[Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
Lively, fun recreation games that get elementary school kids excited! Whether in the classroom or the gym, there are plenty of activities that bring smiles to everyone’s faces.
Here, we’ll introduce fun ideas ranging from team-versus-team cooperative games and brain-teasing hiragana quizzes to active ball tag—everything from no-equipment options to games you can enjoy with simple prep.
These games help deepen friendships and reveal new sides of each other, so be sure to enjoy your time with friends through play!
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Improvisation, Creativity, and DIY-Style Games (11–20)
Finger Catch
Everyone stands in a circle.
Point your right index finger downward, and make a tube shape with your left hand.
Place your right index finger into the tube of the person on your right.
At the cue “Catch!”, close your left hand to catch the finger.
At the same time, try to pull your own right finger out so it doesn’t get caught.
Anyone whose finger gets caught is out.
It’s also fun to fake people out by calling other words that start with “Kya” in Japanese before saying “Catch!”.
Newspaper Battle
It’s a game called “Newspaper Battle” that uses old newspapers.
Prepare lots of crumpled newspaper balls.
Split into two teams and throw the newspapers at each other.
The team that gets the most newspaper balls into the other team’s area within the time limit wins.
Kicking them in with your feet or carrying and throwing in a bunch at once is not allowed.
Crumpling up the newspapers is fun, too!
Blindfold balance
Standing on one leg to keep your balance—if that’s all, it’s easy.
But when you add a blindfold in that position… suddenly it becomes hard to stay balanced.
That’s the “blindfold balance” challenge.
You’d think elementary school kids have solid stamina and core strength, but once they’re blindfolded, it’s a different story.
These days there are lots of fun, visually appealing eye masks, so using those could make it even more entertaining and lively!
nervous breakdown
A popular card game you can easily enjoy at home: playing cards! In particular, Concentration (also known as Memory) is popular because the rules are simple and even small children can play.
The gameplay is easy: turn all the cards face down, arrange them randomly, decide the order of play, and each person flips two cards on their turn.
If the two cards you flip have the same number, they make a pair and you get to keep them.
The player who collects the most pairs wins.
Some people play a variation called “Penalty Concentration,” where instead of playing cards, they use cards with forfeits written on them.
Try adding your own ideas and have fun with it!
Paper Cup UFO Catcher
The “Paper Cup UFO Catcher” is a popular DIY recreation idea you can enjoy with elementary school kids.
Cut eight slits into a paper cup to make tentacle-like arms, then insert a straw through the center to move it.
Place another paper cup over the top and move it up and down—this opens and closes the arms.
The moment it grabs the target is super exciting! It’s easy to make with everyday materials, yet the movement feels authentic and makes it really fun to play.
Figuring out the controls is part of the charm, and it gets even more exciting when friends compete.
It’s a recommended activity that combines the joy of crafting with the sense of achievement from a game.
Crafting and DIY-Style Games (21–30)
A flying octopus? Tako-copter
It’s a toy that combines paper cups and a round chopstick to spin like a bamboo-copter and soar into the sky.
By spreading “wings” that catch the wind and coloring it mainly red, it takes on a curious form—a flying octopus.
You’ll use two paper cups and a round chopstick: attach the chopstick and the octopus’s facial parts to a paper cup with only the bottom left to create a launcher.
Then cut slits into the other paper cup, spread it out to form propeller-like blades, and attach it to the launcher to finish.
Fine-tune the propeller angles to make your octopus fly even higher.
fake acrylic keychain
Acrylic keychains are appealing items thanks to their sturdy material, letting you show off the cute designs without worrying much about them breaking when you hang them on a bag.
With that acrylic keychain image in mind, how about making a durable keychain using simple materials? The main component is a sticker of the character you want to feature on the keychain; you cut it out and wrap it with tape to give it an acrylic-like look.
To make it more colorful and more durable, it’s also important to consider which tapes you use and how much you layer them.