| Top
Fitness Games (Ages 3-10)
Written by Craig - GKA Staff
"Teachers, do you want more Physical Exercise games or activities?
Parents, run out of ideas for games to play with your young children?
Use these mini energizers to but a buzz back in your child's day."
Three activities will be listed below. For
the remaining activities, please visit Get
Kids Active.
Activity 1: Hide and Go Seek
(Ages 5-8)
Number of participants: At least two, but a large
group makes for a fun and joyous game.
Length of time: About 20 minutes for each round.
What players will need: A space with plenty of
safe places to hide.
Background: If there were such a thing as a basic
game for children to pick up and enjoy, Hide and Seek would top
the list.
Rules of the game: This game starts exactly the
same way many others do. One person volunteers to be 'it.' This
person chooses a spot to be their home base. This might be a tree,
the side of a building, or anything large and stationary.
Play begins when the child who is 'it' closes their eyes, they
wait at the base, and counts to 20. While the child who is 'it'
counts, the other players creep off and discover interesting places
to hide. When the child who is 'it' finishes counting, they call,
"Ready or not, here I come!" They open their eyes, study
the area, and seek out to find the other children. Their hunt continues
until someone laughs or moves and alerts 'it' to their location.
Once 'it' spots this person, it becomes an action packed race to
the base. If the child who is 'it' tags the player before they get
to the base, then the player is out. If they reach the base before
they are captured, they are safe. Then 'it' goes back out into the
playing field to catch the rest of the children.
Since the players' objective is to make it back to the base without
getting tagged by the child who is 'it', they can run for base at
anytime that they wish. The person tagged first or last is 'it'
for the next round.
Activity 2: Conked Out Car Race
(Ages 4-6)
Number of participants: Two to five
Length of time: At least 20 minutes
What players will need: A large open area, such
as a backyard or a field, and plenty of imagination.
Rules of the game: In the conked out car race,
each team runs three continuous races. In each race they will pretend
that they are part of a car with a problem, such as a jammed horn
that's making lots of noise or windshield wipers that won't stop
moving. The children run the race performing what is broken. For
example, the car might be jammed in reverse, the children will run
backwards. Before each race begins, tell the runners what problems
their car will have!
Choose a starting point
and a turnaround line that are about 10-15 metres apart and then
divide the children into two teams. Each team lines up in a single
file behind the leader. Start the race! One by one the children
run to the turnaround line and back again to tag the next person
in their team while pretending to be the car with the problem. After
all the children on each team have finished, do the same thing again
but with a different problem.
Activity
3: Cat and Mouse (Ages 5-8)
Number of participants: Eight or more.
Length of time: About 10 minutes.
What players will need: A big, open space that's
safe to run around in.
Rules of the game: To start, have all the children
except for two make a circle and join hands. For the two who are
left, one is the cat and the other is the mouse. The mouse can go
inside the circle, but the cat must keep his feet outside. He can,
nevertheless, try to reach into the circle and tag the mouse.
The game starts with the mouse hurrying out of the circle and attempting
to avoid the cat, whose main goal is to capture the mouse. The mouse
can cut across the circle on his pursuit for shelter, but can't
stay in there for more than 10 seconds. The players in the circle
can help the mouse by lifting their arms for him to go in and trying
to block the cat from reaching in.
Once the cat catches the mouse, the mouse becomes the cat, the
cat joins the circle, and the group picks a new mouse.
|
