14/01/2022 13:18 9 Fun Games and Park Activities| Little Tikes Commercial

9 FUN GAME AND ACTIVITY IDEAS

FOR KIDS & THEIR FRIENDS TO
ENJOY AT THE PARK
Free play at the park is crucial to children’s physical, mental, social and emotional development, and it’s
an essential part of childhood fun. Plan different types of playground games the whole family can play at
the park together to bust boredom, keep everyone involved, and create a more memorable and fun
outing. Try introducing games from your childhood to your kids, or if you’re ready for some fresh park
activity ideas, check out this list of fun games and things to do at the playground. You might just find some
new favorite things to do at the park with kids!

1. Hide & Seek

2. Basketball
3. Badminton
4. Outdoor Bowling
5. Tug of War
6. Follow the Leader
7. Red Light, Green Light
8. Hopscotch
9. Scavenger Hunt

HIDE AND SEEK

A classic game to play at the park is hide and seek. This simple game needs no preparation or supplies,
so you can play just about anywhere and anytime. All players except for one must quickly find a place to
hide. The remaining person is “it” and counts to a number all players have determined ahead of time.
When the person who is “it” finishes counting, they loudly declare, “Ready or not, here I come!” and start
looking for the rest of the players.

The game helps your children and their friends practice counting their numbers and the game can also be
adjusted for all ages and abilities. If you’re playing with young children, set some boundaries for
acceptable hiding places and avoid venturing off too far, or the game can become too difficult for little
ones.

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There are also lots of fun twists to this basic childhood game to add variety. Here are just some of the
fun variations on hide and seek, to keep the game interesting:

Sardines: In this fun twist that reverses the roles of the hide and seek players, only one player
hides in the beginning. All the other players then go seeking this hiding spot, but instead of
announcing the hiding spot, they must quietly join the hider and wait for everyone to find them.
Play continues until the last person finds the group, packed like sardines in a can, in their hiding
spot. This version works best in a large area, with lots of hiding spots big enough for multiple
kids.

Sheep and wolf: A great animal-based version that’s ideal for younger kids, in sheep and wolf,
one person is selected to be the wolf and hides, while all of the sheep close their eyes. Once
the wolf is ready, they let out a howl, and the sheep can then open their eyes. If any of the
sheep spot the wolf, they can call out and alert the other sheep. All sheep must make it to a pre-
determined home base without being tagged by the wolf. If a sheep is tagged, they become the
wolf in the next round of play.

Messenger: This version combines basic hide and seek with another childhood classic game
— telephone. In messenger, the person designated as “it” comes up with a short message while
the others hide. When the time is up, the seeker goes looking for other players and when one is
found, whispers the message to the hider. The original seeker then returns to home base to wait
while the next player finds another to pass on the message to. Play continues until everyone
returns to home base and the last player whispers the message to see if it matches the original
statement.

BASKETBALL

Most parks have a basketball court or hoop, and you can use it in a variety of ways to play games with
the kids and their friends. If there’s a full court, and you have a larger group of older kids, divide up into
two teams and play a game of basketball. For smaller groups and younger kids, try a game of H-O-R-S-E.
This is a versatile and fun version of basketball that can be adapted to different ages and abilities. Players
take turns trying to get a basket from five different locations near the hoop, or with five different creative
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shots. If someone makes the shot, and the rest of the players miss, each of the other players get a letter
toward the word horse. Spell the whole word, and you’re out of the game.

In a simpler version of H-O-R-S-E that’s great for little kids, you can spell out the word horse — or any
other word you choose — in large chalk letters on the pavement around a basketball hoop. Try writing out
your child’s name or using numbers or shapes for variety. Each player takes turns trying to get a basket
standing on each of the chalk letters.

BADMINTON

Badminton is a fun game that the whole family can enjoy at the park. While you’ll have to bring your own
equipment and set it up, it’s relatively easy to set up and play in a large grassy area of the park. Each
player has a racquet that they use to hit the badminton shuttle, or birdie, across the net to the other
players. If the shuttle hits the ground on the other side, the opposing team gets a point. The first team to
get to 21 points wins.

You can play badminton as singles, doubles or teams, and adjust the rules for different age groups and
abilities. It’s best to play the game on a day that’s not too windy, as wind can carry the lightweight birdies
easily and affect the gameplay.

OUTDOOR BOWLING

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Bring all the fun of the bowling alley outside to the park! This game can be a fun activity that gets you
moving between throwing the ball, resetting the “pins”, and (inevitably) chasing after the ball. There are
many different outdoor bowling sets that you can purchase and bring with you to the park to play, or you
can go the DIY route and make an easy set yourself. Use tall cans or bottles and fill with sand or water to
weigh them down a bit. Get creative and make it a craft project for the kids — use colored water inside
the bottles or paint to decorate the outside to make the game more interesting.
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At the park, set up the cans or bottles as the bowling pins, and take turns trying to knock the pins down
with a ball. Try a tennis ball, small basketball or any other type of ball to find what works best for your
bowling setup. Take turns keeping score and helping to set up the pins after each round. The player with
the most points at the end of the game wins.

