Keeping kids busy can be challenging at times, but thankfully, you can do thousands of great activities with them. Anything from arts and crafts to physical games and even cool science experiments will do. The trick is to prepare an activity list to prevent you from running out of ideas. Group activities are great for entertaining all the children simultaneously.
Variety is essential, and activities should include arts and crafts, science, reading, writing, identifying, strategizing, and most importantly, they should be fun and exciting. Otherwise, they will lose interest, and you will have difficulty regaining their attention.
If you are looking for some fun things to do with your kids, look no further! This article will provide the ultimate list of 50 fun activities for kids!
1. DIY Fairy Jar
All you need is a mason jar or any other glass jar with a lid, glowsticks, and glitter to create magical fairy jars.
Choose any color glowstick, cut the stick open, pour the liquid into the jar, add as much glitter as you want, close the lid, and shake the jar vigorously to coat the entire inside of the jar.
2. DIY Foam Paint
This is the perfect group activity for kids, and you only need three ingredients; a few drops of food coloring, one part shaving foam, and one part school glue.
Place all the ingredients in a ziplock bag, seal it tight and squish the contents around until combined. Kids can pipe the foam into shapes, and it hardens into puffy, foamy sculptures overnight.
3. DIY Glow Bubbles
Kids can make their bubbles glow in the dark by mixing highlighter fluid into their bubble mixture. Pull the ink stick out of the highlighter with pliers and place it into the bubble mix overnight.
Go into a very dark room, switch on the blacklight and let the fun begin! The bubble looks beautiful as they glow and float around the room.
4. DIY Crystal Names
Help the children to bend white pipe cleaners into the letters of their name. Tie a piece of thread or fishing line to each letter and suspend them from wooden skewers into five-quart containers.
Prepare the borax suspension by mixing three tablespoons of borax per one cup of hot water and mix it until the borax has dissolved.
Add equal parts of the borax liquid into the containers, allow them to add food coloring of their choice to each container, and mix well.
Leave the suspended letters in the containers overnight, and in the morning, you will see crystals starting to form on the pipe cleaner letters.
5. DIY Art Collages
Ask the kids to cut pictures out of magazines, comic books, old disposable picture books, or bring pictures of their favorite things from home. Give every child an A3 sheet of paper and allow them to paint it with watercolors any way they want.
Once dry, let them arrange and glue the pictures onto their poster. Supply them with glitter glues, ink stamps, leaves, confetti, and any other add-ons, and let them decorate their poster any way they choose.
6. DIY Water Balloon Battle
Let the kids change into old clothes and gather them outside, far away from open windows and doors! Fill small balloons with water (not too full) and divide the balloons into two separate baskets or buckets.
Let the kids draw a team name out of a hat or bag (two team names). Once everyone belongs to a team, let the teams stand opposite one another.
They have to try and throw the other team with the balloons and the first team, whose players are all wet, loses.
7. No Hands Get Up
Players must run from one end of the yard to the marked turning point, stop, lie down on their backs, fold their arms across their chest and get up without moving their arms.
Once they are up, they must sprint back to the starting point. The winner gets to select a prize from the trophy table!
8. Dress Your Teacher Race!
Divide the kids into two groups. Fill two boxes with an extravagant outfit in each. Have two adults stand in the front and have the team form two lines, each with a box in the front.
When you blow the whistle, the children in the front of the line must grab a piece of clothing from the box, put it on the adult, and stand at the back of the line. The team that dresses their adult first wins!
9. Duck, Duck, Goose!
Let the children form a circle and sit down. Choose a child to start walking around the outside of the circle and tapping on their heads, and saying “duck.” They must continue going around until they decide to say “goose!”
The child, who is the goose, must jump up and run to try and catch the kid that “goosed” him. When he catches him, the kid must sit down, and he now has to do the same as the first kid.
