Ravina Sewani

How to:Gather a group of 8-10 children and divide them into two groups. Decide a treasure of your choice and hide it safely at the end point of the game. Design clues for every step of the game. The clues should be easy enough for children to understand yet difficult enough to force them to think. With every clue they unlock, they get closure to the treasure. The team to reach the treasure first, wins the game. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This game will improve their thinking ability. This game also brings with it a lot of fun.

Treasure Hunt

Palak Vyas

Things you will need: a long piece of string How to:The kids are made to stand in a circle around a long piece of string tied at the ends to form a circle. Then they are asked to create shapes with the string – square, triangle, figure 8, rectangle and many more.To increase the difficulty level, the kids can be blindfolded or can be asked to make difficult shapes. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This is a very fun and challenging game that enhances a lot of communication and coordination among the kids.

Talking in circles

Things you will need: boxes of different sizes but more or less of the same shape How to:Give them boxes of different sizes and ask them to stack as many as they can without letting the boxes topple down. Instead of boxes, you can give them anything. The only thing to remember is that all the things should be more or less similar yet be difficult enough to stack up on each other. Let them figure out why their stacked tower is falling. They will gradually be able to stack more things and make a bigger tower of things. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This game will help improve your child’s motor skills and logical thinking skills.

Stack it up

Things you will need: 2 tubs (small broad tubs or containers in which things can be dunked), things to dunk (balls, small toys, soft toys, small boxes, erasers, books, etc) which are safe for children How to:<ol><li>Gather a group of around 8-10 children. Divide them into 2 groups. You can plan this game in the playground or in your backyard.</li><li>At the starting line, make the children stand and give them the things to be dunked in the tubs placed at the finishing line.</li><li>Instruct the children that they have to pick one thing at a time from their stock of things and go and place it in their tub at the finish line.</li><li>Make it clear that they have to place things in their tub only and not in other group’s tub.</li><li>Start the timer and ask the kids to compete against each other.</li><li>Stop the timer after a minute or so and count the things in each tub. The group with the maximum number of things in the their tub, wins the game.</li></ol> Note: Ask the group to think and come up with a solution where they can dunk the things more effectively and quickly. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This game will teach your child how to work as a team in a group and also enhance their communication and social skills.

Dunk It

How to:This activity can be played by 2 players at a time. For this activity, you need a small piece of paper and 2 pencils. First draw a grid of 3*3 (9 boxes) on the paper. Take turns to place X’s and O’s in the boxes. One person can only place X’s and the other only O’s. The first one to get three X’s or 3 O’s diagonally, vertically, or horizontally wins the game. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This activity will enhance your child’s analytical and focusing skills.

Noughts & Crosses (Xs & Os and Tic-tac-toe)

You will need nothing for this activity. How to:This activity needs to be played in a group and can be played either indoors or outdoors. This activity is an alternative version of the age-old hide-n-seek game. In this version, only one person hides and everyone else does the seeking. In the game of Sardines, as soon as a seeker finds the hider, (s)he must join the hider in the hiding spot. Hence, it’s a fun challenge for the hider to find a hiding spot that can fit the whole crowd! The last person to find the spot becomes the hider for the next round. Happy Hiding!

Significance:This activity will greatly improve your child's logical and analytical skills.

Sardines

How to:Help your child to make a chain of domino bricks in various designs. Arrange the bricks in such a way that when you push the first brick, all the following bricks start toppling. Observe the surprise on child’s face when they see this happening. Fun fact:To make this game more interesting, you can design letters or numbers or an image using the bricks. When all the bricks topple, the letter/number can be observed clearly. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This will improve your child’s understanding of how physics works and also their imagination and motor skills.

Domino chain

Things you will need: inflated balloons, a room to fit around 10-15 children This is a group activity. How to:<ul><li>Make each child write their name on an inflated balloon.</li><li>Toss these balloons into the middle of the room.</li><li>Set the timer for 30 seconds and instruct the kids to stomp and pop as many balloons as they can.</li><li>When the time is up, the players whose named balloons are popped, are out. The players whose named balloons are as such, play the game again for another 20 seconds.</li><li>Keep playing for short intervals until only one balloon remains.</li><li>The player whose name is on the last balloon is the winner.</li></ul> Happy Gaming!

Significance:This activity will improve your child's logical and coordination skills.

Balloon Name Pops

How to:Hundreds and Thousands of templates for Sudoku are available online. You can get them printed of the required difficulty level depending on your child’s age. The goal of the game is to fill a 9*9 grid with numbers from 1-9. Numbers should be filled in such a way that each row, each column, and each 3*3 sub-grids should have all the numbers once without getting repeated. The templates available come with partially completed grid depending on the difficulty level of the game. Fun fact:You can level up the game by setting a timer during which your child has to complete the game. This can be done only when is very well accustomed to playing the game without a timer. Happy Gaming!

Significance:This activity will enhance your child’s logical thinking skills.

logical development activities

Activities are an interesting way to teach important life skills to children. Here are a few suggestions for you.