[Childcare] Sports Day activity ideas. Let’s make the Sports Day exciting!
Sports days at nursery schools and kindergartens are important events where everyone can see how the children are growing!
By preparing fun activities, you can create a sports day that both children and adults will enjoy.
Here, we’ll introduce a variety of events: those done cooperatively as a class, activities for younger children, and games that parents and children can participate in together!
All of them are ideas that motivate children and allow guardians to feel their children’s development.
Use these as a reference to tailor activities to the children and create a fun and engaging sports day!
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[Childcare] Sports day event ideas. Let’s pump up the sports day! (111–120)
Group gymnastics
Group gymnastics is when everyone works together to create various moves and formations.
While it’s often associated with elementary school, children who attend kindergartens or daycare centers and get plenty of exercise can definitely perform simple techniques! There are solo moves like bridges and poses that require balancing on one hand, as well as partner or group moves like the “two-tier bed” and the “fan.” There are many techniques that kindergarten and daycare children can handle.
Let’s show parents how cool the kids look as they perform impressive moves in time with the teacher’s calls, drumbeats, or music!
Tug of war
If you really want to enjoy a sports day, you can’t leave out tug-of-war! Everyone pulls the rope with all their might and works together.
It’s such a simple event that even very young children can take part.
As kids get to the middle and older kindergarten ages, they learn to pull in sync with everyone else, and from a teacher’s or parent’s perspective, it’s an event where you can really feel the children’s growth.
Parent-child dance
Let’s try a “parent–child dance” that you can enjoy together on Sports Day without any prior practice! The children can practice in advance and then teach the moves to the parents they’ll dance with on the day—that works great too.
The choreography will be simple enough to follow just by watching the teachers’ demonstration on the day.
Of course, parents are also welcome to practice beforehand if they wish.
Why not include this as a way to strengthen the parent–child bond and create lasting family memories of Sports Day?
Traveling by train
You’re probably curious about what kind of event “traveling by train” is at a sports day! The rules are very simple: children get inside a cardboard train and run as if they’re traveling along the course.
On the course, they climb over low platforms shaped like hills, weave around cones, and jump over hula hoops—enjoying their trip as they go.
You can also include a game where you prepare puzzles with animal faces and bodies separated; along the way, they pick pieces so the top and bottom match, then assemble and stick them together at the end! It’s sure to be a fun journey for the kids! It’s also adorable if they enter and exit carrying handmade carry-on bags!
Borrower Competition
Borrowed item races are a staple event, but this one is a “borrowed person” race.
As the name suggests, you don’t borrow objects—you borrow people.
Participants head for the finish line with teachers, parents, or kindergarteners who match the theme! The great thing about this is that everyone can have fun together in a friendly, lively way.
Adults and children alike can enjoy it, which really livens up the sports day! Just be careful not to make the prompts too difficult, since some kids might be shy.
You could also mix in rules from a traditional borrowed item race.
Jama-Jama Ball Toss
Even the classic ball-toss game can get the whole family excited with a simple twist.
In this version, called “Jama-Jama Tamaire” (the “Nuisance Ball Toss”), a character appears whose job is to block the balls from going into the net.
“Jama-Jama-kun” holds a big cardboard shield and bats back the balls thrown toward the net.
Wear an eye-catching outfit like a full-body suit or a disguise so your identity stays hidden, and fully commit to playing the villain.
If you throw yourself into the role without getting shy, the kids’ cheering will heat up, and the parents will feel a stronger sense of togetherness too!
Operation Hide-and-Seek
What kind of event is “Hide-and-Seek at the Sports Day”? This version is a hide-and-seek game that parents and children can enjoy together, where the guardians try to find their own child.
First, the children get into boxes placed on the field.
During this time, the guardians should avoid seeing where their child goes—by turning around, for example.
Once everyone is hidden, the guardians open the boxes all at once to search for their child.
The parent-and-child pair that finds their child quickly and reaches the finish line first wins.
You can make the event even more exciting by having the parent give their child a piggyback ride or by adding obstacles on the way to the goal!