When we went to the Open House at my son’s preschool, the P.E. teacher had these awesome little boards where the child launches a bean bag by stomping on the opposite end and then attempts to catch it. After a little research, I found out that these are called “Joey Jumps” and you can expect to pay almost $30 for ONE board!
Instead of buying one, we decided to make our own for about $5, including the bean rice bags since I already had the extra fabric and rice on hand.
Here’s what you’ll need: a thin board (I bought ours at JoAnn’s–you can see the dimensions on the tag below), a 3-inch piece of PVC (which we had left over from our soccer goals), sandpaper, some gorilla glue, a drill, fabric, rice, and a sewing machine (or you could make these no-sew duct tape bean bags). Optional materials: paint and a paintbrush.
1. Cut your board 28 inches long. Ours was already 4 inches wide. Sand the corners so that they are slightly rounded.
2. Glue the PVC about 6 inches from one end of the board. Once it’s dry, I would recommend drilling two screws from the top of the board into the PVC to make sure it holds.
2. Glue a small square of sandpaper on the opposite end, so that the bean bags wouldn’t slide off.
3. Although this step isn’t required, we painted the board as well. I already had some extra latex paint on hand, so this didn’t cost anything.
4. To make the bean bags, cut each piece of fabric 10″ x 5″. Fold with the wrong side out.
5. Sew the remaining 3 sides (you already have the fold), but leave at least an inch or two open.
6. Turn the fabric inside out.
7. Use a funnel to add 1/2 cup of rice and then sew the hole shut.
All ready to go!
You’ll stomp on one side of the board (closest to the PVC pipe) and send the beanbag flying.
This is excellent for hand-eye coordination…not to mention, it is lots of fun! This is our new favorite toy around our house!
Never to be outdone, Big Brother attempts to catch two beanbags at once.
Little Brother was so excited that he caught it!
I also made a bag to keep everything in (which would also make a great gift). I just used some leftover fabric and sewed the 3 edges inside-out. I also made one strap to carry it. All-in-all, this little bag took less than 15 minutes to make (and believe me, I am still not very good at sewing).
It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas gifts! The options are endless for ways that you can customize the board (and the beanbags) for the special child in your life!
This is awesome! Love simple but fun toys like this…very open ended! I picture my son using this as a part time car ramp haha…def will be enlisting my husband to put this together for him! Thanks!
Oh I have a little guy who would just love this!! And I could totally see him using it as a car ramp too!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Great idea Jenae! Thanks! : )
We’ll be making one of these for our boys and I love the idea of making a gift out of it! Thanks so much for the detailed instructions and great photos!!
Great tutorial! I have 3 grandsons under 4, and I can see this as a very popular activity. In Winter finding gross motor activities for inside gets difficult. This one could really facilitate some play!
What a fun idea! My boys would think that is about the funnest thing ever. I might save it for next summer when we are stuck playing indoors due to the intense heat…
This is so going on my husband’s to-do list! Thanks for sharing.
We’re making these for Christmas presents. Have you had any issue with the points of the screws in the open PVC cavity? My DH broke one pipe trying to plug it, then just cut the screws flush on the others since they’re going in homes with itty bitty siblings. We hoping the glue and what’s left of the screws is enough strength, but we had very sharp screw ends within easy reach otherwise. I’d be interested to know what others have done about this, if anything. I’m really looking forward to the kids playing this weekend (we’re doing our christmas early before traveling so we only have to take the Santa gifts to the Grands and not all of them). Thanks for the great idea!
Thanks for posting this! I am a Music/Movement Specialist/PE teacher, I use launch boards all the time. You not only are working on hand/eye coordination, but also on balance as they child has to balance on one leg before stomping. This also helps with core strength while they are balancing. My kids at school love them, we lauch bean bags and small stuffed animals as well. They love to see how high they can launch items. I make sure they alternate legs to see which leg is stronger.
Thanks again for sharing this.
I would love to this this weekend, Thanks for sharing.
SOOOOO fun! The link for the duct tape bean bags goes to your soccer goal link and I couldn’t find the bean bag page. Can you please share it again for me. I don’t sew :(
Sorry about that! I’m not sure if this was originally the one I intended on posting, but I found this tutorial for no-sew beanbags: http://frugalfun4boys.com/2011/02/03/duct-tape-no-sew-beanbags/