Winter activities to enjoy at daycare! Outdoor play and nature play that warm the heart and body.
We’ve gathered lots of ideas for activities you can enjoy with children during the cold winter months!
In addition to outdoor and playground activities that let kids interact with natural materials like snow, ice, and nuts, we’re introducing plenty of options for getting bodies moving to warm up, as well as traditional games that have been passed down through the years.
When it gets cold, we tend to stay indoors, but it’s a great chance to show kids that moving their bodies helps them warm up.
Incorporate a variety of activities and enjoy the winter season together with children—keeping both hearts and bodies warm and full of energy!
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Winter activities kids can enjoy at daycare! Outdoor and nature play that warm the body and soul (21–30)
From infants and toddlers! Traditional games everyone can enjoy together
Since it’s the New Year, a traditional Japanese holiday, it’s a great time to try out various classic games.
Kagome Kagome remains a popular game even today.
It’s fun to sing the song with its unique atmosphere, and guessing who is sitting directly behind you is thrilling and exciting.
Hanai-chimonme is also enjoyable, with the hand-holding, leg-lifting poses and the song.
And with soap bubbles, take your time to watch them gently float and drift far away.
Fun for adults too! “Fluffy Snow”
This is a fingerplay song where you build a snowman and look for numbers hidden in the lyrics.
It doesn’t include every number from 1 to 9, but there are surprisingly many hidden ones—see how many you can find.
In this fingerplay, the snowman’s eyes are made with mandarins, the nose with a carrot, and the eyebrows with a cucumber.
It’s fun to imagine what the face will look like.
Asking “What would you use to make yours?” will likely get everyone excited.
When it snows, try making the snowman you imagined.
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.
Let’s make a Fukuwarai and play!
How about enjoying a classic New Year’s game, fukuwarai? Have the children draw and make the base sheet and facial parts however they like using construction paper and crayons.
By creating them themselves, the kids can grasp what the finished face should look like, and after playing fukuwarai they won’t be able to stop laughing! It might be even funnier if you make it as a self-portrait.
It’s perfectly fine if the fukuwarai face doesn’t turn out “well,” so why not encourage the kids by saying, “Make a funny face on purpose!”
playing hot spring
Hot springs are generally more of a relaxing space for adults, but we want kids to enjoy them too! So let’s try playing “hot spring” indoors.
Draw rocks on construction paper to make the outer wall, and inside, spread out strands of cut-up raffia ribbon or bubble wrap.
Finally, decide on a name for your hot spring and put up a sign.
Get in together and ask the kids what they think.
They can have fun draping the crackly raffia ribbon over themselves or popping the bubble wrap—let them freely experience the hot spring through play.
Daikon Game
The Daikon Game is a very unique indoor activity, so I definitely recommend trying it! Here’s how to play: three children lie down in a circle holding hands, and the teacher pulls on their legs as if pulling up a daikon radish.
The children brace themselves so their hands don’t come apart.
If their hands separate, the teacher wins; if they don’t, the children win.
It’s a simple set of rules.
It warms you up while you have fun, making it perfect for winter.
Teachers, get moving with the kids and let’s beat the winter cold together!
centipede ogre
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Move nimbly and avoid danger! Here’s an idea for a game called Centipede Tag.
You probably know there are many types of tag, like Freeze Tag and Color Tag.
Have you heard of Centipede Tag, where you work together with teammates to escape the tagger? Assign one person as the tagger, and everyone else is on the centipede team.
The centipede players place their hands on the shoulders of the person in front and stay connected without letting go.
When the last person in the centipede gets tagged, the tagger switches.
It’s tough to escape from a freely moving tagger, but by cooperating, the centipede team will build strong bonds.