10. Build A Fort
Help the children to build a fort using all kinds of furniture like chairs and high cupboards. Drape large sheets over the fort until it is completely covered. Make snacks and drinks for the kids and allow them to have some fun in their cool fort.
11. Plant Flowers Or Vegetables
Prepare two areas in the garden; one for vegetables and the other one for flowers. Gather everything they’ll need like seeds, a small watering can, and little rakes and spades. Teach them how to plant and care for their plants and vegetables each day.
12. Go To The Movies
Find a great kiddies movie and book tickets online for a group of children. Remember to be there before the time to get popcorn and drinks for the movie. This activity is suggested for children five years and older.
13. Guess The Item Box
Remove (cut off) one side of a cardboard box. Turn the box on its side with the open side facing forward. Cut two holes out of the back of the box, big enough to fit a child’s hands.
Place strange objects inside the box and let the kids take turns to put their hands through the holes, pick up an object in the box and try to guess what they are holding.
14. Obstacle Course Race
Build an obstacle course outside with the following obstacles:
- Hopscotch
- Leopard crawl
- Walk on a balance beam
- Throw a bean bag into a basket
- Jump up and down ten times and shout “whoo-hoo” with every jump
- Pick up a hula hoop and hula for five seconds
- RACE TO THE FINISH LINE!
15. Plastic Bowling Bottles
Fill ten 1 liter bottles with water and pack them in the correct bowling ball formation at the end of the barricaded lane. Repeat this until you have as many lanes as you need.
Divide the kids into equal teams and give each team a baseball to try and hit the pins (bottles). Prepare scorecards for each team and let the games begin. The winning team gets the prize!
16. Three-legged Race
This game will never get old! Tell the children to buddy up and put their arms around each other’s shoulders. Tie their legs to each other in the middle and let the teams race to the finish line. The winners receive a fabulous prize!
17. Spin The Wheel Of Deeds
Create a wheel that can spin with pins and cardboard. Divide the wheel into sections (like a pizza), and when the children spin the wheel, they have to do the deed they land on.
Include actions like finding a specific object or standing on one leg for twenty seconds. You can make up the deeds yourself.
18. Scavenger Hunt
Make a poster with pictures of twenty different objects. Put it up for everyone to see and tell the kids to find as many objects as possible. Hide the objects inside and outside. The kid with the most objects wins the prize!
19. Monster Box Targets Balloon Art
Paint four different monsters on four cardboard boxes. Cut a big hole where each monster’s mouth is.
Allow the children to choose a ball the same color as the monster and throw it into the monster’s mouth. The game ends when all the balls have been “eaten” by the monsters!
20. Broken Telephone
Let the children make a circle and sit down. Give each child a simple sentence that only they may look at. Randomly choose someone to start.
The chosen kid must whisper his sentence to the person on his left, and that person whispers it to the kid on his left, and so on.
When the last child whispers the sentence to the one whose sentence it was, he needs to say it aloud to see if they passed it on correctly.
21. Hanging Doughnut Eating Challenge
Tie a rope from one pole or tree to another. Tie doughnuts to shorter pieces of string and tie each of the doughnuts to the suspended rope.
Use more rope to tie the children’s hands behind their backs, and when you blow the whistle, they must run to the doughnuts and eat it as fast as possible. The first child to their doughnut is the winner.
22. Action Jenga
This game adds a fun twist to the classic game. Write an action on each block, and when the kids remove a block, they need to perform the action written on the block.
23. Musical Chairs
Place chairs in a circle (1 less than the number of children) and let them stand on the outside of the circle. When you play the music, they must run around the chair, and when the music stops, they quickly need to find a chair.
The child without a chair is out. Remove another chair and start the music again. The game ends when there is one kid and one chair remaining.
24.M&M Tell Us About It Game
Make a poster listing each color in an M&M packet, and next to each color, write;
- Red – What are your three favorite foods?
- Green – What is your favorite thing in the world?
- Yellow – What is your favorite movie?
- Blue – What do you want to be when you grow up?
