A collection of ideas for infant/toddler play, recreation, and games
Play and games help keep children’s minds and bodies healthy and lively.
They nurture physical activity, thinking skills, imagination, and the ability to get along with friends.
Here, we’ve gathered activities and games that preschoolers can enjoy.
There are many kinds: group games, traditional play, pretend and make-believe activities, and sensory play.
You’ll find lots of favorites from nurseries and kindergartens, as well as easy games you can do at home.
Choose fun activities that match your child’s age and development, and enjoy them together!
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Ideas for Toddler Play, Recreation, and Games (131–140)
water gun
Speaking of water guns, they’re a classic summer pastime, but you can enjoy them in the bath too, so they’re fine even in winter.
There are plenty of store-bought options, but up until around the 1960s, many Showa-era children often made their own using bamboo.
That said, as long as the water squirts out, it works—so you can easily make one using mayonnaise or ketchup bottles.
Magnet Play
Magnets are ordinary objects for adults, but for small children they can be fascinating and spark curiosity.
By playing various games with magnets, children can learn about their properties, and by using them creatively, it’s interesting to see how their learning ability can improve.
A tray that spins using magnetic force could also be turned into a merry-go-round through a craft project.
Color water play without using paint
Colorful and visually fun colored-water play! Normally, you’d dissolve paint in water to make colored water, but you can actually make it without paint.
We’ll use “ohana-gami” (tissue paper for crafts), which you can buy at 100-yen shops, to create the colors.
Fill a plastic bottle with water, tear the tissue paper into small pieces, and put them into the bottle.
Screw the cap on tightly and shake—done! The tissue paper is thin and dissolves easily in water, so you can make colored water with no fuss.
As the paper breaks down, the water becomes slightly thick, which also makes it fun to play with.
Try mixing different colors and enjoy!
Sticker application
Let’s try a sticker activity where you stick lots of stickers! You can freely play by putting your favorite stickers in a sticker book—made specifically for sticking stickers—or on paper.
Playing with stickers helps develop fine motor skills and dexterity, and it also boosts concentration.
It can even inspire a desire to improve, like thinking, “Next time I want to stick them like this!” Plenty of stickers and sticker books are sold not only at stationery stores but also at 100-yen shops, so they’re easy to buy.
Gesture Game
A classic recreation game: charades.
A person looks at a card with a prompt and expresses it using only gestures, while the others try to guess what it is.
You must not talk—gestures only.
It might work well for adults to do the gestures and the children to watch and guess.
Try using prompts that are easy for kids to understand, such as distinctive animals or vehicles.
Paper Sumo (Tonton Paper Sumo)
Paper sumo, where you tap the edge of a box ring to make the wrestlers fight.
First, prepare an empty box and make the ring.
Paste a sheet of paper on top of the box to serve as the ring, then draw a circle on it with a compass.
Apply glue along the drawn line, lay twine on top, and let it dry—that completes the ring.
To make the sumo wrestlers, simply fold a piece of paper in half and cut out their shapes.
It’s also fun for everyone to draw their own designs to create unique wrestlers.
The way you cut the paper affects how stable and strong the wrestlers are, so try different styles to see what works best.
sensory play
You know that squishy, jiggly texture that makes you want to poke or squish it? With food, things like tofu or jelly just make you want to touch them.
Since playing with food isn’t polite, this idea is to make food-like squishy stuff using gelatin and food coloring so you can squish and stir to your heart’s content! It takes a little time to set, but the method is very simple: just mix water with food coloring and powdered gelatin, then chill in the fridge until it firms up.
You can make something that looks like cool jelly, cut it out with cute molds, or just go wild mixing and squashing it—there are lots of ways to enjoy it.