circus!

1. Big Top Bonanza The CIRCUS is in town! But before anyone can perform, you need to put up the BIG TOP – the name circus people give to their colourful tent. To make your big top, you’ll need six rolls of crepe paper, some drawing pins, and help from an adult. Unroll the crepe paper, and ask an adult to pin one end of each roll to the centre of the ceiling, and the other end of each roll out towards the walls of the room – so that

Guess What? It took 175 people to set up the big top for Banum and Bailey’s Circus – the most famous circus ever!

the lengths of crepe paper form a star shape. Don’t pull the crepe paper tight – it should droop in the middle, and look like the roof of a circus tent! On the floor below, use string to mark out a large circle – this is the circus ring where your various acts will perform.


2. Horsing Around Circuses often start with an appearance by trained HORSES. Riders perform stunts, including jumping on and off the horses, and even riding while standing up!

Tommy’s Tip Never try to actually ‘ride’ the horse – you could hurt your back and miss the show!

To have horses in your circus, simply cut the shape of a horse’s head from a piece of card, and paint it white. When the paint is dry, stick lengths of string or white wool to the head to make the horse’s mane. Attach the head to a stick, wear a white t-shirt, and you are now a circus horse! Practise running around the big

top, and stamping your ‘hoofs’ on the ground like a horse. To complete the effect, tie two lengths of ribbon to the back of your belt, and one of your friends can be your ‘rider’! They should follow you around the ring, shaking the ribbon reins.

3. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Modern day circuses don’t use animal acts, but you can fill yours with beasts, by rehearsing a LION TAMING routine! Get two of your friends to dress in yellow or orange t-shirts, and draw whiskers on their faces with an eyebrow pencil. They can practise crawling around the big top on all fours, stopping occasionally to roar menacingly at the crowd! The lion tamer himself should wear a red shirt or jacket. Lion tamers traditionally use a whip to keep the lions at a distance. To keep things safe, your tamer should mime the cracking of a whip. To perform the act, place two cushions in the middle of the circus ring. Play some exciting music as the lions begin to prowl around the edges. Enter the lion tamer, cracking his imaginary whip, and moving the lions around the ring in one direction, and then the other.

Oh, What a Circus / 95

The act ends when the two lions climb on to their cushions, and raise their front legs into the air with a roar!

4. Walk the Line One of the most exciting acts is the TIGHTROPE WALKER. They walk across a thin wire, suspended high above the ground, with nothing to stop them from falling! When you walk the tightrope you’ll be much safer – as you’ll only be pretending to be up in the air! Guess What? Tightrope walkers use poles to help them balance as they walk the high-wire (another name for a tightrope). You can

The real name for a tightrope walker is a funambulist!!

make one by painting a broom handle in bright colours. Now, lay a length of ribbon on the floor from one side of your circus ring to the other. Step onto the wire, using the pole to balance. Putting one foot in front of the other, slowly cross the tightrope, gazing down at the floor far below! To make things more dramatic, you could wobble, and pretend to almost fall when you are halfway across to make the audience scream! When you reach the other side, turn and take a bow!

5. Send in the Clowns This is the part you’ve been waiting for – the CLOWNS! Everyone in your circus can be a clown for the big finale – they just need a costume, some make-up and a funny routine. To make a clown costume, wear a colourful t-shirt, or

Guess What? Every clown has a different face design to other clowns. Putting it on is called ‘getting into Motley’!

borrow a baggy shirt from an adult. You can sew patches of material onto a pair of old trousers (or stick squares of coloured paper on with tape), and cover your shoes with crepe paper to make them look bigger and sillier. For clown make-up, use face paints to create a unique design. Some clowns have white faces, while others use lots of colours. Don’t forget to paint your nose red!


Now it’s time to work out a routine – the sillier the better. Perhaps you could be clown policemen, chasing a robber and tripping each other over? Or maybe you’re putting out a fire, throwing buckets filled with bits of paper over everyone? Play some silly music to help you along – and practise as much as you can. The more you rehearse, the funnier it will be! Give each clown a silly name – when I appear as a clown, I’m called WOBBLEBOTTOM!

6. Roll Up! Roll Up! It’s SHOWTIME! Invite your friends and family to take their seats at the ring side. Play some circus-style music as they enter your big top. One of you will need to be the RINGMASTER, and introduce the acts. They should wear a red shirt or jacket, and a top hat, which you can make from two pieces of black card. Simply make a tube with one piece, cut a ring from another, and stick them together! The ringmaster introduces the first act – the horses! As the horses leave the ring, follow with your other acts – the lion tamer, tightrope walker and finally, the clowns! At end of the show the audience will be cheering for more!

WWW There are more ideas for circus acts on the Boredom Busters web site. Send in pictures of your circus in action!

On Safari

The big game! Create a SAFARI HUNT for your friends as they try to find as many African animals as they can!

1. Boredom Busters, I Presume... Imagine taking part in an African SAFARI! Watching wild animals in their natural environment – right in front of you! With this project, you’ll set up a SAFARI HUNT game for your friends. Will they be able to follow the clues to find the animals? Only the best HUNTERS will make it. The first thing you will need to do is make seven animal faces from card. The faces need to be big enough to see, but also small enough to hide from your friends. The game will only be fun if they really have to hunt! It’s best to make the faces just a little bigger than your hand. Get a book of African animals from your local library, or visit the African Wildlife Foundation at www.awf.org for some great animal pictures to copy. You need to make seven faces: one giraffe, one antelope, one zebra, two elephants, one lion, and one leopard. When you have made your faces, keep them safe while you create Africa, right in your own home!


2. Hot, Hot, Hot! There are many different types of terrain in Africa, but for your Safari we’ll recreate the hot SAVANNA. Here, the land is covered with tall grass – perfect for your animals to hide in. To make the grass, you’ll need several rolls of green crepe paper. Carefully cut strips into the top of the roll to about half way down then, when you open the paper out, you’ll have long strips of flowing grass to stick to the walls. Make several of these, and put them up in every room of the house that you’ll be using for your hunt. The more grass that you put up, the harder it will be for the hunters to guess which ones contain the animals. Another feature of the African Savanna are twisted, dry trees. These provide shade for animals in the heat of the sun – and you can make yours from card. Tommy’s Tip Check with family members before you turn their bedrooms into bits of Africa!

Cut out long, twisted branch shapes, and colour them brown. Then, stick them in groups around the walls (you don’t need to make an entire tree – a few branches will give the right impression). You’re now ready to create your hunt.

3. Haven’t A Clue! Each of your hunters will be given a CLUE SHEET to follow in order to help them find the animals while on Safari. Each clue will give the players a hint as to where they can locate an animal – then they just have to go and find it! You’ll need clues to seven different locations around your house, such as: ◆

This animal spends a lot of time at the watering hole (the kitchen sink!)

◆

This is a very lazy animal (the bed!)

◆

This animal likes to wash itself every day (the bathroom!)

On Safari / 99

When you have seven clues, write them down on a sheet of paper for each of your hunters – it’s a good idea to put them in a different order for each person, so that they won’t all be searching for the same animal at the same time.

Tommy’s Tip Don’t include the answers with the clues!

When you have finished the clues, ask someone who won’t be taking part in the hunt to follow them, and see if they can work out where each of the animals will be hiding. This will tell you whether the clues are too easy or too hard, and give you time to change them.

4. Hide and Seek It’s almost time for your Safari – but first, you have to HIDE your animals! Following the clues you’ve just written, go to each of the places in turn, and stick one of the animal faces somewhere nearby. You need to put them somewhere they can be found, but hidden enough so that your hunters will need to look around a little. If the area has tall grass or tree branches, you could hide the animal in there – but make sure enough is showing for it to be spotted! When all your animals are safely hidden, you can invite your friends around to set off on safari!

5. Safari, So Good! Ask your friends to dress in white and light brown colours to take part in the hunt – that way, they’ll BLEND IN with the hot Savanna. Each player needs to make a pair of BINOCULARS for the hunt. They can do this by glueing two cardboard tubes

Guess What? Elephants sleep for only two hours a day!

together, and painting them black. They can also make a clipboard to hold their clue sheet on, and allow them to write down the answers. Use a stiff sheet of card for each player, and hold their clue sheets in place with paper clips. Each player will need a pencil, too. The big game is about to begin!


6. And They’re Off! Time to start your SAFARI! The rules are as follows: ◆

Hunters must follow the clues and find each of the animals.

◆

They are not allowed to touch the animals, just view them through their binoculars.

◆

Hunters should not tell each other where the animals are hidden.

◆

Hunters must write down the name of the animal they have spotted beside each clue.

Tommy’s Tip The next time you run a safari, try to think of another mixed up animal!

Now comes the fun part! When the hunters have spotted all the animals, they must use the first letter from each animal to make the name of another African creature! On this safari – the letters are E, A, G, E, L, Z, L – which mix around to spell GAZELLE! When all the hunters have returned with the name of

the secret animal, serve them with some Safari snacks and cooling drinks – they have been out in the hot sun, after all!

WWW There are some other secret animal names for you to use on the Boredom Busters web site!

On the Catwalk

If you’ve ever sewn a patch on your jeans, or ironed a transfer onto a t-shirt, then this project is for you! You’ll redesign your wardrobe, and then show it off on the catwalk in your own fashion show!

