Time Out Thursdays: File Folder Games

In my quest for new learning material for my son, I came across this awesome website called Mormon Chic! The writers over at Mormon Chic offer some amazing ideas for just about anything you can think of!

One of the things that I fell in love with were these File Folder Games. In my opinion, they're about the cutest thing ever and I have so many different options and ideas floating around in my brain now too.

This is the Noah's Ark version that they offer. One sheet prints out with just the ark and water. The other sheet lets you cut around the animals (2 of each) and Noah. I think I did mine a little differently than they intended though. Before I had them laminated, I glued one of each animal to the ark, and then then had one of each animal laminated separately so that my son can practice matching them up. Also, their directions don't say anything about lamination - that was my idea so that they can be used for a longer period of time. I also did the shape matching game and the family tree.

After I glued one sheet onto one side of the inside of a file folder, I took everything over to FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) and had them laminated. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the quality of the lamination of the file folders. There are air bubbles in the middle (which make them look deformed) and some of the other things I had laminated (Quiet Books - next week's post) didn't seal correctly. I definitely think I'll be finding someone else for any future lamination needs. But that's another story.

After everything was laminated and trimmed, I used some double sided tape on the animal cutouts. I don't recommend double sided tape though. Since there are air pockets, the folders don't lay evenly, so the tape doesn't stick well. Luckily I had some blue tacky stuff that works even better than the tape. The tacky stuff raises them off the folder just a little bit which makes it easier for little, uncoordinated fingers to remove and replace.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. My son's already used them at home and enjoys going over the name and sounds of each animal and trying to match them properly.