Fun Games For Kids
Kids love to play and be happy. As parents, guardians and teachers, it is our duty to teach them fun games that will help them develop their minds and creative skills while having fun.
In this article, we have compiled a list of fun indoor and outdoor games that will help make your kids happy, active and smart.
Fun Indoor Games For Kids
1. Pitching Pennies
How to play:
- Place the cup on a chair on the table in front of the children
- Give each child 5 coins each
- You can ask the child to take a few steps away from the cup in accordance with his age
- Explain to your child that he has to toss the coins, one at a time, into the cup
- The person with the most coins in the cup wins
2. Follow the leader
How to play:
- Select different themes for the game. It could be physical activity, gestures, or expressions
- You can be the leader or give each child a chance to be the leader
- All the players will have to mimic what the leader does, jumping, dancing, laughing, etc
3. Card Games
How to play:
- You can play simple kids card games like spoons, trash, cards, memory card (needs two decks), crazy eights (where you need to get rid of all your cards), etc.
- Go fish is a simple card game that is ideal for pre-schoolers.
4. Ice Tower Excavation
How to play:
- Place the toys in the container and fill it with clear water
- Place this container in the freezer until the water turns to ice, and the toys are trapped inside
- Ease this ice block out of the container and arm your child with tools like salt, eye drops, and squeeze bottles to melt the ice and rescue the toy
5. Paper Bag Skits
How to play:
- Form groups of kids and give each group a paper bag filled with different props
- Tell them to create a small skit using the props they have received
- After 15 minutes, allow each group enough time to showcase what they have planned
6. Treasure Hunt
How to play:
- Hide treats or coins in various places like under the bed or in cereal boxes along with clues to the next location, creating a trail
- Give your child a hint to where the first clue is and let him find the rest on his own
7. Bubbles
How to play:
- Place a small amount of dishwashing soap on a plate and pour some water on it and mix it until some suds begin to form
- Ask your child to place one end of the straw in the suds and blow gently from the other end to make bubbles
8. Playdough
How to play:
- Set your child at a table or in his room with play dough and ask him to create anything that he likes
9. Simon Says
How to play:
- Instruct your kids that they are to do what you say only if you start the command with the phrase ‘Simon says…’
- If you say anything without saying the phrase, they aren’t supposed to do it. If they do, they will be out of the game.
- The last person to follow all the commands accurately wins and gets to become the next Simon.
10. Hot Potato
How to play:
- Make them sit in a circle and pass the potato to each other
- Play music
- Stop the music, and the kid with the potato is out. The last one to remain wins
11. Hide and seek
How to play:
- Ask one child to close his eyes and count till 20 until the rest of them hide in different places
- Once the seeker is done with counting, he will have to go to find others
- The first person to be caught has to count the next time when the others hide again
12. Freeze
How to play:
- Play music and dance till the music stops and ask everyone to freeze in the position they were in.
13. Dominoes
How to play:
- Stack the dominoes in the pattern and arrangement that your child prefers. You can help your child with this.
- Once all the pieces are set, you can ask your child to flip the first piece and watch as the rest follow suit.
14. Puzzles
How to play:
- Explain to your child that he needs to set the pieces of the puzzle together to form a picture in case of a picture puzzle
- If you have younger children, you can try some 3D puzzles toys
- Words puzzles are excellent for older kids in order to improve their vocabulary
15. Balancing Beam
How to play:
- Stick different coloured tapes tape on the floor
- Each coloured tape can have a different rule to walk on. For example, you can ask the kid to walk on one leg on the red coloured tape
- The child has to walk only on the tape. If he falls off the tape, he’ll be out of the game.
- The child that walks the entire length of the tape without falling off the tape wins the game
Best Outdoor Games For Kids
1. Four Square
How to play:
- Each child stands in a square.
- The child in square 1 is the server and bounces the ball to any of the other squares.
- The child in that square must then hit the ball into another square without letting it bounce more than once in his own square.
- If he misses, or if the ball bounces more than once, that player is out (which is a good way to rotate in other kids if there are more than four children playing).
- If there are only four players in the game, then the child who missed the ball has to go to the fourth, or “ace” place.