1. Rags to Riches To start, you need to find some CLOTHES that you can alter. If you have any old items that you don’t wear any more, you can use those – but check with an adult first. Another option is to pay a visit to your local charity shop.

Tommy’s Tip While you’re at the charity shop, donate any old toys or books you don’t want!

There you’ll find racks and racks of unwanted clothing that you can buy quite cheaply. As most fashion shows tend to feature extravagant styles, see if you can find things that look different to the ones you would normally wear. Once you have a few items of clothing – it’s time to start changing them!


2. Time to Design Hang your boring clothes around the room, and spend a little while looking at them. DESIGNING is all about using your imagination! Think how they would look with the sleeves cut off, a new picture on the front, a few sequins along the bottom – the choice is yours. If your friends are helping you, discuss out loud how you could change the clothes. Don’t worry if your suggestions seem silly – it’s only by getting the bad ideas out of the way that the good ones appear! This process is called brainstorming. Guess What? King Charles VIII of France started a fashion of men’s shoes with tips like a duck’s beak – just to hide the fact that he had six toes on one foot!

A good way to come up with designs is to look back in time. Borrow some books on historical fashions from the library, and see if old ideas like lace collars and cuffs are due for a comeback! When you have your ideas, take some sheets of paper, and draw how you imagine your new creations will look in coloured pencils. Don’t forget to sign your name at the bottom like all famous designers do!

3. Sew Like the Wind! When you’re happy with your designs, it’s time to put them into practice. Take your old clothes, and start ADAPTING them. Follow your ideas to change the dull designs into fantastic fashion statements! A great way to brighten up clothes is with fabric paint. They come in loads of exciting colours – and you can even get some with glitter in! If you use them, make sure to lay out lots of newspaper before you start! Don’t forget accessories, too. Does a summer dress need a matching hat? Can you cover a bag with scraps of left over material? How about making a mobile phone pouch for the side of your trousers?

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When you’ve finished working with your creations, hang them up and cover them with black plastic bin liners to hide them until the big day!

4. Model Behaviour! Not only do you get to design your clothes – you get to MODEL them too! Being a model can be hard work, but is also great fun. Professional models travel the world to show off designer items that can cost thousands of pounds! To practise being a model, you need to be able to walk well. That might sound a bit silly, but take a look at people in the street and you’ll see that they often walk with their shoulders hunched over, dragging their feet, or swinging their arms around wildly. To walk like a model, start in the doorway of a long room or hallway. Straighten up your back, raise your shoulders, and take steady, even steps. Keep your head held high and your arms under control. When you reach the end of the room, stop and turn around a few times – this gives the audience time to see the clothes you’re wearing. Then head back to the doorway and leave. You’ll need to practise – it’s harder than it sounds! It may help you to listen to some music while you walk, as it will be on during the show itself. Choose a CD of current pop music, or simply put the radio on and use the records to help you concentrate.

Tommy’s Tip Watch a fashion show on TV and study how the models walk!

You’ll be walking like a supermodel in no time!

5. Set the Stage It’s time to make your CATWALK! Professional fashion shows have their catwalks raised up so that everyone can see the designer’s work – but yours will be a lot easier to make.


Temporarily move any furniture in your long room or hall out of the way. Now, mark your catwalk area out with long lengths of string. Space them around a metre-and-a-half apart if you can. Line up chairs along the sides of your catwalk for your audience to sit. Make sure they have plenty of legroom so that they don’t trip up the models! Outside the room you’ll need somewhere to hang your clothes, and a space for the models to change.

6. On With The Show! Time for THE SHOW! Don’t worry if nerves are setting in – that’s natural! Seat your audience in their chairs, and start the music. Now take it in turns to wear your creations down the catwalk. If there are only a few of you modelling, you might have to walk up and down the catwalk twice to give the next model time to change. The audience may applaud when they see what you have done with your old clothes, and may even take photographs. Smile as you walk – but keep moving! As you leave the room, the next model should be on their way in. Quickly change into your next outfit – it doesn’t have to be a complete change, you might just swap your t-shirt or hat – and wait until it’s your turn again. Don’t panic if anything goes wrong, just keep the music going, and smile. The audience will never know the difference. Next stop – Paris!

WWW There are loads of links to top fashion pages on the Boredom Busters web site. Send your designs in, too – other budding models may want to use them!

Personalise Your PC

If you’ve ever used a computer, you’ll know how boring the images, sounds and colours can be. No more! Here’s how to CUSTOMISE your PC and make computing even more fun!

1. In The Background The first thing to change is that boring BACKGROUND! You may have a plain colour or simple pattern there – but you can replace it with any picture you like. The easiest way to change the background (also called wallpaper) is to go to one of your favourite web sites. When you find a picture that you like, use your mouse to RIGHT CLICK on it (i.e. click on it with the right mouse button). When the menu appears, click on ‘Set as wallpaper’. Now close down all your windows, and the picture should be there as your background! If the picture is sitting by itself in the middle of the screen, right click on it again, and choose ‘Properties’. A

Tommy’s Tip The instructions that follow are for computers running Windows 98. If you’re using a different version of Windows you’ll still be able to customise your PC, but you may have to adapt the instructions slightly. Check your computer’s HELP file for more information!


Tommy’s Tip

new window should appear selected to ‘Background’.

Always check with the

Choose ‘Tile’ from the options listed, and click OK. Go

owner of the PC before

back to your desktop, and you should find that your

you change anything!

picture has multiplied!

2. Take a Shortcut! The next things to change are your desktop SHORTCUTS. Shortcuts are quick ways to start your favourite programs without having to go through your PC’s start menu. For example, let’s add a shortcut for the text editor, NOTEPAD, onto your desktop (you can get rid of it later!). Click on the Start button, then move your mouse pointer to ‘Programs’. When the menu appears go to ‘Accessories’, and on the next menu move your mouse over ‘Notepad’. Left click on ‘Notepad’, but don’t release the button. Instead, drag the ICON onto an empty part of your desktop. After a second, the shortcut will appear. DOUBLE CLICK on it, and Notepad should start! You can now repeat the process for any other programs Tommy’s Tip

you want to get to quickly. If you want to remove an icon

An ICON is a small picture to help you recognise a program!

from the desktop, simply right click on it, and choose ‘Delete’ from the menu. Don’t worry – this just removes the shortcut you created, not the program itself.

3. Over the Rainbow Another area of the desktop you can customise is the COLOURS. Windows comes with lots of built in colour schemes. Right click on the desktop again, and choose ‘Properties’ from the menu. When the window appears, click on ‘Appearance’ to open up the colour settings. To try out different colours, click on the arrow below ‘Scheme’ to drop down the list of possibilities. Scroll down the list and click on a few. The colours will

Personalise Your PC / 107

change within the window to show you how your computer would look. When you find one you like, click on ‘Apply’, and then ‘OK’. You can always change it back later if you want to.

4. Sound Off - Part One Windows uses SOUNDS to tell you when it’s doing certain things, such as starting up, closing down, or emptying the recycle bin. Guess what? These can be personalised, too! First, you’ll need to find some new sounds, and the Internet is the best place to look. Go to a search engine such as www.yahoo.com and enter the type of sounds you’re looking for in the search box. I’m a fan of the TV show, The Simpsons, so I entered Simpsons sounds – but you can search for whatever sounds you like. Yahoo will quickly provide you with a list of possible sites. The type of sound files you’re looking for are called WAVE files, and they can be spotted by the letters ‘.wav’

Tommy’s Tip

after their name such as ‘homer.wav’.

Always check with an adult before downloading anything from the Internet and, if possible, install virus scanning software first!

When you’ve found a file, you can test it out by clicking on it. Windows will launch a program to play it for you. If you want to DOWNLOAD it, right click on the link and choose ‘Save Target As...’ Choose a place to store your file, and click ‘Save’. Make a note of where you are downloading your sounds to on your PC – it’s easy to forget!

5. Sound Off - Part Two When you have your sound files, you can INSTALL them! Click on the ‘Start’ button, then move the pointer to ‘Settings’, and choose ‘Control Panel’. Now double click on ‘Sounds’. This will bring up the ‘Sounds Properties’ window.


To change the Windows sounds to your own, simply click on an event, such as ‘Asterisk’, then click on ‘Browse’ to go to the folder where you saved your files. Choose one (you can test them out by clicking on ‘Preview’), and click ‘OK’. Work your way down the list, changing whichever sounds you want, then click on ‘OK’ again to head back to desktop. Your PC will never sound the same again!

6. Moving Pictures The final thing to change is the SCREEN SAVER. A screen saver appears whenever you’re away from your computer for a certain length of time. Go back to Yahoo and search the ‘net again. Enter the topic you’d like to find, then screen saver and click ‘Search’. (To find a Simpsons screen saver, I typed Simpsons screen saver. Easy!) Once you’ve found a screen saver you want, right click and choose ‘Save As...’ to download it to your computer. As there are many different ways of installing screen savers, you should check the page where you found yours for any special set-up instructions. If there aren’t any, double click on the file once it’s downloaded, and that should work. To activate the screen saver, right click on the desktop, Tommy’s Tip A good site for screen savers is called simply www.screensaver.com!

and go to ‘Properties’. In ‘Screen Saver’ you should be able to find yours from the drop down list. Then you can adjust the time your computer waits before starting the screen saver, or click on ‘Settings’ to fine tune the way it looks.

