The park or playground is a great place for a kid to be a kid, and get all of their energy out. Playground games are an excellent way for kids to do that while interacting with others.
4- Square: This is a game where you have a rubber ball that bounces, and four squares drawn on the side walk. You have a king spot on down. The king starts the play by serving the ball to another spot. The ball must bounce one time, and then be hit to another square. If it bounces twice, goes out of bounds, or is missed, the round ends, and the person who messed up goes to the last square, which is across from the “King” spot. The goal of the game is to move up to the king spot, and stay there.
Hopscotch: this is a game where you have a hop scotch board with numbers. You can make your own, or use one on the playground. You throw a token or a rock, and whatever square it lands on, you skip as you hop from square to square. If there are two squares by each other, you hop with both feet. Even numbers with the right foot, odd numbers with the left. You hop until you mess up.
Jump rope: there are all kinds of jump rope games out there, and they can be played by a single person, or a group of people. You can play by yourself doing cross over’s, high jumps, low jumps, speed jumps, etc. You can have contests with a caller that calls out instructions such as “Cross over, left foot, right foot, side to side, etc. ” Or, you can play with two ropes and at least three people, where you spin the ropes opposite each other, and the jumper must get in and “double dutch” jump, skipping both ropes. You can do chants and ditties while you jump, which result in winning or losing. For example:
Cinderella, dressed in yella
Went upstairs to kiss a fella
Made a mistake
And kissed a snake
How many doctors did it take?
One… two…
The counting goes on until the jumper messes up or taps out. Each participant gets a turn, and the person who makes it to the highest number wins.
Red Rover
For this game you need several people, you form two lines, and you hold hands all the way across the line. And have the two lines stand facing each other with a good 25 feet across. Then the first team yells, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send “Insert name of participant on opposite side” right over.”
Then, the person called by the team must run across the divide and try to break through the line. If they do not break through they must stay on that side. If they do, they get to select one person to come to their side. The team who ends with everyone wins!
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