Our friends at BOKS are here to help your family stay active while you’re at home. Through their website, BOKS is sharing free games and activities to help keep kids active and happy during this difficult time, such as kid-friendly workout videos, yoga and mindfulness activities, and more. All of these resources can be used at home, with just one or a few kids, and require minimal equipment. (They’re fun for grown-ups, too—I’ve tried a few myself!) Here are two fun, active games for kids of all ages.
Fruit or Vegetable Sprints
In this fun (and educational!) game, kids learn about the scientific difference between fruits and vegetables and then have to decide whether different foods are a fruit or a vegetable by running to different spots. This activity works best in an open play area, yard, or park, where kids have room to run a bit. Here’s how to play.
1. Explain the scientific difference between fruits and vegetables to kids:
- Fruits are the part of the plant that contains the seed or seeds. Some things we commonly call vegetables, like tomatoes, are actually fruits.
- Vegetables are the leaves, stems, roots, and even flowers of plants that we eat. Some examples of vegetables are lettuce (leaves) and potatoes (roots).
2. Designate one side of the room as the fruit side and the opposite side of the room as the vegetable side. Tell kids you’re going to call out the name of a food. If they think it’s a fruit, they should run to the fruit side of the room. If they think it’s a vegetable, they should run to the vegetable side of the room. If they’re not sure, they can stay in the center.
3. Play the game using the fruits and vegetables in the list below (or come up with your own!). Ask kids to tell you know they knew something was a fruit or a vegetable.
- Watermelon (fruit)
- Avocado (fruit)
- Broccoli (vegetable)
- Cucumber (fruit)
- Sweet potato (vegetable)
- Pumpkin (fruit)
- Brussels sprouts (vegetable)
- Onions (vegetable)
- Lemon (fruit)
- Pepper (fruit)
- Strawberry (fruit)
- Celery (vegetable)
Move Like an Animal
This activity can be done indoors or outdoors and encourages kids to mimic the (sometimes hilarious) movements of different animals. Here’s how to play.
1. Call out the movements for one of the animals on the list below (or have kids come up with a list of their favorite animals). Kids should move like the animal for 30 seconds before moving on to the next animal.
- Fly like a bumblebee
- Jump like a grasshopper
- Slither like a snake
- Crawl like a spider
- March line an ant
- Soar like an eagle
- Wriggle like a caterpillar
- Slide like a snail
- Swim like a shark
- Run like a cheetah