WWW Download the official Boredom Busters screen saver from the web site! Plus there are great links to wallpaper and sounds sites, too!

Pirates!

Pirates! is an updated version of an old game called BATTLESHIPS. You and your friends will become wicked pirate captains, aiming to sink each others’ fleet of ships!

1. Pieces of Eight! Everyone taking part in the game will need to dress as a PIRATE. Wear a brightly coloured shirt with a belt around it, and tuck your trousers into a long pair of socks. You can make buckles from card and cover them with tin foil to stick to your shoes. Each pirate will need an eye patch. Cut out a piece of black card, and attach a length of string to either side so that you can place the patch on one of your eyes, and tie it behind your head. Give yourself a scary pirate name, such as ‘Captain Blood’ or ‘Redbeard the Terrible’!


2. Sail the Seven Seas Every pirate needs a SHIP – and it’s time to make yours! For each ship you’ll need a large cardboard box. Remove the top and bottom flaps from each box (keep Tommy’s Tip Ask at your local supermarket for boxes.

them safe, you’ll need them), and then cut the box in half along opposite corners. You should be left with two Vshaped halves of box. Tape the flaps that you removed to the ends of each V, and bend them in slightly, so that the half-boxes can stand on their sides, and look like the front

Guess What? Pirates gave their ships scary names such as The Black Blade or The Silver Sabre to frighten their enemies!

and back of a ship. Next, paint the two halves brown to look like wood, and think of a name for your ship to add to the front. When they’re dry, stand them about 3 metres apart to make the front and back (FORE and AFT) of your pirate galleon. You’re ready to set sail!

3. Raise the Flag When pirates where about to attack, they raised a Guess What? The name Jolly Roger comes from the French phrase, ‘jolie rouge’, meaning ‘pretty red’. A red pirate flag was scarier than a black one, as it meant that the captain wasn’t going to take prisoners alive!

special flag, called a JOLLY ROGER. This was a black or red flag, often with pictures of skulls or bones on. The sight of a Jolly Roger was often enough to make the crew of a ship give up without a fight. Each pirate had a different Jolly Roger so that he was easily recognised – a sort of pirate club membership card! To make your flag, you’ll need a sheet of paper, and some black paint, or a black marker pen. First of all, you’ll need to decide what your flag will look like. Most pirate flags had a skull on, some with crossed bones underneath,

Pitates! / 111

and some with crossed CUTLASSES (a special pirate sword). A few of the flags even had pictures of dancing skeletons! Design and draw your flag on the sheet of paper, then colour the outside of the picture black, leaving the white image in the centre. Now turn the paper over, and repeat the picture on the other side. When you’ve finished drawing your flag, use tape to attach it to the top of a stick or bamboo cane.

4. Ship Ahoy! You’ll need to make a FLEET of pirate ships to battle with in the game. For this each player will need nine paper plates, or circles cut from card (you could draw around a plate, and cut the circle out). On one side of each plate, draw a picture of your Jolly Roger, and on the other side, blue waves to represent the sea. You could add a few shark fins rising out of the water to make the ocean look even deadlier!

Tommy’s Tip You could draw each picture on a sheet of paper and photocopy it.

You’ll also need a stock of CANNONBALLS! To make these, fill balloons with water, and place them in a cardboard box with your Jolly Roger painted on the side. Each player will need approximately 20 cannonballs (or more if you want the game to last longer).

5. Setting Up Now you have made all of the pieces, it’s time to go outside and set everything up for the game! Each player stands at the front or back of their pirate ship in a different part of the garden (or you could play in the park – but remember to take everything home with you again). Make sure that the ships are at least 3 metres away from each other.


In the middle of your galleon (another name for a large ship), lay out the rest of your fleet by placing the paper plates on the ground. You need to make two large ships by placing three plates in a row, two smaller ships made up of two plates, and the last remaining plate is a tiny rowing boat! If it’s windy outside, place stones on top of the plates to stop them blowing away. Push your Jolly Roger into the ground near the front of your ship, and your pirate galleon is set to sail! Time to play...

6. Let Battle Commence! All players now dress in their pirate outfits, stand within their galleon, and place their box of cannonballs nearby. Shout out a nasty sounding ‘ha-har!’ to show that you’re ready for the BATTLE! The aim of the game is to sink the other pirates’ fleets before yours is hit. To do this, players take it in turns to ‘fire’ cannonballs (throw them while shouting ‘Boom!’) into another pirate’s galleon. When a plate is hit with a cannonball, it must be turned over to reveal the sea on the other side, meaning that part of the ship has been Tommy’s Tip To play the game indoors, roll up pairs of socks to use as cannonballs – but remove any breakables before the games begins!

sunk. When each of the paper plates making up a ship have been turned over, that vessel has been destroyed! If you managed to sink and destroy all of your opponent’s fleet, you now have to try to hit their Jolly Roger! A direct hit on the flag means that you have won the battle. The treasure is now yours!

WWW There are some great links to pirate sites on the Boredom Busters web site. Why not take a picture of you and your friends in costume, and send it to [email protected] to be included in the rogues’ gallery?

Pop Stars!

Time to be a pop idol, as you and your friends take to the stage to perform a mimed concert as your favourite stars!

1. Tonight, I’m Going to Be... First, you’ll need to choose which STARS you and your friends are going to become. You could be one of your favourite solo acts, or a group. Whichever stars you choose, they should be instantly recognisable to the audience. You’ll also need to decide which of their songs you will perform. They should be songs that you know quite well, and ones that you or your friends have on CD. For an entire concert, you’ll need between four and eight songs.

Tommy’s Tip It’s a good idea to make a spare tape in case the first one is lost or damaged!

Now, make a SET LIST. This means deciding which order your stars will appear in. Remember not to have the same person performing twice in a row, or they won’t have time to get changed into their next character! When you have a set list, record the songs in order onto a cassette. This will be the tape your show is mimed to, so make sure that the songs are clear, and have around 10 seconds of silence between them (you can fast forward the tape a little after each song).


2. Getting Lyrical In order to mime to the songs, you’ll need to know the LYRICS! Play the tape, and write down the words to each of the songs on a separate sheet of paper. Now practise singing along to each of the songs, trying to get all the words in time with the tape. It doesn’t matter if you’re not Tommy’s Tip If you can’t understand the words to a song, search for the song title and ‘lyrics’ on the Internet!

perfect – even pop stars make mistakes! When you can sing the songs without looking at the words, try MIMING to the tape. This means that you sing, but don’t make any sound! Mime in front of a mirror, and it should look as though the pop star’s voice is coming from your mouth!

3. Dress to Impress Now that you ‘sound’ like your favourite stars, you need to LOOK like them, too!

Tommy’s Tip A good way to test your costume is to see if your friends can guess who you are when you are dressed up!

Examine pictures of the stars you have chosen and see if you can create similar COSTUMES. The costumes don’t need to be exactly the same, but should be in a similar style. You can use your own clothes, and make any extra bits, such as t-shirt designs, from paper or card. When you are happy with the costume, mime in front of the mirror again, this time while dressed up. Your star

should be looking right back at you!

4. Let’s Dance! Of course, pop stars don’t stand in one spot while they’re performing, they DANCE to their songs. This is your chance to join them, and rehearse some great ROUTINES!

Pop Stars! / 115

See if you can find a video of your favourite performers in action. Pop programmes on TV show music videos or live appearances from artists, so record a few of these. Guess What?

Watch the videos, and see if you can imitate the dance moves. Don’t worry if you can’t copy all the moves, you only need a few steps for your own performance. If you’re

Dance routines often use the same steps over and over again.

appearing as a group with some of your friends, practise together so that your moves all look the same. Keep the routines simple, and they’ll look effective!

Watch a pop video and see if you can spot these moves!

5. Unload the Equipment If you watch a pop concert, you’ll notice that the bands have a whole range of musical INSTRUMENTS to play. To help your concert look authentic, you can make your own and pretend to play them! Making GUITARS is easy. Cut the top and bottom flaps from a large cardboard box, then cut it open along one corner so that it lies flat on the floor. Draw a guitar shape on the card, and cut it out. Paint your guitar in bright colours. Draw the guitar STRINGS along the neck, and tie a length of normal string at either end of your instrument to allow you to hang it around your neck. Don’t forget that each guitar needs an AMPLIFIER, so that the audience can hear it! Use another cardboard box, but this time seal the top and bottom flaps with tape. Draw a SPEAKER on the front, and add some buttons to control the volume. Connect the guitar to the amp with a guitar lead made of string, and you’re ready to rock! To make a DRUM KIT, tape smaller boxes to a sheet of card, and lie it on a table. Use a larger box beneath the table for a bass drum, and paint the boxes in the same colour. Sit behind the kit with two wooden spoons for drum sticks to get into the beat. Finally, each singer will need a MICROPHONE. Use a cardboard tube, and tape a screwed-up ball of newspaper to the top. Paint the microphone grey and, when it’s dry, practise singing into it!


6. We Will Rock You! The day of the big concert! You can advertise your GIG by handing out POSTERS to your friends and family. Create a stage by marking off an area of the room with lengths of string, tied between chairs – or you could even perform an outdoor concert in the garden. Your audience can stand in front of the stage. Anyone connected with the concert will need a BACKSTAGE PASS to make them look official. Cut out a square of card, and write the name of your concert on it. Tie a length of string to it so that you can hang it around your neck. When the audience is ready, play the tape and start your concert! Each act in turn can take to the stage and mime to the songs. Have the music as loud as you can (without disturbing anyone) and your audience should soon be singing and dancing along!

