Useful for childcare! Today’s recommended recreational activities, including fingerplay and games!
We’ve introduced some recreational activities to enjoy today.
Planning daily activities for a nursery or kindergarten can be quite a challenge when you’re constantly thinking, “What should we do today?”
In this article, fun recreation ideas are updated every day, so before you start brainstorming, take a quick look here!
Some activities require materials, but once you decide on what to do, things will move along smoothly—so please make good use of this article.
By enjoying a variety of activities every day, children gain lots of new experiences, and teachers can expand their repertoire, too!
- A collection of ideas for infant/toddler play, recreation, and games
- [Childcare] Fun Rhythm Play! Recommended Games and Hand-Clapping/Hand-Play for Kids
- Recreation for daycare centers and kindergartens: fun activities for children
- Indoor games and recreational activities recommended for daycare and kindergarten
- [Childcare] Fun recreation ideas using paper cups
- [Childcare] Fun Spring Activities: Ideas for Nature, Movement, and Crafts
- [Kindergarten/Daycare] Games and Performances for Fun Events
- [Childcare / Physical Play] Fun Activities to Get Moving
- [For 5-Year-Olds] Recommended Indoor Play! A Collection of Exciting Games
- [Childcare] Wordplay and game ideas everyone can enjoy together
- [Childcare] Today’s Fun Origami Play
- Popular hand games and hand game songs for toddlers and children! Full of ideas for childcare/early childhood education.
- [Childcare] From small to large groups! A collection of fun game ideas
Useful for childcare! Today’s recommended recreations such as hand-play activities and games! (11–20)
sensory toy play
Fun for all ages! Here are some sensory toy play ideas.
You’ll need: food storage bags, colored water, oil, adzuki beans, erasers, toy goldfish, beads, bells, hair gel, and tape.
Put the materials you prepared into the bag along with the hair gel! Changing up the colors and textures makes the feel different and more interesting.
Sensory toys are recommended not only for infants but also for preschoolers—they’re engaging to look at and touch, and kids will be totally absorbed.
Eurhythmics
Eurhythmics is an educational approach that, through engagement with music, promotes the development of children’s fundamental abilities such as motor skills, perception, and the senses.
To the rhythm of the piano, let’s crawl, walk, lie down—using our bodies to the fullest in ways suited to each child’s age! It can also help relieve stress for children who may feel down after many rainy days.
You can add your own twists, like incorporating children’s favorite nursery rhymes and anime songs, or doing exercises from picture books in time with the music!
Hand game ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Clap’
Let me introduce “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” a game played to an English folk tune! In this activity, you touch different parts of your body with your hands in time with the song.
Infants can enjoy it as a bonding game with their parents, and preschoolers will have fun moving their hands quickly to different spots with the rhythm.
Because it’s a bright, upbeat song, performing it at an entrance ceremony would instantly make the atmosphere lively and festive.
Sing, play, and have fun together!
Hand play ‘The Flower Smiled’
How about enjoying a hand-play activity with the children’s song “Ohanaga Waratta,” which is perfect for spring entrance ceremonies? You can make flowers with your hands and open them with a pop—it’s a very simple and cute choreography.
Playing it together with children who may be nervous in a new place, or having teachers perform it, could help ease some of that tension.
This song might also convey that kindergarten or nursery school is a fun place.
Please consider it as a performance idea.
Newspaper Spiderweb Circuit
Tear it! Stick it! Crawl through and play! Here’s an idea for a newspaper spiderweb circuit.
You’ll need plastic ribbon (suzuran tape), newspaper, and tape.
This is a great idea when you want to include crawling movements in your circuit.
Some children find tunnels challenging because they’re dark and long.
By tearing and sticking newspaper as part of everyday activities, you can naturally encourage crawling movements! The making process also stimulates children’s creativity—what a wonderful idea.
fishing
You often see fishing on TV and many children know about it, but aren’t there actually few who have experienced it themselves? It might be difficult to do real fishing depending on the location, but how about trying a version you can enjoy indoors? Attach clips to the fish and a magnet to the fishing rod so you can “catch” them.
You can make the fish out of recycled materials, like toilet paper rolls, capsule toy containers, or empty lactic acid drink bottles.
You could also use materials like raffia tape to represent water and arrange the fish on top.
Useful for childcare! Today’s recommended recreations, including finger plays and games! (21–30)
playing store
Let’s try making play food for kids’ favorite pretend play—playing house and running a shop—using colored construction paper and other simple materials.
Roll colored paper into balls to make takoyaki, use yarn as noodles to make yakisoba, crumple white paper tightly to make rice balls (onigiri), link white and brown paper strips and roll them up to make curry rice, and use kitchen sponges to make shortcake.
Create all sorts of foods kids love.
These days, you can get colored paper and sponges at 100-yen shops, so it’s easy to make a variety of items.