From New Year’s games to winter crafts! A roundup of January recreation activities to enjoy in childcare
January is a season filled with excitement, wrapped in the special atmosphere of the New Year! There are plenty of ideas you can enjoy with children, from traditional New Year’s games to crafts that let you feel the winter season.
Here, you can savor the fun of writing letters by playing post office, or try spinning a buzzing top.
From lively indoor events to seasonal crafts, we’ll introduce activities that will make children’s eyes sparkle.
Enjoy memorable experiences with the kids—perfect for the start of a brand-new year!
- [January Childcare] Traditional New Year’s Games! A Collection of Ideas to Enjoy with Children
- Ideas for Childcare Quizzes to Enjoy in January
- [January] Enjoy with 2-year-olds! A collection of craft ideas that capture winter and the New Year
- [Children’s Club] Easy and fun indoor games. Exciting party games
- [Kindergarten/Daycare] Games and Performances for Fun Events
- Fun January Crafts! A Collection of Ideas You Can Make and Play With for 5-Year-Olds
- Have fun in childcare! A collection of play ideas to liven up cold days in January
- Useful for childcare! Today’s recommended recreational activities, including fingerplay and games!
- [For Kids] Indoor Fun! Large-Group Recreational Activities and Games
- [Parent-Child Rec] Recreational activities and games for parents and children to enjoy together—also great for sports days.
- [Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
- [For 3-year-olds] Perfect January Winter & New Year Crafts! A Collection of Fun, Hands-On Ideas
- [Elementary School] Quick and Easy! Indoor Recreational Activities Perfect for Lower Grades
From New Year’s games to winter crafts! January childcare recreation ideas (91–100)
Kagami-biraki (the ceremonial opening of a sake barrel or breaking of New Year kagami mochi)
Kagami-biraki is a January event where we take down and eat the kagami mochi that was offered to the gods and buddhas for New Year’s, right? It’s also a traditional ceremony to give thanks to the deities and pray for health and safety.
It’s a great opportunity for children to learn about Japanese traditions, so let’s hold it with family, or at daycare or kindergarten, and make it fun! You might let the children experience breaking the displayed kagami mochi with a wooden mallet.
It’s also recommended to have everyone observe the pieces of mochi after they’re broken.
Fukuwarai of Anpanman
Fukuwarai is a game where you place facial parts like eyes and nose onto a face while blindfolded and enjoy the resulting expression.
It’s a classic New Year’s game, but these days you can find animal and character versions sold in stores, so you can enjoy it year-round.
Here, we’ll introduce a fukuwarai you can make with felt.
The method is simple: just cut the face base and parts out of felt.
Any motif is fine, so make something the kids will love.
If you prepare several kinds of parts, you can enjoy a variety of expressions.
Daruma Eyebrow Bead Rolling
How about making a handmade item with the kids that you can also use for New Year’s play? Let’s try crafting a daruma, which is often displayed at New Year as a good-luck ornament.
Glue together three sheets of construction paper cut into rectangles, roll them into a tube, and place a marble inside to hold it in place.
Once you stick on a sticker with the daruma’s facial expression, it’s complete.
It’s recommended that adults handle the paper cutting while the children freely draw the daruma illustration.
Create a cute, soothing item that you can also enjoy playing with by rolling it around.
Shishimai (lion dance) made with torn-paper collage
This is a shishimai (lion dance) craft made with torn-paper collage, where you can enjoy various activities like tearing paper and drawing illustrations.
After folding the origami, paste on the prepared shishimai parts.
Tear origami paper cut into rectangles and stick the pieces onto construction paper.
The key is to place them so they align with the shishimai’s face.
By pasting the torn pieces yourself, you can enjoy the moment when various patterns emerge.
Finally, draw the shishimai’s facial expression and illustrations such as cherry blossoms with pens or crayons to finish.
Zodiac ornament made from paper cups
Paper cups—an everyday material—are also excellent for crafting! Let’s use them to make a zodiac decoration.
It’s perfect for New Year’s, so why not include it in your January craft plans? As an example of a zodiac animal, we’ll make a dragon for the Year of the Dragon.
First, wrap construction paper around the paper cup and punch two holes in the bottom.
Next, insert pieces of straw cut to resemble the dragon’s horns into the holes, then decorate with the dragon’s face, ears, hands, and more—and you’re done! With some creative decorating, you can adapt this to other zodiac animals too, so have fun making them with the kids!
Sketchbook Theater for the January theme
Sketchbook theater is a popular activity at preschools and kindergartens, where the story unfolds with each page you turn.
In January, why not try a New Year’s theme? All you need is a sketchbook, and it’s easy to prepare—just draw pictures with pens, crayons, or colored pencils, or attach cutout pieces of construction paper.
Draw traditional New Year’s activities like kite flying, spinning tops, handballs, and hanetsuki (a paddle-and-shuttlecock game), and introduce them to the children while singing New Year’s songs.
Not only can you draw illustrations, but creating motifs from construction paper or adding simple mechanisms will likely delight the children as well.
[Hand Play Song] Happy New Year
![[Hand Play Song] Happy New Year](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SIk-PyGk7K4/sddefault.jpg)
Would you like to enjoy the fingerplay song “Akemashite Omedetō,” which captures the New Year atmosphere, together with the children? Let’s use our whole bodies to express the joy of welcoming a brand-new year! A key feature of this fingerplay song is that its lyrics include traditional New Year customs such as playing karuta, flying kites, and doing the first calligraphy of the year.
Enjoying this song with the children also provides a great opportunity for them to learn about these traditions!