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Active Games and Outdoor Games for School

April 16, 2013 Ticia 10 Comments

Welcome to the second day in my series of gameschooling.  Today: Active games and Outdoor games.

active games to play with your kids #games #school
Yes, this is my brother being chased by complete strangers, but he was playing with them, so playing active games is appealing to all kids, including strangers

First, I want to give you a few benefits to active games or outdoor games:

  • It’s a fun way to get exercise in.
  • Active indoor games can burn energy on a day you can’t go outside.
  • It’s a great way to practice those gross motor skills.
  • Many also encourage fine motor skill practice.
  • Some variations can be a fun way to practice skills in other content areas.

WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY ACTIVE GAMES TOO:

  • Your kids love it when you get in on the action.
  • It’s family bonding time, these minutes now will pay off big later.
  • All of the reasons I listed for the kids, apply to you too.

ACTIVE GAMES TO BUY

I’m dividing this into two types of games, ones you can buy, and ones you can make/already own the materials. {heads up, there are affiliate links} [presented in the order I thought of them]

  • Twister– this can be played both the traditional method, and by writing on the dots using dry erase or vis a vis markers.  If you choose to use the markers method, this can be turned into a review game and you throw bean bags onto the dots and read what’s on the dot (or any number of other ideas).
  • Candy Land DVD Game– Honestly, I only got this game for the dots included, I quickly threw out whatever their plan was and we use this to make our own life-size board game.  I include the link so you can be looking out for this at garage sales and other places, DO NOT buy this at full price, it’s not worth it.  If you want to make your own, get some of the 12 inch felt squares, and you’ve got the same thing.  When the kids were little I used this as a fun way to work on learning colors.
  • Cranium Hullabaloo– This is a great game for getting your kids to move around and keep an eye out for where things are, so it helps increase their visual discrimination, very important for reading.

HOMEMADE ACTIVE GAMES

  • Activity Dice– role and do what it says.  I would also highly recommend getting an Education Cubes membership to get more dice ideas
  • Pool Noodle Ring Toss– Great way to get your kids outside and practicing hand-eye coordination
  • Make a mini-golf course-This lets you both have fun and work on some geometry.
  • Bowling set, there are several of these: pumpkin bowling
  • Hide and Seek with learning items- This is a popular one in our house, we’ve done this for lost sheep,
  • Make an obstacle course in your house
  • Indoor movement games, because we all need these on rainy days.
  • 15 Fun backyard games, many many variations on the games we all loved growing up.
  • Stair Ball, which I will never teach to my boys because they will escalate too much, that an our stairs are right next to some breakable things………  But, it does look fun, we could probably play it with a balloon.

I have many more active game ideas on my pinterest board:

Active-games-fun-games-to-play-inside-outside-wherever-you-are

Posts in this series:

  • Day 1:  benefits of using games in school, and links of other reasons to play
  • Day 2: Active Games/Outdoor Games
  • Day 3: Preschool Games
  • Day 4: Reading Games
  • Day 5: Math Games
  • Day 6: Geography Games
  • Day 7: History Games
  • Day 8: Science Games
  • Day 9: Travel Games
  • Day 10: Solo or Two Player Games
Active Games
Yes, I am totally using random picture of my kids playing with my Mom

games outside play, using games in school

Comments

  1. Heather @ Cultivated Lives says

    April 16, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    They certainly do love it when we run around with them! Love all of the suggestoins, Ticia!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      April 20, 2013 at 12:10 am

      I know, there’s so many great ideas all over the web!

  2. IGameMom says

    April 16, 2013 at 7:34 pm

    Thanks for the wonderful suggestions. We will try some.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      April 20, 2013 at 12:10 am

      I’m looking forward to trying some of these ideas too that I found while I researched this post.

  3. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    April 19, 2013 at 8:54 pm

    I love the homemade active games you listed in this post!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      April 20, 2013 at 12:05 am

      I know, there was some really awesome ones there, and I found some more today, that I’ve added to my board. A really cool mini golf one I’ll have to try soon.

  4. Jackie@My Little Bookcase says

    April 29, 2013 at 7:03 pm

    What a wonderful series. This is going to be a fabulous resource for so many parents and educators.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Reading Games for School | Adventures in MommydomAdventures in Mommydom says:
    April 22, 2013 at 9:27 am

    […] Day 2: Active Games/Outdoor Games […]

    Reply
  2. 10 Days of Using Games in School | Adventures in MommydomAdventures in Mommydom says:
    April 29, 2013 at 9:07 am

    […] ← Previous Next → […]

    Reply
  3. Preschool Games | Adventures in MommydomAdventures in Mommydom says:
    April 29, 2013 at 9:10 am

    […] ← Previous Next → […]

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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