- Orange – What is your favorite animal?
- Brown – What do you like to do for fun?
Throw the M&Ms into a container, and when they pick up a color, they must answer the question according to the poster.
25. Build A Maze
Create a maze on the grass with poles and barricade tape. Arrange the poles any way you want, and don’t forget to include a few tasks and dead ends on the way. When they complete the tasks and get to the end, they win a prize!
26. Unwrap The Present
Wrap a toy in fifteen layers of newspaper. Tell the kids to make a circle and sit down with their legs crossed. Start playing music on your iPod or CD player and allow the children to pass the present clockwise.
When you pause the music, they must stop passing it on, and the child holding it must unwrap a layer of newspaper.
Carry on until the present is completely unwrapped. The child who unwraps the last layer is the winner, and they get to take the present home.
27. Walk The Balloon To The Finish Line
Tell the kids to pair up with a buddy and stand back-to-back. Place a balloon between their backs, and they must walk the balloon to the finish line. If they drop the balloon, they have to go back to the beginning and start over. The first pair to cross the finish line wins!
28. Alphabet Surprise Cup Board
Make 26 party cup-sized holes in a large sheet of thick cardboard. Place toys or sweets beginning with each letter of the alphabet in a cup; for example, you can put a box of Astros inside the cup marked “A.”
Cover each cup with tissue paper and use the elastic band to secure it around the rim. Use a Sharpie pen to write the letters from A to Z on all the cups. Let the kids draw letters out of a bowl and tell them to smash open the cup with the same letter to reveal their prize.
29. Follow The Leader
Tell the children to form a line, and they have to do everything that the leader in the front does. This is a typical “monkey see, monkey do” activity that is very entertaining for children.
30. Freeze Dancing
This is an entertaining game where all the kids must spread out arm lengths apart, and when you play the music, they must all start dancing!
When the music stops, they must freeze and keep as still as they can. The last child to move is out of the game. Continue until there is only one child left.
31. Simon Says
This is a game for small children where the children sit on the carpet, and you must sit in front of them on a chair facing them. They need to copy each sound or motion you make, for example, “Simon Says look to your left” and so on.
32. Counting Flour Hands
Allow the children to fill two latex gloves, each with flour, from a large container. Once they have finished, help them to tie the gloves like you would a balloon. Call out any number from one to ten, and they must indicate numbers by folding the fingers.
Next, you say plus two, and they need to unfold two fingers. This is a great way to teach small children how to add and subtract.
33. Rock Painting
Give each child five to ten river rocks to paint any way they want. Make sure you have enough colors and paintbrushes available to prevent fighting.
Once they are done painting, let them arrange their rocks in a unique “flower bed” that you have created for them. Paint “The Garden of Friendship” on a board attached to a pole and stick it into the ground.
34. Box Photoshoot Grid Collage
Remove (cut off) one side of a large cardboard box. Position the box with the open side facing you. Provide the kids with all sorts of dress-up props. Let each child choose props to wear, get in the box and pose any way they’d like, and take a picture.
Once everyone’s picture has been taken, create a collage of each “boxed” child onto one poster as a group or class photo!
35. The Wall Of Love (Heart Mosaics)
Give each child a 5.9″ x 5.9″ square block of white paper and ask them to draw and decorate a heart on it. Supply them with pastels, paints, pencils, glitter, and more.
The only rule is that there must be no white spots left on the paper. When they are done, create a heart mosaic grid on the wall, or frame it if you prefer.
36. Make Fluffy Slime
Give each child a mixing bowl and a spoon for mixing. Pour ½ cup of Elmer’s or school glue into each of their bowls. Allow them to add as much shaving cream as they want on top of the glue (the more foam, the fluffier the slime).
Let them mix the two with a spoon and add four or five drops of food coloring to the mixture. They must mix the color into the mixture, and once evenly dispersed, let them knead the slime until it is fluffy and slimy.
