Need ideas! Interactive Games for kids?

[MDub83]

Hello,

I am working on my graduate thesis for PA school and have decided to target childhood obesity. I plan on giving several presentations to the local Boys and Girls clubs on being active. I am creating my lesson plans and need ideas on fun original games to teach them. The idea is to empower them and teach them that being active can be fun.

Some ideas I've created are:

Food Pyramid Bingo
Dodgeball
Iron Chefs
Dance and Freeze
Eat this Not That
Fitness Relays
Hopscotch
Fitness Relays
Hoola-Hoop Contest.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm targeting 8-12 year olds.

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[E24Gose]

Hi! It seems to me that some of these games are stationary. I would do something to get them moving, so not only are you telling them being active is fun, you are showing them as well. Perhaps a scavenger hunt for healthy foods or something. Or for the bingo you could do human bingo. Kids at this age like to be super competitive, you could turn some your games into foot races or other things.

Another competition, this one would take longer, would be to challenge them to do something outside, actively for one hour a day for two weeks (or whatever). You could have their parents vouch for them by signing a form saying what the kids did and for how long. This really only works in places where parents are actively accountable, though. At the end of the competition, the class or group with the highest score could win some sort of pizza party. Pizza can be healthy, if made properly, so it could be a pizza-making party. Who knows!

This sounds like a lot of fun, I hope it works out for you!

As a side note, the 12-year-olds I work with will hate dance and freeze. At this age, they hate everything and they think anyone older than 20 is stupid. They are also adept in telling when an adult is trying too hard to be cool. Its not much, but its something to lookout for!

 

[swaffles]

I'm guessing fitness relays include things like obstacle courses, which are the most fun sort of exercises.

Also, there's this game that's partially physically challenging as it depends on the size of the circle (you probably know it). It has all the kids stand around in one big circle and one person is in the center. The person in the center says something they like and whoever in the circle likes the same thing runs into the center of the circle and then to an empty space that is not their own. For example, the person in the center of the circle says 'I like blue shoes' and whoever else likes blue shoes runs across the circle and finds an empty space. There should always be one person left out, who then ends up being the new person-in-the-center.

You can make that game just food based, if you want. Run across if it's healthy, stay in your place it's not, etc. (cheesy but might work!)

There are also the classic sharks and minnows game and the red rover games.

Also, you can do it so that each kid is on a different color team, and can play each of your games individually and rack up points individually, but then can group them together as a team and earn that pizza party or trip-to-somewhere together...if that makes sense.