![[January Childcare] Traditional New Year’s Games! A Collection of Ideas to Enjoy with Children](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/S0nf_5yZgbU/maxresdefault.webp)
Are you wondering what kinds of activities to include in childcare in January? January is a perfect time for children to get familiar with Japanese culture through traditional games and seasonal recreation.
Here, we introduce New Year’s themed play ideas such as invisible-ink drawings (aburidashi), lion dance (shishimai), and shell matching (kai-awase).
Traditional games are full of elements that nurture children’s creativity and concentration.
They offer many ways to play—moving their bodies with friends, using their hands to make things, and more.
These ideas are also perfect for events in childcare settings, so please use them as a reference!
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[January Childcare] Traditional New Year’s Games! A Collection of Fun Ideas with Kids (1–10)
A craft spinning top that 1-year-olds can enjoy!
Here’s an idea for making a spinning top that even infants can enjoy.
You’ll need a milk carton, a plastic bottle cap, and round stickers.
First, snip the four corners and open the milk carton into a cross shape.
From the edge of the square base, measure 11 cm and cut all four opened sides at that line.
Next, round off the corners and use a craft knife to make round holes near the top of each side.
Decorate with stickers, then glue a plastic bottle cap to the center, and you’re done! If it’s hard to spin using the cap, try hooking a finger through one of the side holes to spin it.
A spinning top you can make with paper plates!
Simple yet spins great! Here’s a spinning top idea made from a paper plate.
Prepare one paper plate, two plastic bottle caps, tape, and crayons.
First, color the surface of the paper plate with crayons.
You can draw pictures or patterns—design it however you like.
Once it’s colored, use tape to attach a bottle cap to the center.
Attach another cap to the center on the back side the same way, and your top is complete.
Pinch the caps and give it a strong spin.
It spins especially well on hard surfaces like hardwood floors.
Fukuwarai from a one-year-old!
Here are some craft ideas for making Fukuwarai with construction paper.
Just cut out the parts from the paper, glue them together, and draw patterns with a pen to finish.
With a bit of adult help—such as pre-cutting the pieces—even young children can take part.
Put double-sided tape on the facial features and let the kids enjoy sticking them on while playing Fukuwarai.
The classics are Hyottoko and Okame, but a daruma or the zodiac animal of the year also make great motifs.
Enjoy a winter craft session to your heart’s content, with a playful spirit.
Handmade toys you can play with during the New Year
Try making New Year’s crafts that you can enjoy and play with even after they’re finished, together as a parent-child activity.
You’ll make a spinning top, a kite, and a hanetsuki set (paddle and shuttlecock).
For the top, draw pictures on the sides of a paper cup, cut four evenly spaced slits and flare them open, then attach a plastic bottle cap as the handle.
For the kite, slightly offset and layer two sheets of origami paper and glue them together; attach sparkly tape as the tails to complete the body, then add a lactic-acid drink bottle as the handle and tie on kite string.
For the hanetsuki paddle, use cardboard and disposable chopsticks: cut two paddle-shaped pieces from cardboard, sandwich the chopsticks between them, and glue.
For the shuttlecock, tie a knot in the middle of some raffia (suzuran) tape, press a small ball of tissue onto the knot, and wrap it with origami paper.
New Year Panel Theater
How about celebrating the New Year with a panel theater themed around Oshōgatsu? In this show, set to music and song, you open various places and say “Happy New Year.” You greet all sorts of things—like the sun you see when you open a window, the rice inside a rice cooker, and the milk in the refrigerator.
Children will be excited to find out what appears next, and they’ll naturally learn the important New Year’s greeting.
Perfect for New Year’s events and recreational activities.
Let’s enjoy New Year’s games!
Let’s set up various stations in the playground so the children can experience New Year’s traditions.
We’ll introduce five activities: rice-cake pounding (mochitsuki), spinning tops (koma), karuta card games, kite flying (takoage), and visiting a shrine to offer prayers.
For mochitsuki, we’ll actually use a mortar and pestle to pound the mochi, while the tops, karuta, kites, and shrine are all handmade.
By making good use of cardboard and milk cartons, you can create remarkably authentic items.
Children can play with the toys you’ve made, or they can take on the challenge of making them themselves.
Enjoy New Year’s experiences suited to the children’s ages.
Fun for childcare! Indoor winter activities
Let me introduce some winter indoor activities that include crafts.
You can roll up cotton to look like fake snow, or put it into a plastic kiddie pool and play dynamically as if it were a bubble bath.
Use stamps on black construction paper to represent snowflakes, then glue origami penguins on top to create a winter-themed wall display.
A glowing tunnel made by sticking phosphorescent stickers onto cardboard is a space where kids will want to stay forever.
Why not fully enjoy winter indoors while incorporating children’s free ideas along the way?