Games - fun ways to get your family's 60 active minutes
Playing games is a really important part of kids’ development. It helps them to make friends, build up confidence, develop their reactions and get them moving too. Here are some games that kids can play to help their throwing and catching skills.
Throw, bounce and catch!
This helps hand-eye co-ordination, which is a good basic skill for many other games.
You need:
- A small bouncy ball or a tennis ball
- A wall
How to play:
Find a clear wall where there are no windows. The side of a house, flat or garage is fine.
Pick an area on the wall for the kids to aim their ball at. Maybe there are some bricks that have a different colour to the others? Otherwise, draw a circle with some chalk.
Get them to stand back a few metres back from the wall and aim their ball at the wall so that it bounces back to them.
Every time they hit their ‘target’, give them 1 point. If it’s too easy, try moving them further back from the wall or making the target area smaller. Or if it’s too hard, just move them closer and make a bigger ‘target’!
Rachel Skingle,
Warwickshire
"We seem to spend more time as a family now than we did do, so it has had a very positive impact on us as a family."
Hot potato
As well as hand-eye coordination, this game helps with socialising and learning about competitive activities. These skills help kids learn the basics of team sports.
You need:
- Any size of ball
- Group of friends (3 people +)
How to play:
Find an open space like in the park, playground or back garden and get your kids and their friends to stand in a circle facing inwards
Throw the ball from one person to the next as if it is too hot to handle. Every time the ball reaches you, encourage everyone to go faster!
The first person to drop the ball has to sit out. The last one with the ball is the winner.
Skip to it
There are lots of skipping games you kids can play with 3 or more people. Here are just a couple.
You need:
- One long skipping rope or a couple of shorter ones tied together
- 3 or more people
High, low, dolly, pepper
How to play:
The people turning the rope take it in turns to shout a command and the person skipping has to follow it. ‘High’ means the rope is raised higher for 2 turns so the skipper has to jump higher, ‘low’ means it will go back down, ‘dolly’ means they have to do a dance move as they jump, and ‘pepper’ means the turners are going to speed up the rope and the skipper has to keep up
Guess the celebrity
How to play:
One of the turners thinks of a celebrity in their head. The skipper jumps the rope and with every jump they have to shout who they think it is. The game continues until the celebrity is guessed and then the players swap round.
Games for a group
These are great for after school, or meeting up in the park in the holidays. All you need is a group of friends.
Bulldog
How to play:
One child is the 'bulldog' and stands in the middle of the playing area. Everybody else stands at one end. The aim of the game is to run from one end of the playing area to the other without being caught by the bulldog. When a player is tagged, they become a bulldog themselves and have to try to catch the others. The winner is the last player who is untagged.
Stuck-in-the-mud
How to play:
One person is 'it'. Everybody else has to run away from them but stay inside the playing area. Once someone is tagged by the person who’s 'it', they have to stand still with their feet apart and arms out. They are now ‘stuck-in-the-mud’ until another planer crawls under their legs and frees them again. The game is over when everyone is stuck-in-the-mud except whoever’s ‘it’.
5 A DAY
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