[Sports Day] Circuit Ideas for 5-Year-Olds
Five-year-olds are developing better body balance and are becoming able to do a variety of physical activities.
Many preschools and kindergartens include circuit courses in their sports days.
Here, we’ve gathered circuit activities that children can enjoy at sports day.
For example, by incorporating skills like the back hip circle on the bar, vaulting box, and jump rope, children can feel their own growth.
For five-year-olds, it’s their last sports day.
We hope it becomes a sports day where everyone has fun and feels a sense of achievement and satisfaction!
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- [Childcare] Recommended circuit competition ideas for a sports day for 2-year-olds
- Recommended for 5-year-olds! A collection of ideas for plays and dances for senior kindergarteners’ performances
- [Parent-Child Rec] Recreational activities and games for parents and children to enjoy together—also great for sports days.
- [Preschool] Fun event ideas to include in the sports day for the junior (younger) class
- [Childcare] Sports Day activity ideas. Let’s make the Sports Day exciting!
- For 3-Year-Olds! Indoor & Outdoor Physical Play and Game Ideas
- For the kindergarten sports day! A list of obstacle course ideas
[Sports Day] For 5-Year-Olds | Circuit Ideas (41–50)
Challenge the horizontal bar too! Circuit
If you want to include hanging exercises, horizontal bars are also recommended.
When setting up a circuit outdoors, lay mats under the bar and design the circuit with safety in mind.
For adjustable, assembled bars, set the height so it’s easy for children to use.
It may help to set rough time targets, such as how long to hang.
Try to design the circuit so it fosters a sense of accomplishment—so children can say, “I did it!”—and make sure activities stay within a comfortable, manageable range.
obstacle course
When it comes to school sports days, obstacle races are a classic! Balance beams, crawling under nets, vaulting boxes—anything goes.
It’s popular because you can adjust the distance and obstacles by age and freely design the course.
Kids who are fast runners, those who enjoy detailed tasks, and those with great balance can all shine in their own ways.
You can even add a mental element, like drawing cards to give challenges.
Goo-paa jump
Here’s an idea for a “gu-pa jump” that’s fun because it lets you move nimbly.
It involves keeping a rhythmic step pattern with single-leg hops and two-leg hops, then using that momentum to jump.
For the stepping part, think of hopscotch to get the idea.
If you’re including this in a circuit, set up the “gu-pa” zones with hula hoops or similar markers, and place a vaulting box or other equipment after them so participants can jump.
It offers a different sensation compared to the traditional run-and-leap approach.
Jump & Touch on a Trampoline
An idea that’s perfect for setting up at the finish line is “jump and touch” using a trampoline.
Participants jump on the trampoline and touch a target placed up high.
The dynamic, exhilarating movement makes it a great way to cap off the circuit.
It could also be fun to set the rule that touching the target equals the finish.
For the target, tambourines are recommended—since they make a sound, it will boost the excitement even more.
pull-up on a horizontal bar done by swinging the legs up and over (kip-up on a bar)
Many of you are probably thinking of incorporating a horizontal bar into your circuit activities.
The question, then, is what kind of routines to have the children perform.
Forward and backward circles are great, but the pull-over (kip-up) is also highly recommended.
Because it’s a somewhat more complex movement, performing it should help parents feel their child’s growth, and it can also build the child’s confidence.
If you’re indoors, try using a foldable horizontal bar.
You can even set it deliberately low and have the children perform multiple times.
Net crawl-through
The appeal of circuits is that you can enjoy a variety of movements.
So I’d like to introduce an activity that lets children enjoy crawling: net crawling.
First, lay down a mat, set up a net on top of it, and have the children crawl through.
If there’s nowhere to fix the net, it’s fine to have four people each hold a corner.
Set the net with enough slack to make it easy to crawl under.
If you want to position the net a bit higher, place cones and stretch the net across them.
jump rope
How about using jump ropes, something many children are already familiar with? For example, you could set up a jump rope at a certain spot and have participants jump a specified number of times in a designated style.
A nice feature is that you can adjust the tricks and the number of jumps to suit each person’s abilities.
Alternatively, they could do running jumps while moving on to the next event.
In that case, you can also specify a trick, such as cross jumps.
It doesn’t require extensive preparation and can be added right away, so it’s perfect when you suddenly want to increase the number of events.