Appropriate age group(s):
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Time needed:
Weekend

Description:
For a young baseball fan, this room will be a dream come true! The stadium wraps around the wall and is filled with cheering fans. The scoreboard (bulletin board) names your child as the MVP! An astroturf baseball diamond is a great play rug. Plus, with all the added little touches, your childĘs room will be the envy of the neighborhood!

Materials:
1 quart green paint

2? brush paint roller

Plastic tarp

Masking tape

Paint tray

Small tubes of flesh-colored paint and a variety of bright colors

Artists' brushes

Tape measure

Team pennants

Baseball themed bedding (Domestications has a cute and inexpensive set with curtains to match!)

Large green chalkboard

6?x 8?piece of green indoor/outdoor carpet

Scissors

Baseball beanbag (Wal-mart)

Wooden bats

1 quart green chalkboard style paint

Instructions:
1. Remove furniture from the room.

2. Mask all moldings with making tape.

3. Lay plastic tarp and secure with masking tape.

4. Now, get a pencil and a tape measure and go to the corner of the room that will be home to the stadium filled with happy baseball fans. Make a mark with your pencil about six feet up the wall. Using the tape measure, measure six feet from the corner along the floor molding on each side and make marks with your pencil.

5. Using your pencil and the top mark as the height of the arch, draw a curved line down to meet the mark on one wall. Repeat this to make the other half of the arch on the other wall. You should now have a full arch that spans two walls.

6. Use your 2? paintbrush and green paint to paint along the arch and the floor molding.

7. Use your paint roller to fill in the arched space.

8. After the green paint has dried, get out you multi-colored paints and artists' brushes to paint in the fans.

9. Start by painting flesh-colored circles sporadically within the green area. The circles should be about six inches in diameter.

10. After you have a number of circles where you want them, use various colors of paint to add eyes, noses, mouths (some of them "O" shaped to suggest cheering), hair and baseball caps. You can even paint raised stick arms on some and cut elongated triangles from felt to represent waving pennants. If you go with the felt pennants, simply attach them to the wall with tacks or tiny nails. You do not need to add a lot of detail unless you really want to.

11. On to the scoreboard. Use a straight edge and a pencil to draw a horizontal rectangle on one wall. The bottom edge should be 3 feet from the floor and the entire rectangle should measure about four feet long by three feet high.

12. Use your clean 2? paintbrush to cut in around the inside of your guidelines with the green chalkboard paint. Fill in the remainder of the rectangle with the chalkboard paint.

13. Use white chalk to draw boxes for ?HOME? and ?VISITOR? scores, ?INNINGS? and number of balls, strikes and outs. At the bottom of the board, list your child as the MVP!

14. Lay green indoor/outdoor carpet on the floor in the room and use chalk to make cutting lines. Use a picture of a baseball diamond to determine how to shape corners. Cut along chalk lines and move the rug into position.

15. Return the furniture to the room and dress the bed with baseball bedding.

16. Remember the baseball bats I listed in ?Materials?? You will need to have a carpenter cut those in half, longways, unless you have the appropriate tools and skills to do it yourself.

17. Screw the flat side of the half bats onto your curtain rod brackets for a fun and unique touch (curtain rods with curtains should slide in behind bats).

18. Hang team pennants around the room and toss baseball bean bag in a corner.

19. If child? dresser has knob pulls, replace with cute little baseball pulls that can be purchased at Target.

20. Now, let your little one have a sleepover and serve hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jacks!