Katie and I are feeling kinda stuck in our work with the children at the Kids’ Cafe. We still enjoy our job, but are growing tired of our lack of ideas of things to do with the children. We do the same things with them every day, and though we haven’t heard any complaining, we know that some of this stuff must get a little boring. What we need are some new activities we can do together and games we can play that will freshen things up a bit.
So we thought we’d ask you. Can anyone out there share any group activities that would be appropriate for the elementary school kids? What about group games? You know, like Heads Up, Seven Up, except not that.
Any ideas you might have would be a big help, and if any of you teachers out there know of any good resource websites that are any good, those would be a huge help too.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Hey guys! One fun active game is called 4 corners. You’ll need music. One kid is “it” and lays down in the middle of the room, covering his eyes. When the music starts, the rest of the kids move in a circle around the “it” person in the middle – you can give them different ways to move (crab walk, leap, skip, dance, etc). When music stops, all the kids run to one of the 4 corners of the room (label the corners 1, 2, 3, and 4). Count down from 5 to give them time to choose a corner. When you get to 1, the “it” kid chooses a number (whithout peeking). The kids in that corner are out and sit to the side to watch. This continues until all you are down to 4 kids, then they each must go to a separate corner. The last kid left gets to be “it” for the next round.
Sort of like a different version of musical chairs. It’s fun to use a wide variety of music – classical, patriotic, worship, funky etc. to give them good exosure and keep them guessing each time. The rules for behavior – no talking while the music is on, no touching/jumping over the “it” kid. It’s a great 20 minute or so game. :)
February 18th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Play a game with elementary aged kids. Fill grocery sack with 5 random items – for example: measuring spoon, hairbrush, safety pin, box, shoe. Give them 5-10 minutes to make up a skit using all 5. Then have them perform. Sounds silly but it works EVERY time and I’ve used it a lot. In fact, they keep asking for a new bag. I split hte kids up, give each group a bag. Then skits. Then get bags, fill with all new items and do it again. And again.