Movement games for children … with puzzles
Make a move: puzzle and memory games can be used to create a variety of developmental activities that train not only perceptiveness, manual and mental skills, but also … your child’s overall physical fitness. Here are some ideas for interesting movement games for children at home and outdoors. Use our tips and get moving together – either in your backyard or inside your home. Lots of laughter guaranteed!
Movement games for children
Movement is healthy, and any excuse to move as much as possible is a good one. Use a memory game to train not only memory and perceptiveness, but also the whole body.
- Play odd one out with cards from the Suuuper Size Memory Games: choose one card and put it aside. Remember the animal or vehicle on it – this picture is the odd one out without a pair. Arrange the remaining cards as you would for a classic memory game, placing them around the room or on the grass. Start the game. Decide what the player who finds the odd one out must do – make it a movement exercise. Invent increasingly difficult special tasks together.
- Movement games with young children can involve Match the Buddies and Baby Puzzles in a way that engages the whole body. Set out the boards on the floor. Ask your child to find a specific animal, e.g. “Give me the bear.” You can also give your child a circle and encourage him or her to walk between the boards and match it to the right hole at a given signal. Another game could involve imitating selected animals together.
Movement games with singing and music
- Singing Let’s Play Animal Bingo: Prepare a recording of rhythmic music. Place the circles with the animals you can imitate into a basket or bucket. Take turns choosing a circle and imitate the movement of each animal selected, while staying in rhythm with the music. When the music stops, match the circle to the appropriate board.
- Movement games with Make-a-Match Puzzle Number Train: start by assembling the puzzle. While imitating the movement and sound of a train, visit each of the wagons and count up to 10 as you go. Then ask your child to walk around them. Sing or play a song, e.g. “The wheels on the train go round and round.” When the sound stops, ask your child to approach the nearest wagon and clap once for each animal inside it.
Sports at home
Physical activities are great outdoors, but if the weather makes being outside impossible, most of them can be adapted for the home. You can hide puzzles in a room and then crawl, bend or climb to find them. These proposals for movement games can accompany the much-loved Make-a-Match Puzzle Fire Truck:
- Assemble the truck, but without the equipment. Prepare a road using a ribbon or string. The finish line should be the assembled puzzle. Along both sides of the road, lay out the removable pieces of the puzzle together. Ask your toddler to follow the designated route, collecting all the elements one by one and adding them to the truck at the finish line. You can also imitate the sound of a siren. Walk between the spread out pieces together. When you stop, ask your child to pick up the closest piece and take it to the truck. You can also switch roles.
Have fun practicing different skills. These and many other ideas for developmental games can be found in the guides that we include in many of our educational sets. You can also make up your own!