WWW There are posters and backstage passes for you to print off and use on the Boredom Busters web site. Send in pics of your concert in action, too!

Potty Picture Holder

Go potty and make a personalised photograph holder that you can give away as a unique gift to your friends and family!

1. Potty Time To start, you need to get a terracotta PLANT POT, approximately 10cm in diameter. Wash your plant pot, and leave it to dry completely. When it’s dry, paint the pot in bright colours. It might be difficult to do as some paints don’t stick to terracotta very well. If this is the case, you could wrap the pot in crepe paper, or bright wrapping paper. Glue the paper in place, and try to keep the shape of the pot showing through.

Tommy’s Tip If you haven’t got a terracotta pot, use a plastic pot and weigh it down with extra stones!

Now, wash a handful of stones and drop them into the pot. They will give it extra weight, and stop it from falling over. Next, push in a block of floral foam, which you can buy from your locals florists or garden centre. If you can’t get any, use a large lump of modelling clay instead. Push it right down to wedge it in place. Rock your pot a few times to check that it’s not easy to tip over. If it is, remove the foam or clay, and add some more stones.


2. The Peg Leg To keep your pictures in place, you’ll need three CLOTHES PEGS, and three WOODEN KEBAB STICKS. You should be able to get all of these from your local supermarket. Paint the pegs and sticks green – they’re going to look like the stalks of the flowers that are growing out of the pot. When they’re dry, glue a peg to the top of each stick, making sure that the part that opens is pointing upwards. On a sheet of paper, draw and colour three flowers that are larger than the length of the clothes pegs. Cut these out, and stick onto the side of the pegs to hide them. It should now look like you have three flowers on green stalks. To add an extra touch to your flowers, cut out petal shapes from crepe paper, and stick them on!

3. Show You Care! If you buy a plant in a pot, it usually comes with a CARE CARD to show you how to look after your plant. The care card is often sticking up out of the soil to make sure it doesn’t get lost.

Tommy’s Tip If you haven’t got any paper clips, florists sell wire too.

You’re going to make a care card with a difference – a ‘card’ to show someone that you ‘care’! Paint a lollipop stick in a bright colour to match your pot, and cut a small square from a sheet of card. Write a message on the card, such as ‘Happy Birthday’,

‘Congratulations’, or ‘Get Well Soon’, and tape it to the top of the stick. To hide the foam or clay in the pot, you can make some foliage (leaves and grass) from tissue or crepe paper. Cut out leaf shapes and bunch three or four of them together. Twist the ends to keep them in place. Now, pull open a wire paper clip, and twist the end of it around the bottom section of the leaves, taking care not to hurt yourself with the ends of the metal

Potty Picture holder / 119

– it can be quite sharp. You’ll need to make about ten of these leaf bunches to cover the surface of the pot.

4. Assembly Plant! It’s time to put it all TOGETHER! Push the three peg flowers into the foam or clay, with the flowers facing in the same direction. You can have one flower pointing straight up in the middle, with those on either side at a slight angle. Next to the flowers, stick your care card into the pot, making sure that the message is showing clearly. Cover the surface of your foam or clay by pushing the metal ends of your leaf bunches in. Once they’re in place, you can spread out the individual leaves to create more cover. Tie a ribbon around the pot if you have one. Now you can clip photographs in the clothes pegs – the spring action of the pegs should keep them firmly in place. Choose pictures that will mean a lot to the person you’ll be giving your gift to, such as photos of the two of you together, or pictures that will remind the person of a special time.

Tommy’s Tip If you don’t want to give the original photos away, scan them into a computer and print copies to use!

You’ve now got a very personal gift that will be cherished forever.

5. Daddy Cool! Of course, if you’re giving your Potty Picture Holder to your DAD, GRANDAD or UNCLE – it might look a bit soppy covered in flowers! So, here are a few ways to alter the pot for a male friend or relative. Instead of sticking flowers onto your pegs, you could cut out little footballs from card! Paint the pot in the person’s favourite team colours, and make crepe paper grass to cover the foam or clay. You could even make your care card into the shape of a goalpost!


Tommy’s Tip To copy your computer screen, press the ‘Print Screen’ button, then open an image editor such as Microsoft Paint, choose ‘Paste’ from the menue and then ‘Print’!

If the person is a computer geek (like me!), draw little computer mice, and paint them grey. When you stick them to the pegs, add a piece of string that twists around the stick and goes into the pot as the mouse’s wire. You could print off the image from a computer screen to wrap the pot in, and make cardboard computer keys to cover the foam.

6. Pot Shots You can adapt your Potty Picture Holder for other times of the year, too! Guess What?

For CHRISTMAS, stick stars onto your pegs, cover the

The design for the Potty Picture Holder was created by my friend Sally Van Kimmenade. Thanks Sally!

surface of the pot in tinsel, and make a Christmas treeshaped care card. At EASTER time, paint the pot yellow, stick Easter egg shapes to the pegs, and you could even add a toy chick! How many ideas can you think of for your pots?

WWW There are some pretty potty pot designs on the Boredom Busters web site! Send a picture of your pot to be added to the gallery!

Quiz Kids!

Turn on the TV and you won’t have to wait long until you find a quiz show! These are contests where people can win prizes by answering questions. Now you can run a quiz show for your friends, right in your living room!

1. Come on Down! In your quiz show contestants will need to answer GENERAL KNOWLEDGE questions to score points. The contestant with the highest score at the end of the show will win the prize! Think of a NAME for your quiz show. It will need to be something exciting that would make viewers want to tune in and watch. Some popular quiz show names are Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and Countdown.

2. Time to Format! Now you have to decide how your quiz show will work. How many contestants will there be? How many questions will they be asked? The


answers to these questions go together in a FORMAT – a sort of rule book for a new show.

Guess What? Some quiz show formats sell for thousands of pounds!

To create your format, staple together four sheets of paper. On the first page put the title of your show, and your name underneath. That will identify you as the writer. On the other pages, fill in the following information:

◆

What will the SET for your show look like?

◆

How many contestants will there be?

◆

What type of questions will they be asked?

◆

What can they win?

You might not know all of the information just yet, but you can go back and fill it in when you do.

3. Design the Set The SET of your show is the area where the quiz takes place. You can build yours, and set it up in the corner of your living room. First, you’ll need to design it. Take a sheet of paper, and draw a PLAN for the set. This is an overhead view of where everything will be. There should be a table for the HOST (the person who asks the questions), and a PODIUM (a tall box) for each of your contestants to stand behind. Colour in your set design, and attach it to your quiz show format.

4. Can We Build It? Following your design, it’s now time to BUILD the set. Choose a table for the host, and add a SCORE CARD for each contestant. You can do this with a sheet of card and some spiral-bound notebooks. Using a notebook

Quiz Kids / 123

for each contestant, stick the backs of the books onto the card with tape, so that the spiral tops are sticking over the edge. Now, turn the card around so that the books open towards you. On the back of the first page, draw a large number ‘1’. Flip the next page over, and draw the number

Tommy’s Tip Don’t stick anything directly onto the table – you could damage the surface!

‘2’. Keep turning and flipping until each notebook has at least 30 numbered pages. Now, place the card on the edge of table, and you should be able to flip the pages over so that the scores dangle in front of the host. Making the podiums is easy. You’ll need two cardboard boxes for each contestant. Seal all the boxes with tape. Place one box on top of another and tape them together. Paint the boxes in a bright colour, and you have a simple podium. Make one for each contestant. You could sprinkle glitter onto the boxes before the paint dries to make them look even more impressive!

5. Question Time What is a quiz show without QUESTIONS? You’ll need plenty of them in order to test your contestants’ knowledge. Think up as many different questions as you can, or use questions from a quiz book, or board game such as Trivial Pursuit. Make sure they are the sort of questions that your friends are likely to know the answers to – there’s nothing more boring than a quiz show where no one wins! Write each of your questions onto a separate piece of card – you could use a pack of index cards for this. Remember to add the answer below so you can tell whether a contestant is correct or not. To work out how many questions you will need, multiply the number of your contestants by 20. So, if you have two contestants, you’ll have to come up with 40 questions, or with three contestants – you’ll require 60. When you have all your questions, keep them safe by sealing them in an envelope until the quiz show starts. That way, no one can cheat!


6. Time To Play! It’s SHOWTIME! Tommy’s Tip Why not make a

Keep the contestants in another room while you let your

trophy for your contestants to win? Glue an old plastic

other friends in to be the AUDIENCE. Tell them to clap whenever one of the contestants gets a question correct.

tumbler to a block of wood and paint them both silver. Add the name of your quiz show and you have a prize worth competing for!

Now bring in your contestants and stand them behind their podiums. Write their names on the card behind each notebook, so that you know which scores match which player. You could also stick a piece of card with the contestant’s name to the front of their podiums. Now start asking questions! Read them aloud in a clear voice, so that both the contestants and audience can hear.

In order for your contestants to answer, they must first shout out their name. The first player to call out gets a chance to guess at the answer. If they are correct, they win one point (flip a page over in their notebook), but if they are wrong, ask the question again to the other contestants. Play continues until a specific score has been reached (such as ‘first to 20’), or until you run out of questions. Award the prize to the winner, and ask your audience to give all the contestants a big round of applause!