TUG OF WAR

An old, classic park game, tug of war is great for large groups of any age. All you need for this game is a
long rope and a large, grassy area. Mark an area on the ground that will be the middle line, and divide
your group evenly into two teams. If you have a mix of ages and abilities, put the stronger, older kids on
the outside, and younger kids towards the middle. Once the game begins, everyone pulls as hard as they
can on the rope to try to pull the other team across the middle line. A team wins if they can pull the whole
other team across.

FOLLOW THE LEADER

Follow the leader is another easy park activity that requires no planning ahead or extra supplies. It’s a
great game for younger kids and mixed-age groups of friends. Start by walking around the park with all
the children following you. Instruct the participants to copy your every move as you wander the park. Try
running, hopping, skipping or spinning in circles as you walk so that the kids will copy these moves. If you
find something interesting to look at, stop to observe and everyone else will do the same.

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Make sure each person gets a chance to be the leader in this fun game, as kids will delight in coming up
with their own creative movements that everyone else must do. Encourage imaginative play, and allow
the leader to wander the park while imitating their favorite animal, vehicle or whatever they want to be.
Everyone must copy their movements. Instead of a long stroll through the park, you can also play follow
the leader across a field or open area. Everyone stands on one side of the field and the leader chooses
one type of movement to get to the other side. Once across the field, a new leader is chosen and a new
movement gets the group back to the starting side. Continue as many times as necessary to give each
leader a turn.

RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT

Also called traffic lights, in this fun game, one person is chosen to be the traffic light and stands on one
side of a field or play area. The rest of the group starts on the other side and watches the traffic light for
directions. When the traffic light calls out, “Green light,” all the other players can move towards the other
side. Players must stop moving and freeze in place when the traffic light calls out, “Red light!” The traffic
light can also face the players during a red light and turn their back on the other players during green light
for added excitement.

If any of the players are caught moving during a red light, they must go back to the starting point. The first
player to reach the other side by the traffic light wins the round and becomes the traffic light for the next
round of play. This game is great for younger kids learning to follow directions.

HOPSCOTCH

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If your favorite park has a large area of pavement or sidewalks, bring some chalk for this classic park
game for kids! To play the original version of hopscotch, draw a simple grid of squares on the sidewalk
with your chalk, and number your squares one through nine. To start the game, toss a small marker —
like a rock, beanbag or small toy — into square one and hop over it, continuing to hop on the rest of the
numbers. Turn around and hop back towards the start, picking up your marker on your way back. Hand
the marker off to the next player, and on your next turn, throw the marker to the next number.

If a player throws the marker to the wrong number, or loses their balance and falls, they are out of the
round. The goal is to complete the whole course with the marker on each number. This is a great game to
play with kids of all ages — keep the game simple for younger kids, and adjust the challenges for older
kids. Encourage colorful chalk courses or decorate with your own designs instead of numbers. You can
adjust the shape and size of the course for younger children, and use numbers, letters, shapes and more
to encourage learning as you play.

You can make endless variations of hopscotch courses, designing spiral shapes instead of the usual
linear course of square shapes, or extra-long courses too. This makes the classic game more fun for
older children. You can also draw a series of squares in a path with directions written inside like “hop on
one foot,” “do a little dance” or “do five jumping jacks.” Set a timer or use a stopwatch, and see who can
read and follow all the directions in the fastest time.

NATURE-INSPIRED SCAVENGER
HUNT

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This activity takes a little more prep work but is so worth it for the fun kids and their friends will
experience. You can either visit the site beforehand to plan out your clues or decide what items the kids
should look for, or you can create lists of more generic items to find, adjusted for ages and skill levels of
your group. Before your park outing, print off your clues or your park scavenger hunt list to hand out to
each participant.

Here’s how to make age-appropriate adjustments for a playground scavenger hunt that’s fun for
everyone:

Toddlers and pre-school: For the youngest children, keep your scavenger hunt list and
directions simple and easy to follow. Keep list items as generic as possible — for example,
“tree” instead of “oak tree” or “bird” instead of “robin.” Include nature items like common local
animals, flowers and insects, and playground and park items like benches, slides, swings and
more. Use simple, large words for early readers or pictures for toddlers. Have the kids check off
their list as they go or mark each found item with a sticker. Alternatively, you can make a list of
things the kids can collect and bring back — like rocks, sticks, leaves, flowers, feathers and
more.

School-age kids: For this age group, you can make your park scavenger list a little more
challenging, providing more specific items to find, like certain types of trees, flowers or birds.
You could also write up clues for each item instead of providing a list for an added challenge.
Have kids write about or draw their found objects, or make crayon rubbings of items like tree
bark, leaves or rocks. For other variations, make an alphabet hunt to find something for each
letter of the alphabet, or have children find items beginning with the same letter as their name.

Tweens and teens: Older children and teens can handle much more challenging lists of harder-
to-find items like more rare plants and animals or more advanced concepts like evidence of
animal tracks, burrows, camouflage, animal relationships and more. Send teens with digital
cameras or smartphones to capture photographic evidence of their findings to share with the
group at the end. Alternatively, you can also go ahead of time and hide coins or small objects
along a park path and then give clues as to the locations.

Whatever age group you have for your scavenger hunt, be sure to remind everyone to not disturb nature
by touching animals, getting in the way of animal families or dangerous animals, touching dangerous
plants like poison ivy, or picking or digging up important plant species.

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