From classic to quirky: prompts that will liven up a borrow-it relay

Last updated:2025/5/23

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Keyboard playerSAKI
I’ve been playing the Electone since I was six, mainly performing Disney music, anime songs, and music from dramas and films. I post performance videos on YouTube and social media, and I also give concerts. Building on my Electone experience, I took up synthesizer and piano during my student years and performed at school-sponsored events. As a writer, I’ve covered not only music-related topics but a wide range of genres, so I hope to draw on my experience to deliver articles that make readers think, “I want to try that!” or “I want to listen to that!”

The borrowing race is one of the classic events at a sports day.

In this event, participants search around the sports day venue for an item or person that matches the prompt, and the first person to reach the finish line together with what they found wins.

In this article, we introduce perfect prompts for the borrowing race, organized by category!

We’ve gathered a wide variety of prompts—from standard ones that are easy for small children to find and lower-difficulty prompts, to quirky and amusing ones.

There are also prompts for things you don’t usually see, as well as sweet, heart-throbbing prompts with a romantic twist!

Use the prompts we introduce as inspiration to make your borrowing race fun and entertaining!

Classics (1–10)

First, let’s introduce some classic themes for a borrowing race! We’ve picked out tried-and-true items that are commonly used in many borrowing race events.

Most of these are relatively easy, so they’re suitable for young children in preschool or kindergarten, students, and even parents.

If you’re unsure what kind of themes to choose, start by checking the ones we’re about to introduce.

someone I like

A classic, heart-pounding scavenger race prompt: your crush! If you’re already dating someone, it might be easy, but if it’s unrequited love, it’ll take a lot of courage.

That said, if you don’t limit it to romance and allow friends or family as well, it becomes much easier for anyone to take part!

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things of ◯ color

This activity involves specifying a color and having participants bring something of that color.

Adjust your color choices to suit the ages of the participants! Colors like red, blue, and yellow are often used for sports day equipment and the like, so they should be easy to find.

On the other hand, colors such as purple, gold, or gray might be a bit more challenging.

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shoes

Shoes are something that both participants in the sports day and spectators are sure to be wearing, so it’s a prompt that even children can tackle easily.

If you want to raise the difficulty a bit from there, you can specify the shoe size, such as “shoes that are X cm.”

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SAKI

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Something round

This prompt accepts anything that’s round, whether it’s a ball or food.

If you want to increase the difficulty, try specifying more precisely, like “a round ___.” Since it’s an easy prompt, it’s also great for borrowing races at kindergartens or daycare centers where small children participate!

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flip phone

While flip phones—whose users are decreasing year by year—are a staple prompt in borrowing races, the difficulty of the prompt has been gradually increasing.

There are still older people and some who use them for work, so it might be best to focus on those individuals to complete the task.

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SAKI

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Mike

At a sports day, there are plenty of opportunities to use a microphone—like announcing the next event or presenting the results of each competition.

How about making the microphone, an essential item for the organizing team, the target that participants must obtain? If the one at the broadcast station is connected by an important cable and can’t be moved, that added difficulty can make things more exciting.

Some people might have a small mic for attaching to a camera, so aiming for that could be a good strategy too.

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bag

Some people can’t go about their daily lives without a bag—whether it’s for carrying everyday essentials or goodies for enjoying events.

This idea uses that ubiquitous bag as the theme: participants search around the venue for one.

If you’re carrying a lot, even reaching the goal takes effort, so pay attention not only to the bag’s shape but also to how much it holds, and choose what to bring accordingly.

It could also be fun to specify the type of bag in the prompt and let people enjoy the act of searching for it around the venue.

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kappamaki

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