WWW There are loads of great quiz show questions for you to use on the Boredom Busters

web

site!

If

you

wrote

your

own,

[email protected] to be added to the list!

e-mail

them

to

Really Robotic!

Enter the world of science fiction and engage in some mechanical mayhem with this fantastic robot costume!

1. Brain Drain The first part of your robot costume will be the HEAD. This is where the robot’s computer brain will be! Guess What? Take any hat – such as a baseball cap or woollen bobble hat – and cover it in tin foil. Use tape to hold the foil in

The word ‘robot’ was first used in a 1920 stage play, R.U.R.!

place on the inside of the hat, so that it doesn’t show. Now, cover a few lengths of string in foil and stick them around the hat to look like computer wires. Find an old pair of sunglasses, and paint the lenses silver. Before the paint is dry, use the tip of a pencil to

Tommy’s Tip If you have silver face paint, you can give your skin a metallic look!

scratch thin lines through the paint. This will give the lenses a computer screen effect, and allow you to see where you are going! Finally, wrap a pair of personal stereo headphones in some more foil to create super sensitive robot ears!


2. I Ain’t Got no Body! To make the robot’s BODY, you’ll need a cardboard box that’s big enough for you to squeeze your shoulders inside. Cut holes in the top and sides of the box, then lower it over your head, and push your arms through the sides. You may need to adjust the size of the holes until the box feels comfortable to wear. Paint the box silver, and add some more foil-covered string wires across the surface. Glue the top of a butter or ice cream tub to the front of the box as a computer screen. You can paint the screen black, and draw strange symbols on it to make it look more realistic. Paint some tops from jars or toothpaste tubes, and stick them around the screen as buttons. Now you can make a radar dish to stick to the back of the body. Paint a paper plate silver, and make a small hole in the middle. Push a straw through the hole, and glue the other end to the back of the box. The radar dish will wobble as you walk, making it look as though the robot is scanning the area!

3. Limb from Limb! Making robotic ARMS and LEGS is quite simple, and only requires an old jumper and pair of trousers and some wool. It doesn’t matter what colour the old clothes are, but the darker the better. Tommy’s Tip Always check with an adult before altering any clothes!

Get an adult to help you thread a large sewing needle with the wool, then, at the top of one of the jumper’s sleeves, start to thread the wool loosely around the arm. You only need to stitch the wool through the jumper a few times to

keep it in place. When you have gone all the way around the arm, tie a knot in the wool to stop it from coming out. Now, sew another circle around the arm a few centimetres down, and then

Really Robotic! / 127

another a few centimetres after that. Keep going until you have covered the arm with circles of wool, then repeat the

Tommy’s Tip Don’t pull the wool

process for the other arm.

too tight, or you

For the trousers, sew the wool up and down the legs in long lines, again a few centimetres apart. Your limbs will now

won’t be able to get your arms in the sleeves!

look like they are made from some strange space-age tubing!

4. That’s Handy You’ll also need to make some robotic HANDS and FEET! For the hands, roll a piece of thin card around one of your

Tommy’s Tip

fingers, and tape the ends together. Now mark where your

Never trim the tube while it is still on your finger!

fingertip is with a pencil, remove the tube and carefully trim it to the right size with a pair of scissors.

Put the tube back onto your finger, and use the pencil to mark where each of your finger joints are. Remove the tube again, and cut small slits in the back of the tube, so that you will be able to bend your robotic fingers. Make ten of these tubes – one for each finger and thumb – and paint them silver. When they are dry, punch a small hole in the bottom of the tubes, and tie a short piece of string to each of them. Pin the other end of the bits of string to the cuffs of your robot jumper, then wrap them in foil. This will keep the tubes in place on your fingers, and make each one look like it is operated by a separate wire!

5. Footloose Robot FEET are easy to make. You’ll need two small boxes – about the size that teabags come in. Tape the box closed, then cut a hole in the back of each

Guess What?

box that’s large enough for you to push your foot into

The hardest thing for real robots to do is walk!

while wearing shoes. It doesn’t matter if your foot doesn’t go all the way in.


Now, stick some more foil covered string to each side of the box, and tie it behind your ankle – just tight enough to keep the box in place. You can paint the boxes silver, and even draw on some robot toes with toenails made from bits of foil!

6. Put It All Together! Ask a FRIEND to help you put on all the bits of your robot costume! First of all, put on the jumper and trousers, slip your fingers inside the tubes and feet into the boxes. Next, put the body over your head and push your arms out of the holes at the side. Now you can add the hat, sunglasses and earphones. Practise walking around the room like a robot would. Keep the movements jerky and awkward – although it shouldn’t be too much of a problem while you’re wearing the costume! If your friends have made robot costumes too, put on a CD and try dancing like a robot. Can you put together a whole robot routine?

WWW Download some great graphics from the Boredom Busters web site, and stick them to your robot costume to look like computer symbols!

Redesign Your Room

Fed up with the way your room looks? Sort your space out with this low cost makeover project!

1. How Big is it? If you’re going to start moving your bedroom around – a little forward planning will save you a lot of hard work! The first thing to do is MEASURE everything in your room. You’ll need a long tape measure and a pen. To start, measure the length of each wall in metres, and make a note of them in your pad. Next, measure the height and width of your windows and the bedroom door. Finally, you need to measure the widths of any furniture in the room, such as your bed, wardrobe, and any chests of drawers or desks, etc. Again, mark all of these lengths down in your notepad.

Tommy’s Tip If you share your room with a brother or sister, you can run this project together!


2. Master Plan Stage two of the measuring involves making a FLOOR PLAN of your room. It’s best to do this on graph paper, but if you haven’t got any use a ruler to divide a sheet of plain paper into 1cm squares. Start by marking the walls onto the paper, using the lengths jotted down in your notepad. A good scale to use is 5cm to 1m – that means if you have a wall that is 4m long, it will take up 20cm on your floor plan. When you have the walls in place, mark in the window and the door. Now you have an accurate floor plan of your room. Next, draw pictures of your furniture using the same scale onto a sheet of card, and cut them out. So, if your bed is 1.8m long, your picture would be 9cm in length. Move the furniture pictures around on the floor plan to see which way they fit best. This is the part that saves you a lot of work! When you’re happy with the way your room looks – stick the pictures in place with tape.

3. A Moving Experience Tommy’s Tip This is a good opportunity to have a clear out! If you have books or toys you no longer want, take them to your local charity shop!

Now comes the fun part – the MOVE! Start by moving all the smaller items, such as toys, CDs and books out of the room, and store them neatly somewhere else (a nearby bedroom would be ideal). This may take a little time, but it will be worth the effort. Don’t forget to empty your wardrobe and any chests of

drawers of clothes – they’ll be a lot easier to move when they’re empty! When you only have the furniture left, move it around to match your new floor plan. If your scale has been correct – they should fit perfectly. Now you can return all your clothes, books and CDs to the room.

Redesign Your Room / 131

4. Box Clever You may find that you have lots of stuff lying around, such as magazines, pens and paper that make the place look untidy. The best way to deal with these is to make STORAGE BOXES! You’ll need a few cardboard boxes in a variety of sizes – everything from shoe boxes to large boxes from the supermarket will do. Start by taping any top and bottom flaps closed, and either painting the boxes in a colour to match your room, or covering them with wrapping paper. Now cut around the sides of each box, a few centimetres from the top. This will remove the top portion of the box, and create a kind of lid. If you cut small slits in each of the four corners the lid will fit over the top of the box when you replace it. You can now store all your bits and pieces away, out of sight. For magazine racks, cut one side of a cereal packet away, and paint it to match the room. You can stand several of these side by side and fill them with your favourite magazines, keeping them neat and stopping them from getting lost or damaged!

5. Clothes Chaos If you always seem to have more clothes than space to store them, you can make some simple ORGANISERS to keep them neat and tidy. For belts, school ties, and so on – carefully tap a couple of small nails into the inside of your wardrobe door and tie a piece of string from one to the other. you can hang your belts or ties over the string. Inside the other door you can hang a strong carrier bag on a nail to hold pairs of socks, or tshirts. Always ask an adult to help with this. If you have jumbled up drawers, why not use bits of card to separate the drawers into different compartments? You can hold the card in place with tape, and never have mixed up clothes again!

Tommy’s Tip Be careful not to knock the nails right through the door!


6. Wall Work If you’re bored of the posters you have on your bedroon wall, why not turn them over and make them into WORKS OF ART? You can paint simple designs with paints that match the Tommy’s Tip

other colours in the room and make it look as though you

Always paint your art

paid a visit to an exclusive art gallery! You’ll be amazed

away from the wall and stick it back up when dry!

how a few blocks of colour will transform a wall! The best part is, when you’re tired of them your favourite posters are on the other side!

If you’re like me, you have lots of bits of paper lying around that are easy to lose – normally just when you need them! The way to solve this is to make your own message board. Get a couple of cork tiles from a DIY shop (they’re normally quite cheap), and ask an adult to stick them to the back of your bedroom door. Then, with a few pins, you can attach your messages to the tiles and keep them all safe. Another use for your board is to keep your mobile ‘phone safe. Simply remove the top from an old stock cube box, pin it to the board, and slot your mobile into it whenever you’re in the room!

