Fun activities with newspaper! Recreation games kids will love
We’ve gathered ideas for children’s games and activities using newspapers.
Newspaper play is fun to enjoy together with kids, so it’s easy to incorporate as an indoor activity at daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary schools.
If it’s hard to get newspapers, try using advertising flyers or unwanted letters and notices instead.
Using colored paper will give the activities a different feel.
We’ve also included games that get kids moving a lot, so they can be active even indoors!
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Fun Games with Newspaper! Recreation and Activities Kids Will Love (21–30)
Newspaper Hide-and-Seek
How about spreading torn-up newspaper all over the room and playing hide-and-seek under it? Making a huge pile of torn newspaper and cleaning up afterward can be tough, but kids love this kind of play! Just covering the room with newspaper will make them thrilled, and they’ll enjoy not only hide-and-seek but all sorts of games.
During hide-and-seek, it might be even more exciting if an adult sprinkles a “rain” of newspaper from above to help them hide.
If covering the whole room is difficult, a plastic kiddie pool or something similar works great too!
Puzzle with newspaper
Tear up a newspaper and use the pieces as a puzzle to play with.
The more you tear, the more pieces you get and the harder it becomes.
Mix in pages from different sections to make it even more complex! It exercises your brain and could even help you learn about current events.
Paper Kick Bowling
We roll up some newspaper into a ball about the size of a softball and use empty plastic bottles as bowling pins.
The twist is that instead of rolling the ball, you kick it.
It’s surprisingly hard to aim a good kick with a newspaper ball, but when you manage to knock down a bunch of pins, the rush is different from regular bowling—and incredibly satisfying.
Another nice thing is that you can enjoy it with everyday items, without spending time or money.
Three newspaper games
Here are three super easy games you can make with newspaper! First, fold a sheet of newspaper into quarters.
Punch a hole in the middle of the fold, then pull out toys or various objects from the hole and play a guessing game! Second, roll a sheet of newspaper into a long thin tube and tape the end.
Balance it on your palm and play a balancing game! Because the newspaper is soft, it’s trickier than it looks.
Lastly, take some PE tape (the kind used for pom-poms) and wrap/roll the newspaper around it in four layers.
When you pull the exposed PE tape and move it, it slithers like a snake! Surprise your friends!
Newspaper Theater
A one-newspaper theater—let’s begin! First, we make a hat from a sheet of newspaper.
Fold the newspaper in half, then fold both top corners down toward the center to make triangles.
Fold the leftover bottom strip up toward the center twice on both the front and back.
Next, open up the center and reverse the creases, then fold the edges of the opened part in slightly.
Say a little magic spell, pop it open again, and you’ve made a pirate-style hat! But that’s not all this hat can do.
You meet an enemy, and—oh no—the top of your hat gets torn! When you unfold the torn hat… a tattered shirt appears! If you narrate the story as you make the hat, it’ll feel just like a scene from a movie!
Newspaper basket weaving
Once you’ve finished reading the newspaper, do many of you just toss it into the recyclables? Bundling recyclables can be a hassle, and some people find throwing them out bothersome.
In that case, why not transform them into something useful for daily life? Let’s make a basket using newspaper as the material—perfect for use as a small organizer!
Newspaper Tower
Let’s try making a big tower out of newspaper that stands tall like Tokyo Tower! First, take a double-page spread of newspaper and fold it in half.
Next, fold both the top and bottom edges toward the center.
Open the folds, then fold in 1–2 cm along the edges of the long sides.
Fold the top and bottom toward the center again, and tuck about one-quarter of one side into the narrow section you just folded.
This will form a triangular prism.
Stuff crumpled newspaper inside it, then wrap the outside with the triangular prism.
Keep adding more crumpled newspaper inside, and it will transform into a tall tower about two meters high! You can also have fun challenging yourself to see how tall you can make it.