5 easy (and exciting) activities from the good folk at Play School! 

BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

MAY 3, 2023

Play is super important for your under-five’s learning, development, confidence and wellbeing, and although some parents find it easy to come up with inventive play ideas day after day, for a lot of us, play isn’t so simple.  

The latest RCH National Child Health Poll has actually found that 61% of parents ‘often find playing with their child hard or boring’ and, if we’re honest, there will be times when you just don’t feel like drinking your 12th cup of pretend tea!  

Fortunately, there are lots of different ways to play with your under-five, and if you’re looking for inspiration, Play School can definitely help. 

This classic ABC Kids show has been sharing great play ideas since 1966, and Play School’s presenters are expert at keeping things fresh – with a lot of help from Big Ted, Little Ted, Jemima, Humpty and the other toys.   

They know how to make play easy and interesting, and if you’re looking for more fun in your day, here are five activities that you and your pre-schooler will both enjoy.  

1. A GO course. 

This all-action obstacle course can be set up inside or out, and it’s a particularly great idea when the weather is foul and you’re stuck indoors with a VERY bored person!  

To get things happening, you just need to spread a selection of household objects in close-ish proximity around the playspace.  

Play School recommends things like, “Chairs, tables, bean bags, buckets, cushions, a mattress [or even] large garden pots,” and you’re looking for things that are fun to go under, over or around. 

Then, it’s up to you and your child to experiment with different ways of navigating the course!  

Walking, running, hopping, skipping, crawling, rolling and jumping are all options, and you can also set special challenges, like not touching the floor, or having to go through the course within a time limit.  

2. The hat guessing game. 

This game is like Celebrity Head, but with pictures. So, instead of trying to guess ‘Dr Seuss’ or ‘Emily Ratajkowski,’ you’re looking for simple objects, like ‘apple’ and ‘train.’ 

To play, you’ll need a hat and some small bits of paper. 

And to get started, one player puts on the hat, while the other player secretly draws an object on a bit of paper and sticks it to the hat.  

The hat-wearer then asks questions to try and work out what the mystery object is, and once they get the answer (or give up, because someone’s drawn a pachycephalosaurus), the roles reverse.  

This game trains the brain and finger muscles, and it’s tops for entertainment.  

3. A paper boat race.   

This classic activity involves you making a couple of paper boats (in different colours, ideally), then floating them in a large tub or basin.  

You and your child then use straws to blow your boats across the water, and the fastest, floatiest pleasure craft wins! 

If you haven’t made a paper boat for a while (or ever), then wikiHow has step-by-step instructions, and once you’ve tired of tub racing, you can always take your boats outside for a spot of puddle drifting.  

Just make sure you always watch your child around water.   

4. Musical painting.  

This is one of those ‘throw yourself into the moment’ type activities, and although there’s a high chance of paint sloppage, it’s really fun to hang up a big piece of paper and paint as you listen to music.  

You and your under-five can paint high and low, fast and slow (depending on how the beat drops), and Play School says, “You can paint smooth lines for flowing music or jagged lines for jerky music.”  

Your child’s sense of sight, hearing, touch and smell will all get a workout, and if it’s too tricky to hang a huge sheet of paper up, then butcher’s paper on a kid-sized easel works too!  

5. Musical dress-ups.  

This game is a mess-less way to get creative with music. 

You’ll need a variety of dress-up clothes to play, and if you don’t have the full superhero, pirate, princess, police officer and fairy get-up, then you can always DIY a few outfits.  

For instance, a stripey tee, red scarf and paper hat (thanks again, wikiHow!) counts as pirate clobber, and if you’re really short on dress-up gear, you can sort clothing and accessories into colours instead. 

Then, once your dress-up box is bulging, get some music going and take turns dressing as a certain character (or colour) before the song stops.  

These activities are perfect for preschoolers, and there are plenty of things you can do with your tiny tot, too. 

The Raising Children Network has play ideas for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. 

And further afield, the Center on the Developing Child (run by a ‘little’ university called Harvard), has a whole range of activity ideas to help you boost your child’s brain through play, from six months to 17 years of age.  

We hope you have a lot of fun experimenting with different play ideas, and after all that action, you might just feel like a cup of pretend tea, after all…  

Enjoy!