Ideas for indoor activities and group games that 5-year-olds like

Chick Sumo

Indoor play! Chick Sumo for toddlers and up. Try it with a big group☆ Build ankle flexibility while you play.

People from preschoolers to adults can join! Here’s an idea for “Chick Sumo.” It’s a perfect game for training ankle flexibility while playing.

While squatting, hold your ankles and move forward.

If your hands or bottom touch the floor, you lose—simple as that.

Move carefully so you don’t lose your balance.

Once you get used to it, try battling in groups of five or six in class.

A tournament format, where the last person remaining advances, also sounds fun!

Balloon Carry Relay

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We held a “Balloon Carry Relay,” fostering the ability to cooperate with friends and encouraging a consultative, collaborative attitude. The children called out to one another and worked together while matching their timing. This relay is effective for improving cooperation skills and sense of balance.After-school day serviceChild Development SupportCooperativenessSense of balance

♪ Original Song – BEAR KIDS – BEAR KIDS 🧸 Child Development Support / After-School Day Service

Here’s a fun balloon-carrying relay where you work together with a friend.

Form pairs, hold a balloon between two paper cups so it doesn’t fall, and carry it to the goal—simple and enjoyable! If your strength and speed aren’t in sync, the balloon may drop along the way and you might not make it to the goal, so communicate with each other and aim for the finish.

If you drop the balloon, start again from where it fell.

Make sure you have plenty of space and be careful not to bump into friends.

Doing it in teams is also recommended.

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mayumi

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drawing relay

[Drawing Relay 🎨] A telephone game with pictures! If we fail… 🍽️😱 / epi.267 #ChoTokimekiSendenbu #ChoTokisen

Here’s a drawing relay that everyone can get excited about.

Split into teams, and only the first person looks at the prompt.

The first person draws the prompt and passes it on to the next player.

The next player interprets the drawing and conveys it to the following player with another drawing.

The team whose final player’s drawing matches the original prompt the fastest wins.

It’s best to use simple prompts that are easy for kids to understand.

You can enjoy this game indoors or outdoors, so grab some paper and felt-tip pens and give it a try!

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mayumi

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Paper Sumo (Tonton Paper Sumo)

Tonton Paper Sumo Wrestling

Let’s play a nostalgic game: paper sumo! The video uses a ready-made paper sumo set, but you can also make one with origami.

Create wrestlers out of origami paper and use an empty box as the ring.

At the cue “Hakke-yooi, nokotta!” lightly tap the box to move your wrestler.

Depending on where and how hard you tap, the wrestlers may clash, topple over, or even go out of the ring.

The key to paper sumo is mastering the force and the way you move them—so gather everyone and give it a try!

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hiyoko sensei

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Balloon Whack Game

[Age 3] “Balloon Whack Game”

Here’s a game using balloons that kids love: the Balloon Smack Game.

It’s basically the summer watermelon-smashing game, but with a balloon instead of a watermelon.

One designated player wears a blindfold and swings a plastic bat toward the balloon.

Spectators should keep a safe distance and guide the player with their voices: “To the right!” “A little farther back!” and so on, helping them find the balloon.

It also works well as a warm-up when you’re planning to do a real watermelon-smashing activity at an overnight camp or summer festival.

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hiyoko sensei

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Come-here game

[Toddler Play] “Come here, come here” game — a play activity that even 3-year-olds can do!

Even though the rules are super simple, let’s try playing the “Come Here, Come Here Game,” which kids are guaranteed to love! Divide into a teacher and children.

The teacher gently beckons to the children, saying “Come here, come here.” While the teacher is saying it, the children move slowly toward the teacher without running.

When the teacher suddenly says, “Come here, come here…

It’s a ghost!” the children have to run away so they don’t get caught.

Once everyone gets used to it, you can make it even more exciting by faking them out with similar-sounding words to “ghost,” like “pot” or “mother.”

Tag game where the number of chasers increases (Infection tag)

We tried playing tag where the number of chasers keeps increasing!

Here’s an introduction to “Fuyashi Oni,” a heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat tag game where the number of taggers (oni) keeps increasing.

The rules are very simple: if you’re tagged, you become an oni, so the number of oni steadily grows—making it a game you can play with any number of people.

If you play with 30 people, before you know it there might be 29 oni and you’re the only one still running, surrounded and on pins and needles.

It can even turn into a psychological battle: an oni who’s been tagged might pretend not to notice and act like they’re still a runner, sidling up to someone and tagging them.

You don’t need any special equipment, so give it a try!