WWW To help you with your scale drawings – there is a handy measurement converter on the Boredom Busters web site!

Science Lab

You don’t need loads of expensive equipment to explore the world of science – you can conduct these exciting experiments in your own kitchen and get chemistry crazy!

1. Working in the Lab In order to become a scientist, you first need your own LABORATORY. The ideal place for your lab is the kitchen at home. There

Tommy’s Tip

you’ll have access to equipment like plates and glasses,

Use the kitchen between meals – then you won’t have to keep clearing your experiments away!

and the work surfaces will be waterproof in case you have any mishaps. Clear enough space in the kitchen to store all your materials and conduct your experiments – and don’t forget to clean it all up again when you have finished! In order to look like a scientist, you’ll need to borrow an old white shirt from an adult. Wear the shirt over your own clothes as a lab coat, and roll up the sleeves to leave your hands free.

Guess What? The best scientists in the world are given an annual award called the Nobel Prize!


If you have an old pair of plastic sunglasses, carefully press the lenses out to leave the empty frames. You’ll look like a real science boffin in them!

2. Fun with Fat! Your first experiments will look at the way FATS and OILS behave. For these you will need some milk, vegetable oil, washing up liquid and a few drops of food colouring. Get a 50cl plastic water bottle, and make sure that it is Tommy’s Tip Use full fat, pasteurised milk for this experiement!

completely dry inside. Now fill it with vegetable oil. Add a few drops of food colouring to the oil and watch what happens – the colouring forms little blobs, and stays suspended in the oil.

Screw the lid on the bottle tightly, and tip it upside down. The food colouring should swirl around inside the oil, like a home-made lava lamp! Now, pour some milk onto a plate, taking care not to spill any over the sides. Add a few drops of food colouring to the milk, and wait until it stops moving. Squirt a tiny amount of washing up liquid into the centre of the milk and prepare to be amazed! The food colouring suddenly rushes about, forming weird and wonderful patterns! This is because the washing up liquid breaks down the fat in the milk. Cool!

3. Arm Raising Experience Do you think it’s possible for your arm to RISE INTO THE AIR all on its own? Try the following experiment and see for yourself! Stand facing a wall, leaving a 6cm gap, and let your arms hang loosely by your side. Now, move one arm forward, and press the back of your hand firmly against the wall for 30 seconds. Don’t lean against the wall, or release the pressure on your hand.

Science Lab / 135

After 30 seconds, take a step back, and let your hand hang back at your side. Your arm will start to rise upwards all by itself! This strange feeling will stop after a few seconds, and your muscles relax. Try this biological baffler on your friends and watch their reaction!

4. Wonderful Water Imagine being able to make water rise above the edge of the glass, and not spill over the edge! Well, now you can! Fill a drinking glass to the brim with water, taking care to keep the outside and rim of the glass absolutely dry. Place the glass on a flat surface, and carefully drop a

Guess What? The surface tension in the water keeps it from spilling over the edges!

handful of pennies, one at a time, into the water. Every now and again, crouch down so that your eyes are level with the top of the glass, and soon you should see that the surface of the water has bulged above the rim of the glass! See how many pennies you can drop in – and how high you can get the water – before it finally splashes over.

5. Static Electricity Every time you turn on a light switch or the TV, you’re using electricity. But did you know that you can also create your own electricity? STATIC ELECTRICITY is the result of friction between two objects. If you want to get geeky and tell your friends exactly what happens – it’s due to the transfer from one object to the other of tiny particles called electrons. However, you don’t need to know that to have fun! Try rubbing an inflated balloon against a woollen or nylon jumper. Rub hard for 30 seconds, then press the balloon against a wall – it sticks!

Guess What? When you walk across a carpet and get a small shock when you touch a metal door handle – that’s static electricity!


Now rub the balloon against your hair for 30 seconds, and slowly lift it off – your hair stands up in the air! Another way to explore static electricity is with a plastic comb. Tear up several small pieces of paper, and drop them onto a work surface. Now run the comb through your hair around 50 times, then hold it just above the paper. The small pieces should jump into the air, and attach themselves to the comb. Turn on the kitchen cold tap, and run a thin stream of water into the sink. Comb your hair 50 times again, and hold the comb near to the water – the water bends! Now that’s shocking!

6. Colour Changing Coins Science can also help you change the colour of your POCKET MONEY! Take a few copper 1p and 2p pieces, and lay them out on the worktop. The older and dirtier the coins are the better. Choose one of the 2p coins, and pour a little brown sauce onto it – the kind you would normally put on chips! Use an old cloth or tea towel to rub the sauce into the coin and, after a few seconds, it will start to shine! Keep rubbing the coin with sauce until it sparkles! Fold up a kitchen towel, lie it on a plate, and soak the towel in vinegar. Now, place a few of the coins on the towel, and leave them there for 24 hours. You’ll be surprised at how the coins change colour!

WWW There are even more experiments to try on the Boredom Busters web site. Why not send in your findings, too?

Secret Agents

Exercise your detection skills as you and a friend become spies for a day. Someone’s watching you!

1. Spy vs Spy Welcome to Boredom Busters HQ. As a new SECRET AGENT, you will now be given details of your TRAINING MISSION! You and a friend will spy on each other for 24 hours. You must watch each other’s every move, and make detailed notes in a TOP SECRET REPORT. You will each be given gadgets and special skills to help you on your mission. They must not fall into the wrong hands. The first thing you need to do is make a file for your report by stapling together two pieces of card, and writing TOP SECRET across the front in large, red letters. Good luck, agents. This section will self-destruct in 30 seconds...

2. Groovy Gadgets In order to spy on your friend for a day, you’ll need some SPY GADGETS to help you!


The first of these is a WALLET to keep your notes safe. You can make this with an EXERCISE BOOK and some glue. Use a book that looks like one of your school books. Write your name, and a subject on the front, and copy a few pages from one of your real books to make it look authentic. Here comes the sneaky part! Glue two centre pages of the exercise book together around three of the edges – leaving the top open. When the glue is dry, you can hide notes on the other agent’s movements inside. Your other gadget also requires a book, and will be used to store materials for your mission. Go to a charity shop and buy a thick paperback book. Tommy’s Tip

Open the book to page 20, and draw a rectangle, a few

Don’t use a school book or one from home for this!

centimetres in from the sides. Now, carefully cut this rectangle out of the ten pages that follow, then repeat the process for the ten pages below, and the ten pages below that. Keep

going until you have hollowed out the book up to 20 pages before the end. Close the book, and it should look like a normal paperback, but it’s really a secret storage space! Inside it place the following items: ◆

a matchbox containing talcum powder

◆

a few lengths of cotton

◆

a pencil

◆

a small mirror

◆

sticky tape.

3. Mission Possible! Now that you have your gadgets, you’re ready to start your MISSION!

Tommy’s Tip

You and your friend should meet in a prearranged place, such

Don’t spy on anyone, unless they’re part of the game!

as the school playground, and agree upon a secret CODE WORD. From that moment, you must go about your normal day, but must watch each other’s every move for the next 24 hours.

Secret Agents / 139

If your friend has lunch, find out what they had, and write it down. If they listen to a CD, try to discover what it was. If they catch the bus, which route did it take? Write everything down, and transfer it to your file when you are alone. The idea is that you must not let anyone else around you know what is going on. The mission is just between the two secret agents. Once the mission has started, you cannot discuss it with the other agent, until you swap files the following day. Here are a few hints on how to proceed...

4. Disguise and Detection A good way to watch the other agent is wear a DISGUISE so that they don’t even know that you’re there! Perhaps you could borrow a coat from a friend or relative

Guess What?

that the other agent wouldn’t recognise (make an excuse

Almost every country in the world uses secret agents!

why you need it – you can’t discuss the mission, remember?). Wear a hat and sunglasses, or perhaps

obscure your face with a scarf. Try not to be obvious with your disguise – nothing stands out more than someone who is trying too hard to hide! You could also use subtle INTERROGATION methods to discover where the other agent was at a particular time. Instead of simply asking where they are, you could pull a pound coin out of your pocket and say that you borrowed this earlier, and need to return it. Your friends will probably say where and when they last saw your opponent. Remember to write it down for your file. How many other ways can you think of to get information?

5. Book Work! Time to open your secret store, and use some of the GADGETS hidden inside your book! If you can get access to your opposing spy’s room, sprinkle a tiny amount of talcum powder on the floor outside their door. If there is a footprint in the talc when you return, you’ll know they left the room while you’ve been away.


Find out which kitchen cupboards have been opened by trapping small lengths of cotton in the doors. When the door is opened, the cotton will fall away unnoticed, telling you where your opposing agent was looking. Use sticky tape to attach the small mirror to the end of your pencil. You can lie on your stomach outside a room, and hold your mirror just inside the door to see what is going on inside. Keep your movements slow and silent at all times. Think of some other uses for household objects, and keep them inside your book during the mission!

6. Mission Accomplished! After 24 hours, meet with your opposing agent at your secret meeting place to SWAP FILES. Remember to use the prearranged code word before you hand over any material. You should find a detailed breakdown of what you did during the previous day inside each other’s reports. Congratulations agents, your training mission is now complete. You should now compare notes on how you went about spying on each other – and prepare yourselves for another mission from Boredom Busters HQ. That is all.

