Teen Cafe - Catching Fire

Last month at Teen Café we had a very small group - 4 people - so we spent a lot of time sitting around and talking. That was fun in itself, but we wanted to plan some activities that would spark the interest of kids who haven't come before. For this month, they settled on a Catching Fire party.

 

Not knowing how many we would have, I planned activities that could be done singly or in groups, and with any number of participants.  We ended up with 9, which worked out well.

 

When kids came in, they had time to grab some snacks and form alliances if they so chose. For snacks we had Peeta's Bakery (pound cake, donuts, garlic bread sticks) and Katniss's Foraging Stash (nuts, dried fruits, beef jerky).

 

Each individual tribute or alliance group then chose a district from a stack of district seals I had printed out, and the games began.

 

First, we need food! I printed out pictures of various edible and nonedible plants, and told them this was what they could find in the arena.  

 

 

Each district took a turn picking something to eat - if it was edible, they earned five points. If not, they died. But, just for this round!

 

Now we needed shelter. I had a shortage of trees, banana leaves, and kudzu vines in my supply closet, so we made due with chairs, newspapers, and tape. Each team had twenty minutes to build a shelter at least one person could hide in.

 

These two went with sturdiness over speed:

 

It would have worked great if the had more time, but at the end they were rushed trying to assemble it all.

 

District 1 showed they weren't all about luxury, earning extra points for fitting BOTH tributes inside with nary a shoelace showing!

 

Next was weaponry. One representative from each district got a blow gun (straw) and weaponry (marshmallow). They had five shots...

 

 

...at President Snow, and earned points for each hit.

 

Let's not tell the custodian we were shooting marshmallow bits at the wall, shall we? Thanks.

 

Last but not least (and certainly not quietest), we had a tracker jacker attack! Each tribute had seven tracker jackers (colored dot stickers) that they needed to get off themselves and onto other tributes (or, onto the papers on their backs, anyway). The next ten minutes were a mix of absolute stillness as everyone stood with their backs to the wall to protect them,

 

 

and bursts of activity as everyone decided to attack at once.

 

Running from tracker jackers makes you very blurry.

Oops! Paper came off!

They call this the Tracker Jacker Dance.

 The tribute with the least number of stings at the end of ten minutes earned 20 points for that district, and then all points were tallied up.

 

 

The tribute in the yellow shirt, from District 4, was the winner, earning a hardcover copy of Catching Fire.

 

Next month: Napoleon Dynamite! And yes, there will be tater tots.