Games

Another scavenger hunt from Primary Playground that you can do at home with zero prep work.

Do you have some colourful ball pit balls at home? Try this super simple game from Frugal Fun 4 Boys. All you need are ball pit balls in different colours, some coloured paper in the same colours (or white paper that you can colour on), and a bunch of containers, such as laundry baskets, buckets, large plastic bins, bowls or pots (they don’t all need to be the same size or type).

Label each basket or bin with a coloured paper and group them together at one end of the room. Then give your child the ball pit balls and let them practice their colour matching and gross motor skills by attempting to toss each coloured ball in the correct basket. You can even assign the baskets point-values if you’d like to keep score.

Help your child practice their numbers with this great Maths Water Balloon Toss game from Primary Playground. Use some chalk to draw numbers 1-10 (or whichever numbers your child is learning to recognise) onto your driveway, patio or the pavement outside your house. Draw a circle around each number (tip: make the circles large and spaced well apart to help your child aim). Then give your child water balloons or a sponge and water bucket, call out a number, and have them toss the balloon/sponge to see if they can hit the right number!

Put your nose to the test with this Scent Matching Game from PBS. You will need 6 or more identical containers (such as empty baby food jars, yogurt pots, kids’ plastic cups, etc.), 3 or more things with strong smells (like coffee grounds, gherkins, shampoo, orange peel, cinnamon sticks, washing up liquid), and a blindfold for your child. Click the link and watch the short video for directions on how to play.

This game requires 2 or more paper plates, 1 or more cardboard tubes from a roll of kitchen roll, and some scissors. You might also choose to use hot glue and/or some paint.

Cut a hole in the centre of a paper plate (1 for each of your cardboard tubes) that is just large enough to slide the end of the cardboard tube through it. This is to stabilise the tube and help it remain standing. Alternatively, you can use a bit of hot glue to attach the cardboard tube to the centre of the plate, or cut the end of the tube like a fan and tape it down to the floor without a plate.

Depending on your paper plates, you may want to get your kids involved at this point. They can paint/decorate the remaining plates that will be the colourful ‘rings’ for tossing. When their artistic endeavours have dried, cut the centre out of each plate, so that only the rim remains.

Now let the games begin! Teach your child how to throw the rings frisbee-style and try to get them to land on the cardboard tubes.

Photo courtesy of From ABCs to ACTs.

Help your child renew their enthusiasm for their book collection with this literary scavenger hunt from Primary Playground.

All you need for this game are some sheets of paper, tape and some small balls, like the sort you’d use in a ball pit. Tape the paper down on a hard floor (a hallway would be perfect for this game) so that the centre of the paper pops up to form a tunnel, just like in the photo below from Basteln Ideen und Anleitungen (Craft Ideas & Instructions).

Then challenge your kids to roll the balls through the tunnels. If you have coloured paper, you can get them to match the ball colour to the correct coloured tunnel, or you can assign points-values to the tunnels based on how far away they are. If you have a child-size sweeping brush, toy golf club, or similar, you can up the difficultly level and get your kids to knock the balls through the tunnels – just like real croquet.

Check out this brilliantly simple copycat game from Basteln Ideen und Anleitungen (Craft Ideas & Instructions). All you need are some different coloured pieces of paper, a bit of space on the floor, and some tape.

Lay out two identical ‘stations’ with the coloured paper. The two stations should be facing each other, and taped down, so they don’t move. The large white paper in the middle helps create a ‘home base’, but is not crucial for the game. Then you take one station and your child takes the other. Take turns touching a series of colours for the other to try to copy.

The video demonstrates this game with 7 different colours and some quite complex sequences, but you may choose to start with just four colours and much shorter sequences as your child gets the hang of it. You can play with your hands or, for a more active version, try playing standing up and jump onto each of the colour blocks. This is a game that can be played over and over and made more challenging for different age groups.

Help your child practice their phonics with this great Alphabet Water Balloon Toss game from Primary Playground. Use some chalk to draw some letters (you may want to choose the letters of your child’s name, or whichever ones they are currently learning to recognise) onto your driveway, patio or the pavement outside your house. Draw a circle around each letter (tip: make the circles large and spaced well apart to help your child aim). Then give your child water balloons or a sponge and water bucket, call out a letter sound, and have them toss the balloon/sponge to see if they can hit the right letter!

If the weather doesn’t suit getting a bit wet outside, you can also try an indoor version of this activity with the letters written on paper and soft toys to toss.

For help pronouncing the phonetic sound of each letter as your child will learn them in school, watch this video featuring Mr. Tumble from CBeebies.

If you have a garden, give this Spring Scavenger Hunt from Primary Playground a try with your child.