WWW Check out some other secret agent techniques on the Boredom Busters web site!

Under the Sea

Dive into the deep for some fishy fun with this great underwater party theme!

1. Octopus’s Garden! The first thing you need to do is DECORATE your party! Start by making SEAWEED streamers to hang around the room. Take a roll of green crepe paper, and cut the bottom end into several uneven strips, leaving around 5cm intact at the top of the roll. When you open out the crepe paper,

Guess What? The sea covers almost 75% of the Earth’s surface!

you’ll find that you have a long streamer with dangling seaweed to stick to the wall! You can also tape a sheet of blue tissue paper over the window to give the room an underwater look – and make some cardboard fish to hang from the ceiling with cotton. You’re ready to invite your friends into the deep!


2. Bubble Trouble! If you were under the sea, you would notice lots of air BUBBLES making their way to the surface. Make an easy BUBBLE MIXTURE to blow your own! In a plastic tub, gently mix together 125ml of washing up liquid, 250ml of water, and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Transfer the bubble mix into empty yoghurt pots to hand out, and make bubble blowers by twisting circle of wire, and taping them Tommy’s Tip Get an adult to twist the wire for you!

to the ends of lollipop sticks. Simply dip the blower into the bubble mix, and gently blow. Soon, the room will be filled with watery bubbles!

3. Fishy Food If all that bubble blowing has made you hungry, why not prepare some SEABASED SNACKS for your friends to enjoy? Start by offering SHARK SANDWICHES – don’t worry, they Tommy’s Tip Have an alternative sandwich filling ready in case someone doesn’t like fish!

won’t bite! Make a plate of tuna sandwiches, and cut them into thin strips. Into the top of each strip, push a triangular tortilla chip, so that it sticks up like a shark’s fin! Place the sandwiches on a plate, and let your guests dive in! You could also heat up some FISH STICKS, which are

available from your local supermarket. Put them on a plate surrounded by water cress (to look like seaweed), and your guests can help themselves. Why not have a deep sea dip, too? Half fill a bowl with water, and float a smaller bowl filled with salsa dip inside. Your guests will have to dip in without sinking the bowl! Finally, quench their thirsts with some OCTOPUS ORANGE! The secret here is that it’s normal orange squash, but you can cut eight tentacles from orange crepe paper, and stick them around the outside of the glasses to keep with the theme!

Under the Sea / 143

4. Neptune’s Lair! To complete the effect, you and your friends could make and dress in underwater COSTUMES! The master of the sea is KING NEPTUNE. To make his costume, cut some sea shell shapes from card, and stick

Guess What?

them to a t-shirt. Cut up a pair of old trousers so that they

When ships cross the equator, the crew

are ragged at the bottom, and stick green crepe paper

perform a special

seaweed around the belt.

ceremony asking King Neptune for a safe trip!

Use more green crepe paper for seaweed hair, and make a cardboard crown, decorated with pictures of fish.

You could also make Neptune’s trident – a large three-pronged fork – by cutting the shape from card and sticking it to the top of a bamboo cane. For MERMAIDS, start by wearing a swimming costume, and weaving green crepe paper into your hair. To make the fishy tail, wrap a large piece of cloth around your waist, and pin it together at the front. Now, step forward, and pin the rest of the cloth together behind your legs (this way, you’ll be able to walk around!) Cover the cloth with fish scales cut from green paper, and make a cardboard fin to pin to the end of the tail.

5. Battle Among The Stars A fun game to play at your party is SHOOTING STARFISH! Cut ten five-pointed stars from card (about the same size as your hand), and paint them orange. Now, remove the flaps from the top of a cardboard box, and paint it brown to look like an old treasure chest that has sunk to the bottom of the sea. When the game starts, each player has ten tries to throw a starfish into the treasure chest from the other end of the room. You get 1 point for each starfish that lands in the box. The winner will be a real star!


6. Catch Of The Day! Another easy to make party game is FISH FACE – a fishing game where you really are part of the action! Cut out ten fish shapes from card, and colour them in. Tommy’s Tip To avoid cutting up original photos, scan them in to your

Then, at the front of each fish, stick a face cut from a photograph of yourself and your school friends (a school of fish! Get it?).

computer and print off copies!

Now, cut out five shark shapes, and stick faces on them of five of your teachers! Slide a paper clip onto the back

of each fish and shark. Make a big fish tank by removing the flaps from the top of another cardboard box, and painting water and fish around the outside. Drop your fish and sharks inside the tank. Finally, make a fishing rod by tying a length of string to the end of a bamboo cane, and attaching a magnet to the other end of the string (the back of an old fridge magnet will do). Players sit around the tank and take it in turns to close their eyes and lower the magnet into the tank to catch a fish (the paper clips will stick to it). You win 1 point if you manage to catch a fish with the face of one of your friends, 5 points if you catch yourself – but LOSE 5 points if you catch a teacher! After you have had your go, throw the fish back, and pass the rod on to the next player. It’ll really catch on!

WWW Check out the funky fish designs for you to copy on the Boredom Busters web site!

What a Novel Idea

Once upon a ti me

Discover how exciting it is to create characters, and write about them! Your story will be eight pages long – but if you get the writing bug, you can continue with your tale and turn it into an entire NOVEL!

1. What If? First of all, you need an IDEA. Think of the type of books you like to read. If you prefer adventure stories, packed with mystery, you should write one like that. If your favourite books are fantasy tales where the world is filled with magic, that’s the sort of story yours should be. The best way to come up with an idea is to use WHAT IF? Two girls volunteer to unpack new sports equipment after school. WHAT IF the teachers forgot they were there, and locked them in. What would happen? A boy is given a magic set for his birthday. WHAT IF it really was magic, and allowed him to cast spells? See if you can come up with an idea, and add an exciting WHAT IF? for your story.


2. Who’s in It? Every story needs CHARACTERS. For yours, you’ll need to invent a PROTAGONIST (the hero), an ANTAGONIST (the bad guy), and other characters to move the story along. Tommy’s Tip Build in excitment when creating your characters! If your hero is afraid of heights – make your bad guy live at the top of a really tall building. Make things as tough as possible for your protagonist!

The best way to do it is to take a piece of paper and DRAW them. If your protagonists are schoolgirls, design their school uniforms. What colour hair do they have? Now, turn the sheet of paper over, and have a CONVERSATION with your character! Ask him or her questions such as, ‘What is your name?’, ‘What scares you?’ and ‘What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?’ Think up interesting answers to these questions, and write them down. They will tell you how your character will act in your story.

Make a CHARACTER SHEET for each of your characters. They’ll come in very useful later on.

3. The Beginning Now it’s time to get WRITING! The first part of your Tommy’s Tip If you have access to a computer at home or at school, use that to write your story. It will be easier to correct any mistakes!

story is called the SET-UP, and will take two pages. Here you will introduce your characters to your readers, and give them an UPSIDE DOWN MOMENT! In the example above, the upside down moment would be when the girls realize that they are locked inside the school.

Decide what will happen in your set-up. On a sheet of paper make notes such as when and where your story opens, and what the upside down moment will be – then fill in all the bits in between. When you have a set-up you’re happy with, write it out. It should take up about two sheets of paper, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a little longer or shorter. Keep the pages somewhere safe.

What a Novel Idea / 147

4. The Middle The middle bit of your story is where the ADVENTURE happens! The adventure will last for four pages of your story and, for some authors, can be the hardest part to write. However, all you need to come up with an exciting adventure of your own is to think of three terrible things that could happen to your characters using the letters B, A and D – BAD! 1. B is for BAD! Make the first thing the BAD result of your characters trying to fix their upside down moment. If the girls tried to ring the fire alarm to get help, they could accidentally damage the electric circuits, and

Guess What? Best-selling author Stephen King wrote his first story when he was 7 years old!

plunge the school into darkness. 2. A is for AWFUL! The next thing that happens should be AWFUL. What if the girls were stumbling along a dark corridor and someone tried to grab them? They manage to escape – but they’re not alone in the school! 3. D is for DISASTER! The final thing is the worst of all! Perhaps the girls find some candles to help them see, but one them is knocked over, and sets fire to a set of curtains. Now the girls are locked in a burning school – with someone after them! DISASTER! When you have come up with your B, A and D terrible things, write the adventure section of your story and add it to your first few pages.

5. The End The final part of your story is the CONCLUSION. This begins with your characters’ LAST CHANCE. The last chance is exactly what it suggests - the last chance for your heroes to save the day. There are two important points to consider when planning your last chance:


◆

It has to work! (Readers prefer happy endings!)

◆

It must include something from earlier in your story.

This second point is important so that the story doesn’t end on a COINCIDENCE. If the girls are being chased through the burning school, and suddenly remember the ladder in the caretaker’s room that they can climb to safety with – your readers will wonder why they didn’t just use it in the first place. However, if the girls use the sports equipment they started the story unpacking – it will be a much more exciting conclusion. They could barricade the door to the sports hall with Tommy’s Tip You can go back and include something earlier in the story, ready for it to help your characters now.

hockey sticks to stop the intruder from getting in. Then hit cricket balls at the windows to smash them, and use the climbing bars to reach safety. Write an exciting conclusion to your story, and add it to the start and middle pages.

