Active play ideas
Physical Activity Websites:
Kids Workouts to do at Home
NSW Office of Sport - staying active
Indoors

- Build pillow forts or indoor cubbyhouses
- Build safe obstacle courses around the house
- Make treasure hunts around the house (or in the backyard if you have one)
- Make an area for an inside picnic
Outdoors

- Play backyard cricket or basketball
- Try tennis, volleyball or badminton over the fence with the neighbours
- Play with pets (wash hands before and after handling pets)
- Make obstacle courses (inside and out)
Educational Play
Spelling bees

- Spelling bees, suitable for the age, can be fun for children
- Word games such as Word Search or Word Unscramble
- Crossword Puzzle
- See how many words children can come up with when you give them 7 random letters (including vowels)
Maths

- Fill a jar with coloured discs, beads, marbles etc and ask children to guess how many are in the jar
- Children can then sort them by colour, count up the number in each colour and then add them all together to find out how many objects there are.
Memory game

- Put 10 to 15 items on a tray and cover with a tea towel.
- Give each child a pen and paper, then lift the tea towel and let them look at all the items for about 10 seconds.
- Cover with a tea towel and then ask children to write down as many items as they remember.
- The child who remembers the most gets a small ‘prize’ – stickers are often good for this.
Sensory play
Slime

Kids love slime
- Make sure that you buy or make slime that doesn’t contain dangerous ingredients like Borax and boron.
- We found a few slime without Borax recipes but a Google search will show you others. Or you can use this slime recipe from our Child Life Therapists.
- Playing with slime (and play-dough) has many benefits. While it is often used for hand dexterity and fine motor skills, playing with slime and play-dough engages all five senses and can give children something to refocus on instead of their own thoughts and worries.
- Remember to supervise if cooking in a microwave or stovetop is needed.
Play-dough
Making your own playdough can be fun. There are lots of recipes online but a Google search will show you others
- Remember to supervise if cooking in a microwave or stovetop is needed.
- Plastic or blunted knives can be used for cutting playdough.
- Cookie cutters are great for making shapes.
- A spare cutting board from the kitchen might be useful for children to cut on.