PREFACE: Today, Februrary 16, 2015, we are iced in, just like we were one year ago when we did both of the indoor activities shown in this post. I think we will be revisiting some of the activities from this series today!
When snowed in from school last year I really needed the kids to get some energy out, but preserving what I could of the house (that is a good laugh when talking about two young boys, but worth a shot).
1st activity: Indoor Hopscotch
What you need:
- Construction paper, card stock, or fabric for numbers
- marker
- Painters tape
To make the numbers for the hopscotch I used some felt swatches I already had in our craft bucket. I had the kids write out the numbers for the hopscotch using markers. We then used wide painters tape (2”) to tape the numbers to the carpet, since painters tape would not leave residue.
Simple, simple.
This activity was a triple-win because I had the kids write out the numbers on the fabric themselves (number recognition & writing practice) and they got lots of energetic play time doing the hopscotch throughout the week with some fun variations along the way. Yippee!
2nd activity: Indoor world games
Last year, the winter games opening ceremonies happened during our snow days. So, we had our own world games inside to celebrate!
What you need:
- items from around your house
Is that generic enough? Haha. Sorry. I thought it would be easier for this one to share what I did, and you can adapt it to what you have and what your kids would enjoy.
I created events throughout the whole house and timed each of the kids during their turn. I also printed off a picture of the Olympic rings from our computer and taped it to the ‘starting line’/’awards ceremony platform’. Here are some of the ‘events’ we had in our course:
- From the starting line (kitchen) they ran to a table where they each had a bowl of rice. They had to find the pom poms inside and place them in their empty kleenex box on a different table.
- Next they ran down the hall to their bedroom and had to race bouncy balls down each of their ramps – these were made from toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls taped to the wall with painters tape.
- Next they ran to the other bedroom where they each had a card with their name on it. Inside the card was a picture of the action figures that they each had to find hidden in the room.
- Once they found them they ran back down the hall, through the living room to do the final obstacle course: indoor hopscotch, climbing through a tunnel, and hopping the pillows then through the streamers to the finish line!
- Based on their time they won first and second place and we had an awards ceremony with the star spangled banner playing on iTunes.
This only took about 10 minutes to set up, and they played over and over again trying to beat their best times for over an hour! Score!
Need a couple more ideas? See Part 1 and Part 2 or this series!