Scavenger Hunt

This game is active and gets children listening carefully to instructions and supports comprehension. To add an element of fun, you could create a spinning wheel and use a stopwatch. The children spin the arrow and whatever it lands on they have to follow the instruction given, eg

Find me a….pillow,

Do…..ten star jumps,

Hide…..in the bathroom, Collect…..three items from your bedroom

Charades

A good way of developing children’s vocabulary. Act out an action, eg swimming, digging, dancing, jumping and the children have to guess!

Hide & Seek

A good way to teach children prepositions! Hide a ribbon, object or a toy. Ask the children to hunt for it (in the house or in the garden) you can use the language of ‘cold’ ‘colder’ ‘warm’ warmer’ ‘hot’ ‘hotter’ to describe how close the children are to finding the item. Whoever finds the item has to explain where it was hidden,

Eg: My teddy bear was under the flowerpot.

What if….?

Ask ‘What if’ questions to encourage children to use their imaginations, eg what if the sky was red?

What if there were no trees?

What if dogs had 6 legs?

What if the internet didn’t exist? What if you were invisible?

What if you could fly?

Would you rather…?

Another game that encourages children’s imagination to run wild, as well as make choices and give reasoned responses!

Would you rather fly to the moon in a bathtub or on the back of a horse?

Would you rather swim with mermaids or fly with dragons?

Odd One Out

The beauty of this game is that there’s no right or wrong answer – it’s designed to get children thinking, disagreeing and talking! You can use pictures, objects or just list three items verbally, eg

Which is the odd one out….. A banana, an orange or a carrot?