Bowl-A-Rama Game Night
How Lamar’s Bad Prank Won a Bubba Sized Trophy
Crystal Allen
1. Purpose: To promote the library and to provide a recreational time for middle school students.
2. Detailed description:
This program is modeled on a bowling alley atmosphere like Strikers, the bowling alley in How
Lamar’s Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy. Like a bowling alley, it can include concessions,
arcade games, and pool games. There is a basketball component in honor of Lamar’s brother
Xavier.
The program can be done entirely on computers, completely without electronics, or some
combination of both.
If the facility can accommodate food and drinks, have a concession stand with pizza, chili dogs,
nachos, sandwiches (hamburgers optimal, but other types such as submarine sandwiches,
chicken patties, or fish might be possibilities as well) and soft drinks in cans or bottles. The
concession stand would need several volunteers to help with food preparation and collection of
money. Consider charging enough to break even, make a small profit, or ask for monetary
donations so the food would be available at no cost. This can be simplified by just having chips
and soft drinks if funds and/or volunteers are not available. Donations of food from local
businesses, or volunteers might provide and prepare the food.
Suggestions for games:
Bowling: Buy an inexpensive bowling game at Oriental Trading Company, or also make bowling
pins with one or two liter bottles (begin saving these early, and have other staff members collect
as well). Fill them about 1/4 of the way with sand or pea gravel so they will stand up better.
There are also several online bowling games that participants can play free. These are noted in
the Resources for Participants.
As an alternative, consider having gaming consoles available or rent or borrow them (PS3 or PS4,
Xbox 360 or Xbox One with Kinect, or Nintendo Wii) there are bowling games to go with these.
Several well-reviewed ones are available from online vendors, as noted in the resource list
below.
Basketball: A good, inexpensive indoor option for basketball is a Nerfoop, available from
Amazon and major big-box retailers. Or, make them using the resource listed in the Professional
Resources section, and use real basketballs, inflatable beachball-type balls, or playground balls.
Basketball is available on the Kinect Sports Rivals game for Xbox One.
Pool: Purchase a fairly inexpensive tabletop pool game from Amazon or Walmart. There are
instructions for making one in the Professional Resources list but it seems less expensive and
surely less work to purchase it. Or, play pool using a game console. Game Party 3, noted for Wii
but also available for the Nintendo game console, has a pool game.
Arcade games: Play many of these sorts of games, like PacMan, Pinball, Centipede, and others,
online with any computer. Selections are included in the Resources for Participants.
Schedule an amount of time that is long enough for everyone to have an opportunity to play a
variety of games, but not so long that they get bored; perhaps 2 to 3 hours, depending on the
population.
Make sure to begin planning with plenty of advance time, at least several months in advance if
planning alone, or a little less time (six weeks minimum, probably) if there is help from other
staff members and/or volunteers.
3. Program related books to display:
Abramovitz, Melissa. Bowling. Lucent, 2014 (non-fiction, grades 5-8)
Cruickshank, Don. Bowling. AV2 by Weigl, 2014. (non-fiction, grades 3-6)
Forrest, A. J, and Lisa Iannucci. Bowling for Dummies. N.p., For Dummies, 2010. (Adult)
Grinfelds, Vesma. Right down your alley : the complete book of bowling New York: Wadsworth,
2011 (Adult)
Walker, Niki, and Sarah Dann. Marc Crabtree, ill. Bowling in Action. New York: Crabtree, 2003
(non-fiction, grades 3-6)
Werner, Doug. Bowler’s startup: A beginner’s guide to bowling. Tracks, 1995.
4. List of supplies:
Disposable plates, cups, napkins, and plasticware for serving food
Food and drink (Chips and dip; sandwich ingredients such as cold cuts, lettuce, tomatoes,
pickles; pizza; hot dogs; chili; Nacho cheese; sodas; water, etc.)
Bowling games, either purchased or made
Pool games, either purchased or made
Basketball games, either purchased or made
Computers
Game consoles and gaming software or online passcodes (optional)
Incentives/prizes, either purchased or made
Trash bags
5. Incentives: Bowling themed party favors and/or prizes may be given. Oriental Trading
Company has some good suggestions, which are noted in the Professional Resources List.
Printed certificates using templates from Microsoft Word are another option.
6. Resources for participants:
Online bowling
http://www.gamesgames.com/games/bowling
http://espn.go.com/free-online-games/sports/_/gid/32/club-300-bowling (this one's really
fun!);
http://www.sportgamesarena.com/bowling-games/
Arcade games
http://www.arcadegames.com/
http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/arcade-games/
http://www.kids-online.net/arcade/arc_frame.html
http://www.freewebarcade.com/arcade-classics-2.php#main
7. Professional Resources
Bowling, Pool, and Basketball game supplies and sources to purchase:
Bowling games from Oriental Trading Company
http://www.orientaltrading.com/bowling-set-a2-16_62.fltr?Ntt=bowling
http://www.orientaltrading.com/glow-in-the-dark-bowling-set-a2-13697413.fltr?Ntt=bowling
Bowling for game consoles:
http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Playstation/dp/B00005BZGI for PS4,
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Bowling-X/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115d8025855018d from Xbox Live
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/games/kinect-sports-rivals for Xbox One with Kinect
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Party-3-NintendoWii/dp/B002K9VIAU/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1456347977&sr=12&keywords=wii+bowling+games for Wii (there is a bowling ball controller for Wii as well, but it
is not for the limited budget).
Other games
From Amazon.com:
Mini Table Top Pool Table with Cues, Triangle and Chalk 1-$18.53
Harvil Tabletop Pool Table with Accessories -$39.99
Ideal Rack’Em Tabletop Pool-$22.11
Nerfhoop Basketball game
From Walmart.com:
Ideal Rack’Em Tabletop Pool-$22.11
Trademark Games Mini Table Top Pool Table With Accessories-$18.53
Bowling, Pool, and Basketball game supplies to Make:
Bowling pins
http://www.ehow.com/how_2282771_make-bowling-pins-plastic-bottles.html
http://kid-games.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-bowling-pins-out-empty-water-bottles78835/
http://www.mademan.com/mm/make-plastic-bowling-pins.html
Pool Table
http://www.ehow.com/how_2323103_make-mini-pool-table.html
Basketball Hoop
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Inside-Basketball-Hoop-for-Your-Room
For Incentives:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/bowling-trophies-a2-42_2186.fltr?Ntt=bowling
http://www.orientaltrading.com/mini-bowling-sets-a2-20_168.fltr?Ntt=bowling
http://www.orientaltrading.com/bowling-pin-shaped-pens-a2-42_2756.fltr?Ntt=bowling
8. Bulletin board/decoration:
Decorate the space with pictures and/or posters of bowling activities. Use images from the
Internet.
9. Program poster/flyer:
Make these using templates from Microsoft Word or Publisher.