Parent-Child Events for Sports Day: Recommended Ideas for Nurseries and Kindergartens
Parent-child events at kindergarten and nursery school sports days are a great way for families to have fun together and get everyone excited! Here, we’ll share ideas for parent-child competitions at sports days.
From classics like sprints and beanbag tosses to obstacle courses and quirky games, there’s a wide variety to choose from.
It’s also wonderful for children to see their parents getting really into it.
You can easily adapt the activities to fit your space and number of participants, so use these as a reference and brainstorm fun ideas with your fellow teachers.
Imagine the children’s smiles as you prepare, and make it a joyful sports day!
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- [Senior Class Events] A collection of game ideas to liven up a sports day for 5-year-olds
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[Parent-Child Events for Sports Day] Recommended Ideas for Nurseries and Kindergartens (81–90)
Basketball ball-toss game
Speaking of sports days, tamaire (ball toss) is a classic, right? It’s one of those long-loved events that anyone can enjoy, regardless of age.
This time, let’s adapt it by imagining it as the Olympic sport of basketball! For two-year-olds, a real basketball hoop or a tall ball-toss basket is probably out of reach.
That’s where parents come in! Try lifting your child up to the hoop for a shot, or letting them shoot while riding on your shoulders—it sounds like great fun! Of course, adjusting the goal height to suit the children will really boost the excitement, so feel free to customize it to match your class’s theme colors.
Get into the hula hoop.
A game where hoops are laid out randomly on the ground, everyone walks around and around the hula hoops, and when the music stops, you jump into any hoop.
To put it simply, it’s the hoop version of musical chairs, played by parents and children together.
You can use hula hoops, but it’s more exciting if the hoops vary in size—big and small—so why not make your own with newspaper and vinyl tape? If you can’t get into a hoop, you’re out.
The last parent–child pair remaining wins!
Hula hoop relay
This is a relay where two people run together inside a hula hoop.
Mark the start line and the turnaround point, divide into several teams, and at the starting signal, each team’s first pair runs.
They go around the turnaround point, return to the start, and pass the hula hoop to the next pair.
The team whose last pair gets back to the start first wins! If you don’t match your speeds, you might lose balance and fall, so go at the fastest pace you can manage together.
At the turnaround point, it helps to have the person on the inside act as the pivot to turn smoothly!
Racquetball Balancing Relay
As an event that uses equipment, we also recommend a racket-and-ball relay.
In this activity, participants place a ball on a tennis or badminton racket and run straight to the finish line.
The fun part is that while you want to run fast, if you go too quickly you’ll drop the ball.
We hope participants enjoy not only the race itself but also the process of trying repeatedly and figuring out how to carry the ball well.
There’s no fixed type of ball, but something light and not too large works best.
Animal role-play race
It’s a parent–child event that’s fun not only as a competition but also as a way to communicate together.
According to the rules, children start on their own, then meet up partway with their guardian, who is waiting and holding an animal mask.
After meeting, the parent and child aim for the finish line while acting like the animal on the mask.
Because of that, how well you’ve communicated and reflected the child’s wishes during the mask-making stage can affect the actual performance.
It’s a parent–child activity where you can enjoy communication from preparation through the main event, participating together using the mask you made as a team.