6. Time To Publish! Put your completed story away for a few days, then REWRITE it. This means to go through it and change any bits that you don’t like. Now you can draw a cover for your story, print off enough copies for your friends and hand them out. While they’re busy reading – you can get started on the SEQUEL!

WWW There are four story ideas on the Boredom Busters web site to get you started. Don’t forget to send a copy of your tale to [email protected] for others to read!

Wild on the Web

The Internet is a busy place. With thousands of people online at any one time there has to be a lot of information for them to read. Now you can add to that information by creating your own web site!

1. What’s it all About? First, you have to decide what the TOPIC of your web site will be. It could be a personal home page, telling people all about you, your family and your hobbies. Maybe it will be about your school class or an organisation you belong to such as the Cubs or Brownies. Or it could even be a fan site dedicated to your favourite pop group or film star. Make some notes on what you want to say on your site. A little work now will save you a lot of time later.

Tommy’s Tip Check with an adult before posting any information or photos on the world wide web, and never include personal details such as your address or phone number!

You’ll also need a few PHOTOGRAPHS. Choose pictures that show more detail about the topic you’ve chosen. For example, if you’re creating a site about your Cub or Brownie pack, use photos that show them running an activity during a meeting. Everything you put on your site should teach visitors more about your subject.


2. Get An ID! Now you can start to create your web site. The best way to do this is to use the excellent Yahoo! GeoCities web tools. Log on to the Internet, and go to: http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ You’ll need to SIGN UP for a free Yahoo! ID and password, so click on ‘Get Started!’ and fill in the form to get yours. You’ll also need to choose a security question in case you forget your password. Pick one of the questions from the drop down list, and fill in the answer below it. Near the bottom of the page, there is a word verification box. Copy the word in the picture into the space provided, and click ‘Submit This Form’ to complete the process. Sometimes it will tell you that your Yahoo! ID has already been taken. If you see this message, pick another ID and try again. When it accepts your information, write your ID and password down, and keep them in a safe place.

3. Time To Design Log in to Yahoo! GeoCities with your new ID and password and click on Yahoo! PageWizards in the section, ‘Build Your Own Web Site’. This is where the fun begins! First of all, you have to choose a DESIGN for your site. Click on the one you want, and the PageWizard will pop up and ask you for some extra information. Each of the designs requires you to fill in your answers in a slightly different order, but here are the most common bits of info you’ll need:

Tommy’s Tip To get a free e-mail address, go to http://yahoo.co.uk and sign in with your new Yahoo! ID and password!

Wild on the Web / 151

◆

Page Title. Write what you want your page to be called.

◆

Enter Text. This is where you type in the information you made notes on earlier.

◆

Pick Your Picture. If you have your photo scanned in, click on ‘Upload New Picture’ and browse to where it is saved. If not, you can use one of the pictures provided.

◆

Favourite Links. Fill in the details to create links to your favourite web sites – like wobblebottom.com!

◆

Enter Your Information. Type in your name and e-mail address. Visitors will be

able to click on the e-mail link and contact you! ◆

Name Your Page. Enter a name for your page. Something simple like ‘mypage’ (with no spaces) works best.

You’re finished! Write down the address, and click on the link to see your very own web site!

4. Let’s get Advanced! If you want to customise your web page even further, you can run the PageWizard again and make the changes – but an even better way is to use the Yahoo! PageBuilder! The PageBuilder allows you to work directly on your page, and even add great extras such as a COUNTER or GUESTBOOK! Go back to http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ and sign in again if you need to. This time, click on Yahoo! PageBuilder, and then ‘Launch PageBuilder’. The program will take a few minutes to open, so check out the ‘PageBuilder Tutorial’ on the right while you’re waiting. The tutorial will give you some great hints and tips on using the software. When PageBuilder starts, you can open your web page in it and get to work! Double click on any part of the page to change it, or click on ‘Add-

Guess What?

ons’ on the menu bar to include

I used the Yahoo! tools to design a page! Check it out at: www.geocities.com/tommydonbavand/mypage.html

extra features. Be aware that once


you work on your site in PageBuilder, it will no longer open in the PageWizard. When you’ve finished, save your work. You can launch PageBuilder any time you want to update your site!

5. Cracking the Code! If you’ve really got the web design bug, the next stage is to learn some of the CODE that web sites are made of! Web page code is called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and looks a bit scary at first – but once you start to understand it, you’ll see that it’s not as hard as it looks. There is a great site that helps kids learn about HTML at: www.lissaexplains2.com/intro.shtml Here you’ll find everything you need to know to create web sites that will dazzle your friends and family! To get started, open a blank page in a TEXT EDITOR (NOTEPAD in Windows, or TEXTEDIT on a Mac) and save it as ‘index.html’. Now you can start to add your HTML code, and create some really groovy pages!

6. Sending Stuff into Cyberspace! If you’ve created your own pages using HTML, you need to UPLOAD them to the Internet so that other people can see them. Fortunately, those clever people at Yahoo! have thought of everything! Log into your account as before, but this time click on ‘Upload/FTP’. That will take you to a section called ‘Easy Upload’ where you can browse to each of your files, and send them into cyberspace in one go!

WWW Send an e-mail to [email protected] with the address of your site to be added to the list of links!

Write a Song

How many times have you had a tune going round in your head all day – you just can’t stop singing it? You can use that feeling to write your own song, and you don’t need to be able to play an instrument or read music to do it!

1. Whistle a Happy Tune The first thing to do is hum or whistle. It doesn’t matter what, just make some noise. See how high and low you can go. Now listen to some of your favourite CDs. You’ll notice that most of them are in 4/4 time – that means that you can count 1, 2, 3, 4 over and over again with the beat of the music – and always be in time. Try to whistle a simple tune in 4/4 time. You can tap

Guess What? Irving Berlin, one of the world’s most successful songwriters, wrote his first songs in exactly this way!

your foot on the floor if it helps you to count. Many popular songs have two different parts – the VERSE, which is usually the first part you hear, and the CHORUS, which is repeated between the verses. Record your tune onto a cassette. It doesn’t matter what it sounds like – no one will hear it yet but you!


2. It’s Only Words! Almost all pop songs have WORDS – if they didn’t, it would be hard to sing along! Play your tape back and see if you can invent some words to go along with it. It can be about anything at all – your family, friends, or even your favourite film or music star. Write down the words to a verse of four lines – and see if you can make the words rhyme at the ends of the lines. Listen to some of your CDs again and see if you can spot where the rhyming words go. Write two more verses that follow the same pattern. The words should tell a kind of story with one verse following on from another. Now write words for the chorus. This bit will repeat in between each verse – and is usually the catchy bit that hangs around in your head all day. The chorus will have a slightly different tune, so listen to your tape to remind yourself.

3. Mix And Match It’s time to put your music and words TOGETHER! Start recording, and sing your song onto the cassette again, this time using the words instead of just humming or whistling the tune. It might take you a few tries to sing it all the way through, but keep going – the more often you sing your song, the better you will know it. Once you have it recorded, play it back and try to think of a title for your song. It could be a few words taken from your lyrics, or something that describes the topic of your song. It can always be changed later if you don’t like it. Make a cover for your cassette case with the title of Guess What? Jingle Bells was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh!

your song, then underneath write ‘by’ and then your name. Congratulations – you’re a songwriter!

Write a Song / 155

4. Can’t Stop the Music The next stage is to find someone who can play a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. It doesn’t matter which one, but piano or guitar would be good instruments to use. If your school has a music teacher or someone who comes

Tommy’s Tip

in to teach instruments, ask them to suggest someone who

Always keep a copy of the tape for

might want to help. Maybe there’s someone in your class

yourself!

who has piano lessons after school? Chances are that they’ll be bored with practising scales all the time, and would be thrilled to work with you on your song. When you have found a musician, give them a copy of your tape and ask them to learn your song on their instrument. It might take them a while to do it, so be patient. It will be worth it!

5. In the Studio When your musical friend has learned to play your song, it’s time to RECORD it! Top groups pay thousands of pounds to spend time in recording studios to make their records – but you can do yours for free! The first thing you need is a small room (not too small, you’ve both got to fit in there!). If your friend plays the piano, you will have to use the room where that is. Call your name out in the room a few times. Is there an echo? If there is, you’ll have to sound-proof the area where you’ll be recording. To do this, lay blankets and quilts over hard objects like tables and, if you can, hang them up to cover the walls. If you aren’t able to do any of this – don’t worry, it won’t spoil your song. The next bit might be hard. You’ll have to sing your song while the musician plays it. Practise a few times, then record it onto tape. If your friend has some suggestions as

Guess What? Some musicians sound-proof their rooms at home by sticking egg boxes to the walls! The shape of the boxes stops the sound from being reflected!


to how you can improve your song, try them out. They might make the song sound even better. Make a new cassette cover for your final recording!

6. Live On Stage As well as recording their songs, pop singers perform their music LIVE – and you can too! You might be nervous about singing in front of an audience, but that’s OK. Most big stars were nervous when they started out, and some of them still are! Ask your friends and family to sit together, and your musician friend to play for you. If they can’t, record an INSTRUMENTAL version of the song (without any words), and sing along to the tape. Perform your song for the audience, and take a bow at the end when they applaud. You’re on the road to becoming a pop star! Now it’s time to go back to section 1, and start writing your next song – you can’t keep your new fans waiting!

WWW Record your song as a computer file, and e-mail it to [email protected] so that others can hear it online!

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