Giant Yard Twister Board

This Instructable is going to show you how to make a GIANT yard Twister board.  We made this in our back yard for my son's 9th birthday party.  It had to be big since we had 20 of my son's friends over for the party.

This was a lot of fun for the birthday party and the kids had a great time.  This is a really easy project.  It just took a little time and some planning.

TOOLS

The tools I used on the project were as follows:

• Hand Saw - for cutting the stakes for the string line
• Rotary Tool - for cutting the bottom out of a bucket
• Hammer - for driving the stakes in the yard for the string line.

MATERIALS

• One each of red, blue and yellow ground marking spray paint in 15 ounce cans.
• Two cans of green ground marking spray paint in 11 ounce cans.
• String for setting up a straight line.
• Scrap piece of wood for two stakes for a string line.
• A 5 gallon bucket.

NOTE: If you plan on using any tool for a project please make sure you are familiar with the tool and all of the dangers associated with it. If you are not familiar with a tool then you should ask someone who is to show you the proper way to use it. A lot of communities have classes at local colleges on the proper use of tools and machinery. There are also local woodworking clubs that offer classes at very reasonable rates for beginners. I highly recommend using these resources for your safety and for the most efficient use of the tool.

SAFETY FIRST
Always wear eye and hearing protection.
Always work safe with the proper safety equipment and guards on your tools.

An old five gallon bucket that used to have joint compound in it was used to make the spray template.

The bottom of the bucket had a 10-1/2 inch diameter.  I cut a 7-inch diameter hole in the bottom of the bucket using a dremel rotary tool, but you could use a jig saw or whatever you have access to.

We thought about making the circles bigger, but if you make them bigger the game gets a lot harder for little kids because the circles are not only bigger, but they are also farther apart.

Lay out a string line to help you get the first row of paint circles straight.  Just remember to line it up in the direction you want the Twister field to be.  Also make it at a minimum the length of the Twister field.  You really only need this for the first row of paint circle.

Just pound in two stakes and run a string between them.  That's all you need.  If you don't have stakes you can always use two trees to run the string between.

I am not responsible for the improper use of spray paint.  If you get it on something other than your yard that is something you are going to have to deal with, so make sure you are a safe distance from everything.  Using the bucket does eliminate most of the overspray and additional spray paint from drifting around.

I wanted to follow the same pattern for the circle colors as the Twister mat, so I started the first row of circles as red and then when on to blue, yellow, and last green.

Paint a red circle with the bucket just touching the string line.  Then paint the second circle with the edge of the bucket just touching the edge of the first circle.  Do this for all of the following circles and they will be consistently spaced.

Keep painting circles until you have them the length of the Twister field you want to create.

Now that you have the first full row of paint circles you need to change colors and start on the next color - blue.

Set the bucket beside the first red paint circle and paint a blue circle.  Continue painting the blue circles with the bucket just touching the previous blue circle and the adjacent red circle until you have a full row of blue circles.

Once you have the full rows of all 4 colors painted you can remove the string line and start the second set of circles.  Our play field is 8 circles wide, but you can make it as wide and long as you like.  It just depends on how much of the ground marking paint you want to use.

Make sure the paint is dry before you start using the Twister field.  This is an important step!  You don't want your kids to ruin their clothes or shoes.  You certainly don't want anything tracked into you house either.

Another thing to think about is neighborhood kids.  Kids don't usually think about the possibility of paint being wet so you may want to stand guard on the paint until it dries.

Our paint dried within a couple hours, but this will depend on how wet or dry your yard is, temperature, wind, etc.

Now get the Twister board spinner and start calling out directions to the kids.

If you don't have a Twister board you can always just call out random combinations.

We had 20 kids on our Twister board and had plenty of room.

Remember, if one of the kids starts saying the game is too easy you can start calling out whatever makes it harder for them and turns them into a pretzel.  Just make sure you actually give the spinner a whirl before you call something out or the kids may call you out for not playing nice.

Have fun with it and it should last for a week or two.  If your lawn starts getting a little long you will find that after you mow your Twister board will look great again.

If you have left over ground paint you can use it to make bases in your yard for kickball, baseball, or other games.  Get creative and come up with your own games!