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7 Easy Indoor Games

March 27, 2020 designbycline
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Activities

Tape Shape Game

This game is fun, because you and your kiddos can get creative and play it a bunch of different ways! It’s also great for
Using masking tape or painter’s tape, simply tape different shapes onto the floor. Make the shapes big enough for kids to jump in.
From here, you can do a variety of things. You could shout out a shape and have your kids run to that shape. Or you could give a command like “crab walk to a triangle” and have your kids follow along. And don’t forget to give your kids a chance to be the leader 😉
View These Examples: Simple Play Ideas, Toddler Approved
Benefits:
  • Helps your kids get off the couch & moving
  • Great practice for shape recognition
  • Develops gross motor skills
Other ways to play using tape from What Moms Love:
  • Make a Hopscotch
  • Create a Hot Wheels Race Track
  • Play the Sticky Spider Web Game
  • Go Tape Line Jumping

Hallway Laser Maze

Make a fun laser maze in your hallway using leftover crepe paper (party streamers), or yarn.
Pro Tip: Have your kids help you create it!
Just attached the streamers/yarn to your walls in a random, crisscross pattern using painter’s tape. Your kids will love pretending they are secret agents as they crawl and twist through this maze!
Benefits:
  • Burns energy
  • Builds gross motor skills
  • Analyzing the maze helps your kids learn to strategize & recognize patterns
  • Encourages healthy team work when working together to build it

Write a Song

I know what you’re thinking! But you don’t need to be a musical expert to have fun writing a song with your kids. In fact, you don’t need to have any instruments, or know anything about reading or writing music. Here’s how to do it:
  • Choose a topic & purpose- Have your kids help you decide what your song is going to be about and why you’re writing it. Want to write a song about dinosaurs, or puppies? That’s you topic! Are you trying to cheer someone up? Or maybe you want to teach someone about something? This is your purpose!

 

  • Pick a melody- When making up a song with kids, classic melodies like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Jingle Bells work great! This will be the tune you sing to.
  • Write your chorus & verses- With a simple melody like the ones above, you don’t need to differentiate between a chorus and a verse. Just have fun choosing the words you want to use in your song to tell your story. This is where you and your kids can get creative and have fun with rhyming!
Benefits:
  • Gives practice rhyming
  • Introduces new vocabulary
  • Helps with recognizing patterns & understanding tempo
  • Encourages healthy team work when writing with others
  • Provides a creative outlet for self-expression

Make Silly Putty

Homemade silly putty isn’t hard to make, and it always seems to keep kids entertained. We found a great recipe from One Crazy Mom that uses just three ingredients:
Click the link above for her instructions. It’s so simple, even the kids can help!
Benefits:
  • Develops fine motor skills
  • Great sensory toy
  • Science experiment: watch the ingredients react & change to make something new — silly putty!

Sensory Bins

Sensory play is an important part of child development. It helps kids to stimulate their senses and process the world around them.
You can make your own sensory bins at home from a large variety of things, including things you may already have around the house like:
  • Uncooked Rice
  • Dry Beans
  • Dry Corn
  • Popcorn kernels
  • Cooked pasta
  • Water beads
  • Kinetic sand (check out this recipe to make your own!)
Once you have your sensory bin, let the kids play with it as if was a small sandbox. Want to add some excitement? Add beach or bath toys, cooking utensils, toy trucks, dolls, whatever your kids like to increase the fun!
Benefits:
  • Stimulates the senses
  • Develops fine motor skills
  • Encourages imagination

Balloon Games

You knew we were going here, didn’t you? The truth is, you can do so much with a pack of balloons. And it all burns energy! See below for an incomplete list of balloon-related activities.
  • Balloon Sports- Basically, any sport you play with a ball can be played with a balloon. This makes for a much safer game of indoor soccer. Or volleyball. Or broom hockey. Etc. So send the kids to the basement and let them play a game of balloon basketball.

 

  • Balloon Races- There are million different racing and relay-race games out there that use a balloon. Here are few classics:
    • Blow the balloon across the room with your mouth or a straw
    • Use your nose to push the balloon across the room the fastest
    • Balance the balloon on your hand, one finger, or a spoon while racing across the room
    • Race across the room while holding the balloon between two people at the waist or knees
    • Hop across the room with the balloon between your knees
    • Use static electricity to make the balloon stay on your hair while racing across the room
  • Balloon Float- Another classic. Simply hit your balloon up in the air and keep it afloat the longest. Play against family members or try to beat your own best score.
  • Balloon Catch- Great for large families. Get in a circle. Toss a balloon in the air and call one child’s name. That child must catch the balloon before it touches the ground. If they succeed, they get to toss the balloon and call a name next
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  • Balloon Bop- Form a circle with someone in the middle with a balloon. The person in the middle will call out someone’s name and a body part, and that person must use that body part to hit the balloon upwards to keep it in play. Players who use the wrong body part or let the balloon fall to the ground are out. Last player standing with the balloon wins!
Pro Tip: Check out these balloon-related science experiments from We Are Teachers while you’re at it!
Benefits:
  • Burns energy
  • Develops gross motor skills
  • Encourages healthy team work & sportsmanship

Cardboard Box Creations

Sometimes the simplest things are the most fun. Have some Amazon boxes lying around in a closet somewhere? How about a stack of old magazines or catalogs? Pull them out, along with some washable markers, construction paper, scissors and glue sticks and see what happens.
My siblings and I had so much fun when we were young creating things from cardboard boxes. From rocket ships, to “new inventions,” to dollhouses, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Benefits:
  • Encourages creativity & imagination
  • Can be done in a group or alone
  • Working with tools like scissors & markers develops fine motor skills
Activities
Activities

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