37. Oobleck Sensory Guessing Game
Prepare Oobleck in a large dish by mixing two parts cornstarch to 1 part water or until you are happy with the consistency (you can make as much as you would like).
Place small objects and toys in the Oobleck and let the kids guess what items they find just by holding and feeling them. Add some food coloring for extra fun!
38. Water Balloon Fight
This activity is purely about having some water fun on those hot summer days. Fill lots and lots of small colorful balloons with water and them the kids have at it! It will keep them busy for hours!
Please make sure you have enough water balloons to go around, and don’t forget to put sunscreen on the children.
39. Bake And Decorate Cupcakes
Mix enough cupcake batter for everyone to make two cupcakes. Make different colors of icing and have all sorts of edible decorations ready for them to use. Let them scoop the batter into the cupcakes paper in the cupcake pans.
Bake the cupcakes and once they have cooled down, let them sit at the table and decorate their cupcakes any way they want. This may be messy, but it is so much fun for kids!
40. Glow In The Dark Bowling
Fill ten 2 liter translucent bottles with water. Place various glowsticks in each bottle and pack the bottles in the same formation as at a bowling alley. Turn off all the lights and turn on a black light.
Use a ball that is heavy enough to knock over the bottles. You can even barricade the lane with rope lights for the kids to see the lane better. Make sure to keep score!
41. Fancy Masked Picnic
Let each child make themselves a mask by decorating a paper plate (help them cut out the eyes’ holes). Allow all the kids to dress up any way they want or think is fancy and take them all for a lovely masked picnic at the beach or the park.
42. Finger Puppets And A Show!
Collect empty toilet rolls and tell the kids to make puppets using the decorations you provide. Once they are done, divide them into three groups and give them ten minutes to plan a small play.
Let them perform their play in a box that you have made into a pretend television. You will be surprised what children can come up with in ten minutes.
43. The Ultimate Taste Test
Blindfold the children and have them all sit at the table. With each round, place something on their plate to taste and guess what it is.
If they know what it is, they must raise their hands. The last child to raise their hand is out. Carry on until there is only one child left.
44. I Spy Spelling Game
You must be the spy, and the kids must guess what the “something” is. If they know, they must raise their hand, and when you choose a child to answer, they must give you the answer and spell the word.
45. Melt The Ice!
Divide the kids into groups of three. Hand each group an ice tray you have prepared with the numbers from one to ten frozen inside the cubes. Each team must find the quickest way to melt their ice and arrange the numbers correctly. The first team that is done wins!
46. Fill The Bucket
Divide the kids into two rows (teams). In the front of the line is a bucket of water with a sponge. Every child must grab the sponge and run to their empty bucket and squeeze the water out of the sponge and move to the back of the line. The first team to fill their bucket wins!
47. Puzzle Rush
Divide the kids into groups of three. Give each group the same puzzle to complete. The first team to finish building their puzzle wins a prize!
48. Dancing Lesson
Make up a dance to a fun song and teach it to the children. When they can all dance, let them perform it to someone as a group.
49. Memory Game
Divide the group into equal teams. Put up a large memory card poster. Give the children each a chance to pick two cards and find the pairs. The team with the most pairs wins.
50. Play Charades
Let each child draw a word from a hat or bowl. Each child must get a turn to stand in front of the class and, without saying a word, make hand gestures or body actions to explain what the word is, and the other children must guess what the word is!
In Conclusion
The list of fun activities for kids is endless! Kids just want to be silly and have a good time while they learn and play.
The important thing to remember is to mix it up because kids can get bored quickly, and if the list isn’t diverse enough, you may struggle to keep their attention.
Don’t see this as a difficult task, but rather an opportunity to be a kid again while you play with the children. We hope our list has inspired you and given you peace of mind.
References:
UNICEF Kid Power: Summer Activities for Kids
Good Housekeeping: DIY Kids Activities
iHeartCraftyThings: DIY Funny Face Flip Book
