Lots of these ideas can be made with things around the home or outside. The most important thing is to have fun!
It's lovely for adults/older children to join in and for the children to see people older than them finding things tricky or looking a bit daft. Let the child use their imagination and lead the inventions/games.
In purple are just a few of the skills the children are working on when playing these games.
1. Giant floor chalks: shapes, numbers letters, hopscotch, drawing round shadows, drawings including giant ones. Play spelling, copy the sequence, sums, spell the shape, spell the number. Hop, jump or skip to the required chalked item - sequencing, auditory processing, jumping skills, spring and bounce, visual processing
2. Squeezy bottles filled with water squirt at walls to make pictures or fire toward
empty drinks cans/bottle targets to knock them off
hand and arm strength, shoulder stability, hand/eye co-ordination, grading distance
3. Paint brushes/rollers of different sizes - wall or floor painting mark making
development, visual processing, shoulder stability, hand/eye co-ordination
4. Learn some clapping songs and games.
auditory memory, co-ordination, sequencing, timing, motor planning, crossing midline
5. Learn how to do wheelbarrow races against friends/family or the clock – once
you are really good put some obstacles in that you have to steer round.
core and shoulder stability, strength, stamina and endurance
6. Fill the matchbox – see how many small items you can fit in a matchbox, this can
be done at home inside or out/ on a day out, in the garden/ at the beach on a walk
visual processing, grading size, motor planning, fine motor skills, hand-eye
co-ordination
7. Walk for 20- 30 mins each day and play games e.g. I spy, How many things
beginning with, alphabet number plates (spot a vehicle with a number plate
beginning with A, B C, etc), memory game "I went for a walk and I saw a..." (like the
shopping game).
stamina, endurance, general fitness, gluts strength, visual processing, visual memory
8. At the beach
Sand pictures- with a lolly stick drawing in the sand
Sand collage – with seaweed/pebbles/shells etc)
Sand modelling – making shapes on the sand with very wet sand - put sand
and lots of water in a bucket
Hole digging – how big and deep can you make it then carry buckets of water from the sea to fill it up.
Wave jumping – high, medium, low, feet together, feet apart, fast, slow
Make a sand obstacle course.
a mixture of many motor skills too many to write down here!
9. Start a summer holiday activity diary/scrapbook. Note down, write, draw, all
the times you were active, what you did and give yourself a gold star for every time
you did enough to get out of breath.
10. For the odd rainy day card games are fab - play with a normal deck or cards or hay families, or old maid or go fish. Make them more fun by playing in a different position or adding a movement activity e.g. lying on your tummy on the floor to play or having to crawl under the table or chair tunnel to pick your next card.
sequencing, visual memory, eye/hand co-ordination, visual processing and
then if you add some movement you start working on gross motor skills too
11. Make a Target or ‘shield bat’ (cut and decorate a round circle from a cereal
packet or cardboard box with a cardboard handle on the back) and use a scrunched-up ball of paper and play bowling and hitting games.
hand/eye co-ordination, visual processing, shoulder stability, core stability, timing, grading, eye tracking
12. Collect or buy some Feathers and use a net/sieve and catch the falling
feathers or tissue paper twists – see how many you can catch in a minute or how
long it takes to catch 20.
hand/eye co-ordination, visual processing, shoulder stability, core stability, timing, grading, eye tracking
13. Crab balloon football – have a game of crab football with a balloon or lightweight football or beach ball – great fun with friends!
core stability, shoulder stability, strength, stamina and endurance, eye-foot co-ordination
14. Make a ‘net’ by tying a string or resting something between the backs of two
chairs and have a game of sitting volleyball. Bottoms must stay on the floor! Use
a giant beach ball for added fun.
core stability, shoulder stability, strength, stamina and endurance, eye-hand coordination, eye tracking, visual perception, grading
15. Invent and make some fab, fun and imaginative obstacle courses – this can be
done either inside or outside. You can always make them more fun by adding a story
or adventure when you make them.
a mixture of many motor skills too many to write down here!
Now go and have fun trying out some of the ideas!
Wendy Joy MCSP
Highly Specialist Paediatric Physiotherapist