[Mini Sports Day] Carefully selected indoor-friendly events that really get everyone excited!
A mini sports day refers to a small-scale sports event held indoors.
Because it isn’t affected by the weather and can be run compactly in just a few hours to half a day, it’s held as an event at kindergartens and elementary schools, and even as a community activity.
In this article, we’ll introduce a selection of perfect activities for a mini sports day all at once.
We’ve gathered everything from classic sports day events to recreational games that children of different ages can enjoy together, so please use it as a reference.
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[Mini Sports Day] Carefully selected exciting indoor-friendly events! (21–30)
Card flipping
It really gets exciting when there’s an activity that lots of kids can join at once.
One I’d like to introduce is “Card Flipping.” First, divide the kids into two teams.
Then they take turns flipping large cards that have different colors on the front and back.
They keep flipping until time runs out, and the team with more cards showing their team color face-up at the end wins.
By the way, you can use cushions or similar items instead of cards—just make sure they’re easy to flip.
Ball-passing game
The ball-passing game is played by forming teams of about five or more members who line up single file and pass a ball from front to back in order.
However, the passes alternate up and down: the first person passes the ball back through their legs, the second person passes it overhead, and so on.
If there are many people on a team, the goal is reached when the ball makes it from the front to the last person.
If there are fewer people, after passing the ball to the person behind them, the passer moves to the end of the line, repeating this process.
The team that crosses a predetermined goal line first wins.
It’s surprisingly less smooth than you might expect, which makes it really exciting!
Paper Airplane Contest
Paper airplanes are something almost everyone played with as a child.
There are seemingly as many ways to fold them as there are people—each method looks different and also flies differently, with varying distances.
Many of us probably experimented as kids to find the best-folding technique for maximum flight.
This idea is to enjoy those paper airplanes as an event in a mini sports day.
It could be a competition that even people who aren’t confident in physical activities can wholeheartedly enjoy.
Bagworm relay
How about incorporating a “bagworm relay,” which looks adorably like a bagworm, into your mini sports day events? It’s called the bagworm relay because participants wear burlap sacks—just like what a bagworm “wears”! You use a large burlap sack, like the kind sold at hardware stores for coffee beans, to cover about half your body.
Since you can’t walk normally, you hop your way toward the finish line.
Jumping big and fast is great, but it also increases the risk of falling, so be careful—yet hurry—doing your best!
Balloon carrying race
A balloon-carrying relay where pairs work together to transport a balloon and aim for the goal without dropping it.
The rules are simple: each person holds one end of a piece of cloth or newspaper spread out between them, place the balloon on top, and run.
The tricky part—and the fun of it—is that the balloon’s buoyancy makes it hard to keep it from falling.
There are also many variations, such as facing each other and pinning the balloon between your bodies, linking arms and holding it between your faces, or sandwiching it between handheld fans.
You can choose a style that suits the team’s relationships and comfort levels.
It’s a contest that heats up into a battle not only against the opposing team but also against the balloon itself, making it a great hit for indoor sports days.
