Children's Activities

Children’s Activities Ideas to keep your 6 to 10-year-old busy Thoughtful Activities What’s in the Bag? o Paper bag o Four or five small household items or toys Fill a paper bag with four or five small items or toys. You can use batteries, marbles, grapes, an olive or nuts. Look around your home to see what else you can come up with. Have your child reach into the bag and try to identify the objects in it without looking. Have your child challenge a parent, sibling, or friend to identify the objects in the same way. Observation o Fifteen to twenty small items (key, bottle cap, paper clip, coin) o Flat surface, tray, tabletop o Towel or sheet o Paper o Pencils Place fifteen to twenty small household items on a flat surface. Cover the objects with a towel or a sheet. Have the players stand around the tray or table so each has a good view. Remove the sheet or towel and let the players look at the objects for one to two minutes. Then cover the objects again. Give each player a sheet of paper and pencil. Challenge the players to write down as many objects as they can recall. The winner is the player who correctly recalls the most objects. If a young child who can’t write is playing, pair them with an older child or adult. After the younger child has viewed the objects, have them dictate what they recall to their partner, who writes it down. Alphabet Game Pick a theme appropriate for all players, then begin with the letters of the alphabet, naming names or things that belong to the theme. For example, if the theme is “Animals” the players will say: Anaconda, bat, cat, duck. They continue to go through the whole alphabet. Here are some theme ideas to get your child started. ● Countries ● Cartoons/ cartoon characters ● Food ● Kitchen items ● Drinks ● Movies Questions One player thinks of an object and the other player can ask up to 20 questions to guess what it is. You can set parameters on what kind of objects to guess and if it is an easy object lower the number of questions to 10. What’s Different? Stand in front of your child and tell them to study you. Leave the room and change something about your appearance. For example, you might turn your baseball cap backward or remove a sweatshirt. Return to your child and challenge them to tell what's different. 1 Physical Activities Some of these activities require more than 2 players and/or open space to move around Long Jump o String or tape A solid object to act as a marker (plastic lid, bingo chip, piece of paper) Mark a starting line with string or tape. Have your child stand at the starting line and jump forward. Place marker where they land. Have them jump again. If the second jump is farther than the first, move the marker to the second landing spot. Have your child jump 5 times. Leave the marker at the farthest landing spot. Let each child have a turn jumping as described above. The child who jumps the farthest wins. Discus Throw o String or tape o Paper plates Mark a square at one end of a room with string or tape. Have your child stand back several feet and try to throw paper plates into the square. A child playing alone can see how many plates land in the square in a designated time. Two or more children can take turns throwing plates to see who has more successful throws. The kids can color-code their plates or decorate them with their name. Javelin Throw o Tape or string o Toothpicks Mark two lines a few feet apart on the floor with tape or string. Give each player five toothpicks. Have the players take turns standing behind the lines and throwing their toothpicks, one at a time, toward the second line. Award points for toothpicks that cross or touch the line. The child with the most points wins. Shot Put o Tape or string o Balloons Mark two lines several feet apart on the floor with tape or string. Give each player a balloon to blow up and use for the game. Have the players take turns standing behind one of the lines and throwing their balloons, one at a time, toward the second line. Balloons won’t travel far, so any player whose balloon crosses or touches the line deserves a prize! Feel free to choose the prize that is appropriate for your child: ice cream, a walk outside, TV time. Newspaper Golf o Newspaper o Tape o Masking tape, paper, or empty tin cans o One golf or tennis ball per player Make a “golf club” for each player by rolling up several sheets of newspaper and taping them securely. Mark several “holes” on the floor with masking tape, sheets of paper, or empty cans lying on their sides. Have your child use their club to try to roll the ball into the holes. 2 Jump the River o Rope or string Mark two lines two feet apart on the floor with rope or string to make a “creek.” Have each player take a turn jumping across the creek. Widen the creek by moving the ropes apart another three or four inches. Have the players jump again. Keep widening the creek and having the players jump until they fail to make it across. The winner is the player who’s able to cross the widest creek. Pillowcase Race o Tape or string o One pillowcase per player Mark two lines about ten feet apart on the floor with a tape or string. Have each player stand inside a pillowcase, holding its top, at the starting line. At your signal, have the players jump to the finish line in their pillowcases. The winner is the first to reach the finish line. Scavenger Hunt o Grocery bag o List of things to collect Give your child a grocery bag and a list of things to collect. The list may include things like a small toy, a Lego, a comb, a book, or anything else your child can find indoors. Set a time limit - perhaps twenty minutes for ten objects. (If the items are obvious and easy to find, you can shorten the time.) If your child isn’t reading independently yet, draw pictures instead of writing a list of words. For group play, prepare one list for each child. You can make the list of objects the same for each player or have players look for different things. The first player to find all the items on the list is the winner. Cards in a Hat o Hat o Playing Cards Put the hat on the floor in the middle of a room. Have your child stand at a distance from the hat and try tossing cards into the hat one at a time. Keep track of how many make it in, then play again so he can try to improve his record. For two players, separate the red and black cards. For three or four players, divide the cards by suit. Give one set to each child and have the children stand at equal distances from the hat and take turns tossing cards. Whenever a player gets a card in the hat, he gets another try. When all the cards have been tossed, the player with the most cards in the hat wins the round. Table Hockey o Blocks or hardcover books o Popsicle sticks o Wad of paper Create a rectangular “rink” on a large table or the floor by lining up blocks or hardcover books to make walls. Leave an opening at each end of the rink to make goals. The Players use popsicle sticks to shoot a wad of paper (the “puck”) toward each other’s goals and to guard their own goals. Let the kids play hockey-style (each player tries to gain possession of the puck and then score) or penalty shot-style (the players take turns trying to score). 3 Shuffleboard o Four or five flat, circular, unbreakable objects (lids from milk jugs or baby food jars, plastic hockey pucks, or checkers) o Ruler Seat your child at the edge of a table with four or five flat, circular, unbreakable objects in front of them. If possible, use similar items rather than a mixture of objects. Ask your child to try to slide the objects one at a time toward the opposite end of the table without sending them over the edge. Award points as follows: one point for coming within six inches of the edge, two points for coming within one inch of the edge, three points for touching the edge, and four points for hanging over the edge and not falling. Penny Hunt o Pennies o One cup or dish per player Have all the kids leave the room while you hide the pennies everywhere- under cushions, in drawers, behind curtains, on top of books, and so on. Have all the kids return and give each a cup or dish. At your signal, have the players start searching for pennies. After five minutes, call off the hunt and have the players count their pennies. The player with the most pennies wins. Blindfold Hunt o One blindfold per player o Pennies, cotton balls o One bag per player Use a large, open room for this game. Remove any objects that may be dangerous if children crawl into or knock them over.

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