- The object of the game is to be in the “king” spot the longest.
2. Sardines
How to play:
- One person who is “it” hides and everyone else looks for him.
- Each player that finds “it” joins him or her in the hiding place.
- As the players find “it,” one by one, they all crowd into the hiding place and end up packed together like sardines in a can (hence the name of the game).
- The last person to find the hiding place is the next one to be “it.”
3. Hopscotch
How to play:
- Using chalk, draw the hopscotch pattern on any concrete floor outside. If you’re playing on sand, use a stick to draw the outline.
- Usually, hopscotch is a numbered pattern where each box pattern is numbered from 1 to 9 or 10.
- Taking turns, each participant throws a small pebble so that it stays within the boundary of a numbered box. As the game progresses, each player hops from one box to another.
- Whoever reaches the highest level (throwing the pebble in the box with the highest number), wins.
4. Gilli Danda
How to play:
- It is played with a long wooden stick called danda and a gilli, which is a small oval-shaped piece of wood.
- Players stand in a small circle. The player who is going to hit the gilli holds it tangentially (like a see-saw) on the ground using the danda. He/she then hits the gilli to make it flip in the air.
- While it is flipping in the air, the player strikes the gilli again, hitting it as far as possible. After striking the gilli, the player runs to a pre-decided point (which counts as one run) before the gilli hits the ground or is caught by another player.
5. SPUD
How to play:
- Start with a person in the middle. That person is the thrower, or “it”. Everyone else should stand within arm’s reach of the thrower.
- The thrower tosses the ball straight up into the air. As soon as the ball is released, players begin to run away from the thrower. When the thrower catches the ball on its way back down, he yells, “Spud!” at which point players immediately freeze where they are.
- The thrower then tries to tag a player with the ball. The frozen player can try to dodge the ball but is not allowed to move his or her feet. If the player is hit, he or she will get the letter “S” and move to the middle to be the next thrower.
- If the thrower misses, then the thrower repeats steps 2 and 3.
- The game is played until a player gets all four letters “S-P-U-D,” which means she is out of the game. The game continues until there is only one player left. That player is the winner.
6. Limbo in the Garden
How to play:
- On two sticks (or poles if available), vertically placed a metre apart, tie a strong rope or string.
- The height of the string should reach your child’s neck in the first round.
- Play music using a phone or a handy music player and take turns to Limbo! Limbo is a dance form and while dancing you need to go under the rope, tummy side up, without any part of the body touching the rope/string.
- In every round, the height of the rope is lowered so that eventually it’s almost impossible to cross the rope from under it.
7. Dog and the bone
How to play:
- Two teams of children are made to stand opposite each other at a minimum distance or two metres.
- Place a ball, a large unbreakable toy, or even a bean bag between the teams.
- One member per team comes forward and tries to get the item placed at the centre.
- The player to get to the item first wins. Most number of winners from a particular team means that team wins.
8. Marble Pond Game
How to play:
- Place several marbles in a huge bucket or tub and fill it with water. You can use a toy swimming pool as well.
- The person who gets the most marbles out of the water in a minute’s time wins!
9. Red Light, Green Light
How to play:
- One person is designated as the “stoplight.” The stoplight stands with his back toward the other players, who stand about 15 to 20 feet away from him.
- The stoplight calls out “green light!” which signals the players to begin moving toward him. Then the stoplight yells, “red light!” and turns around. If any player is caught moving when the stoplight turns around, that player is out.
- The game is over if all the players are out before anyone reaches the stoplight or if someone tags the stoplight.
- If a player reaches the stoplight, that person gets to be the stoplight in the next game.
10. Crayon Rubbing
How to play:
- Once the group knows how to make a crayon rubbing, ask the kids to run around the yard to make crayon rubbings of as many different types of leaves as they can in 25 mins.
- Encourage them to look closely and find leaves of varying shapes, sizes, and even leaves that have special features (like tears, bug bite marks, etc.) To save your landscaping, tell them that the leaves must already be lying on the ground.
- The child that comes back with the most crayon rubbings of different types of leaves is the winner.
- To continue playing, kids can go back out to make as many crayon rubbings as they can of different tree trunks, rocks, or anything else with an interesting surface.