Activity
Indoor Family Fun
Indoor family games are great to have on hand when the weather is cooler and you can't go outside to play. Try some of these games (no board required!) at home together with your family the next time you are looking for something fun to do together.
Charades
- Gather some paper, a pen or pencil, and a basket, bowl, or hat.
- Decide on charades topics and ideas:
- Action charade ideas: swimming, singing, getting dressed, making your bed.
- Places charade ideas: school, library, church, zoo, amusement park, restaurant.
- Movies and characters charade ideas: Frozen, Finding Nemo, Harry Potter, Batman, The Cat in the Hat, Batman.
- What other topics or ideas can you think of?
- Write down the topics and ideas on strips of paper, then put them in your basket/bowl/hat.
- Divide all players into two equal teams, and then decide how long you want to game to run (e.g. set number of slips of paper, or first team to 10 points).
- Players from each team take turns drawing one piece of paper and then acting out the topic/idea using gestures, while their teammates try to guess the topic/idea. Each correct guess earns the team a point, and game play continues until the team with the most points wins.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
- All you need for this game is your hands!
- "Rock" is a fist, "paper" is a flat hand, and "scissors" are the pointer and middle fingers making a snipping motion.
- Partners shake their first three times and then reveal their chosen action (rock, paper, or scissors).
- Winning hands are decided as follows:
- Rock breaks/dulls scissors
- Scissors cut paper
- Paper covers rock
- Play three or five times and see who can get the most wins! This is also a good method to determine who goes first in other games.
Simon Says
- This game doesn't require any special materials- just you and your listening ears!
- One person is chosen from all players to be "Simon." Simon stands in front of the group and instructs the players what they must do, but players must be careful to obey only the commands that start with the phrase, "Simon says."
- Any player who performs an action without the proper phrase is out of the game. The last player standing wins the game!
- Modify Simon Says according to the season:
- Winter: Santa Says, Snowman Says, Frosty Says
- Fall: Turkey Says, Squirrel Says, Pumpkin Says
- Spring: Bunny Says, Leprechaun Says
- Simon Says action ideas:
- act like a monkey
- act like a robot
- bend your knees
- blow a kiss
- clap your hands
- close your eyes
- crawl like a baby
- do a silly dance
- flap like a chicken
- freeze in place
- hop like a frog
- hula dance
- look left (right, up, down)
- moo like a cow
- pat your head
- play the air guitar
- pretend to sneeze
- pull on your ears
- reach for the sky
- roar like a lion
- scratch your nose
- shake your head (arm, leg, etc.)
- sit down
- spin around twice
- stand on one foot
- step to the left (right, forward, backward)
- stick out your tongue
- thumbs up
- touch the floor
- touch your head (hips, knees, toes, shoulders, etc)
- turn around
- waddle like a penguin
- walk backwards
- yawn
Booklist
Gobble up a good book from our booklist for elementary school students.