[Kindergarten/Daycare] Games and Performances for Fun Events
At kindergartens and daycare centers, fun parties and birthday celebrations are held for the children.
Games and performances are essential for these events.
While many teachers are brainstorming ideas to delight the kids who eagerly look forward to them, some may be struggling with a lack of ideas.
In this article, we introduce games and performances that are perfect for such parties.
We’ve gathered a wide variety, from activities led by teachers to ones where children participate and have fun.
They’re all engaging ideas that spark children’s curiosity! Many of these games and performances are actually used in kindergartens and daycare centers, so feel free to use them as a reference.
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[Kindergartens/Daycare Centers] Games and Performances for Fun Events (111–120)
The Falling-Falling Game
It’s a recreation activity with set movements that you do along with the song “Oochita ochita, nani ga ochita? Ringo” (“It fell, it fell—what fell? An apple”).
Some people may have played it as part of eurhythmics.
When “ringo” (apple) is called, you make a gesture of catching an apple with your hands.
In the same way, for “genkotsu” (fist) you hold your head, and for “kaminari” (thunder) you cover your belly button.
It’s a game where small differences in reflexes make it fun! You can also play with the rule that anyone who makes a mistake is out, and the last person remaining wins.
Bowling with plastic bottles
The first bowling alley in Japan was built at the end of the Edo period.
The idea of people with topknots going bowling might sound strange, right? Later came the massive bowling boom of the 1970s—names like Ritsuko Nakayama and Kayoko Suda bring back memories.
For kids, this might be their first experience with bowling.
Why not hold a tournament with “PET bottle bowling”? Even making the pins out of plastic bottles sounds fun! For the ball, use a softball or a volleyball as a substitute.
Sketchbook Theater
A sketchbook theater is where you use a sketchbook like a picture-story show to tell a story.
You can draw the story’s illustrations directly in the sketchbook, or make characters and other elements out of construction paper and paste them in.
Adding mechanisms—like characters that pop out, move, or images that change instantly like magic—will make it even more enjoyable for children.
If you’re doing it for a Tanabata event, try creating it with the Tanabata story as the motif.
Telephone game
The telephone game is a classic recreation.
Children sit in a line, and the child at one end starts by passing along a prompt word so that the others can’t hear.
Whispering from one to the next, making sure no one else can hear, it goes down the line to the end—did the message make it through correctly? That’s the fun of the game.
Because the whispers are so quiet and hard to catch, the message often doesn’t come across accurately—but that’s part of the enjoyment, sparking laughter and excitement.
Rock-Paper-Scissors Train
It’s a very fun game that’s often played at company onboarding sessions and club or circle socials.
It’s especially effective when people haven’t warmed up to each other yet—everyone ends up getting along after this game.
The rules are very simple: two people play rock-paper-scissors, and the loser attaches to the winner from behind like a train.
As you repeat this, a long train forms, and the person who never lost a round gets to stand at the front of the longest train.
It’s more fun if you play in a slightly larger space.