Star Wars Birthday Party Game: Ewok Escape!

Our Jedi pretended they were on the forest moon of Endor.  Their mission was to help an Ewok escape from Storm Trooper attack into the forest tree canopy.

To make the Ewok, I scanned in a photo of Wicket from one of our Star Wars books. I glued him to some card stock and cut him out. Then, I taped two one-inch sections of drinking straw to his back, vertically. Lastly, I ran a long length of thin cord/rope (6 feet or so) through the loops and knotted the ends.



The game took place in front of our fireplace. I laid a lighted fir garland (Christmas type) on top of the mantle for a forest canopy effect, and hung a large blue-green painted circle paper planet above.  With more time, I would have added greenery to hang down and cover the mantel completely. But luckily, my crowd had good imaginations and no one complained about the minimalist scenery! 

The Ewoks would climb on ropes hung from screw hooks underneath the mantel that we normally use for hanging Christmas stockings.  AT-AT's crudely made from my son's mega blocks waited ominously below.

To make the Ewoks climb up, the Jedi worked in pairs. Each Jedi grabbed one end of the rope. When they gently pulled in opposite directions, the Ewok went up.

The kids had so much fun with this we had to do it a couple of times. I really liked the teamwork needed to accomplish this game. If one kid pulled harder than the other, the Ewok didn't climb as well.  I got the idea for this game from the old-fashioned wood climbing toys that function similarly.

 

The prize for this game was... an Ewok finger puppet... imagine that!  :)