[Children's Association] A Collection of Fun Entertainment and Activity Ideas
Introducing fun activities and performances that will liven up your kids’ club! Kids’ clubs bring together children from the neighborhood or school to have a great time.
Getting together to play games, enjoy performances, and put on skits—children really look forward to those precious moments.
In this article, we’re introducing entertainment and performance ideas perfect for kids’ clubs.
We’ve gathered lots of ideas, from activities led by the children themselves to performances where adults entertain the kids.
Use these as inspiration and make your kids’ club as exciting as possible!
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[Children’s Club] A Collection of Lively Entertainment and Performance Ideas (21–30)
Telepathy Gesture Game
It’s no exaggeration to say that gesture games have long been a pillar of Japanese variety shows, and they’re always a hit as party entertainment.
Here, instead of a typical communication-style gesture game, we’ll introduce a telepathy-style version that tests whether two people are on the same wavelength.
First, present a prompt.
If the two performers make the same gesture, it’s a correct answer.
For example, if the prompt is “baseball” and one person acts as a batter while the other acts as a pitcher, that’s a miss.
It’s even more fun if you set up a screen so they can’t see each other’s gestures!
true-or-false quiz
It’s perfect even with a big crowd! Try adding a True-or-False Quiz to your program so everyone can participate equally and have fun.
The rules are super simple: listen to the question and decide whether it’s true or false.
If it’s true, wear your hat with the red side; if it’s false, wear it with the white side.
With red-and-white hats, any child can join the game easily.
It’s also fun to take some time for everyone to discuss whether it’s true or false.
Prepare some funny questions and a few tricky ones to get the whole venue excited!
A tube-ken like a kendama!
When it comes to traditional Japanese toys, there’s kendama, but it requires equipment and you have to carry it around with you.
I’m not sure how it came to be, but there’s a game called “tsutsuken” that you can play like kendama using just a simple tube and a ball that’s a bit too big to fit entirely inside the tube.
For the tube, you could even use something like the container from tube-shaped potato chips.
It’s easy to get started, so practice regularly and be sure to show it off in front of everyone!
theater
A play is recommended as entertainment for the children’s club.
If you choose a play based on “The Monkey and the Crab,” kids can play a variety of characters like the monkey, the crab, the chestnut, and the bee.
Adding original touches—such as unique lines or playful pranks—will make it even more enjoyable.
Wearing costumes that match each character and doing impressions is sure to liven things up! It could also be nice to end the story with the monkey and the crab making up.
It sounds like a wonderful activity that will nurture the children’s expressive abilities and creativity.
No rehearsal party trick!
When it comes to party tricks, it often happens that someone says, “Hey, let’s try something right now!” on the spur of the moment.
For times like that, I recommend no-practice-required hidden talents.
There are a few, but to give some examples: a game where you guess what object is being held between someone’s butt cheeks, and qigong tricks.
As you might guess, with qigong, the technique that matters is not the person supposedly doing it, but the person it’s being done to.
If someone “hits you with qigong,” try dramatically flying backward or spinning around.
It’s guaranteed to get laughs.
Bingo game
One activity that almost always takes place at children’s club events is the bingo game.
It’s a staple as entertainment at adult parties too, but kids really love bingo as well! The rules are simple, you can play while eating and chatting, and if you prepare prizes in advance, all you have to do on the day is run the game—an easy point that organizers will appreciate.
Points to watch: separate prizes for boys and girls, and research which prizes are popular with kids.
Also, make sure to prepare participation prizes for the children who have a hard time getting bingo.
Paprika with body percussion
Let me introduce a performance you can do with nothing but your body: body percussion.
Body percussion is a performance where you treat your body like an instrument and keep rhythms to music.
Clap your hands, tap your abdomen, stomp your feet—there’s no set rule for how to create the rhythms, so try coming up with an expression that feels like you.
If you perform it to a popular song, everyone can enjoy it together, making it perfect for a thank-you party.
Performed by a large group, it creates a sense of unity and impact.
If you have the time, consider putting extra thought into vocals, choreography, and formations as well.
Adults go all out! Gesture game
If you want to enjoy a game with everyone, how about Charades? It’s a game where you convey prompts using only gestures, without words—and depending on the prompt, it can be pretty hard to get your message across.
Try coming up with prompts that everyone can enjoy, from easy-to-imagine ones like baseball or soccer to animals or prompts with a bit of a story.
If you have a large group, we recommend splitting into teams, setting a time limit, and competing to see which team can guess the most prompts correctly.
Sign language dance ‘Racing into the Night’YOASOBI
How about performing a sign language dance to the famous song everyone’s heard at least once, YOASOBI’s “Racing into the Night” (Yoru ni Kakeru)? Adding precise finger movements to the dance raises the difficulty a bit, but that’s exactly why it could capture the audience’s interest.
Plus, this dance might spark curiosity about sign language as a communication tool and open up a new world for you.
Talk together about which signs to incorporate into the choreography, and try creating an original routine.
Instant Magic! Telekinetic Chopsticks
Let me show you some simple magic tricks you can do with disposable chopsticks at a banquet hall.
By threading the chopsticks through a loop formed by your fingers, you can imbue them with “telekinetic power” so they appear to move without being touched.
First, cross a pair of Japanese disposable chopsticks and rub near the base with your right hand; the vibration grows stronger toward the tips, making the chopstick in your left hand hop up and down.
Another trick is to place the crossed chopsticks on a table and make them “move” with telekinesis.
In this one, you draw the audience’s gaze to the hand supposedly channeling power, while in reality you secretly blow on the chopsticks to make them move.