Tomorrow, the 5th of June, is official National Day of Real Play! This annual celebration encourages parents, caregivers and children all around Australia to get up, turn the TV off and be active. This day is important because it celebrates the benefits of outside play on kids’ health and happiness. Real play is about letting children’s imaginations run free, socialising with others and being active. Overall, it is a chance for children all over Australia to get outside, get dirty and have fun!
For childcare workers, family day care owners or parents looking to celebrate National Day of Real Play, we have put together a list of 8 fun outdoor activities that are easy and cost-effective! Make sure you share the fun by getting everyone you know involved!
Go on a Treasure Hunt
For hours of fun, why not try a good ol’ fashion treasure hunt? This budget friendly activity requires no clean up and can be used to entertain a number of children of all different ages – perfect for childcare centres with a range of children, or a family with children with large age gaps. To set up this activity, head down to your local cheap shop to pick up some special ‘treasures.’ Cheap shops are a gold mind of small gadgets and toys for kids such as chocolate foil coins, plastic jewellery, yoyo’s, mini board games and other nick-knacky things! Once you have picked up several things you think the children would enjoy, hide them in the backyard of the house or day-care and create a treasure map. Next, give the children the map and watch them enjoy hours of fun!
Pro Tip: Stain the treasure map to give it an old ‘ancient’ feel. Creating treasure hunts with a theme is also a great way to educate and engage children about history. For example: A pirate treasure hunt with fun facts about pirates at each spot.
Build an Outdoor Cubby House
Who doesn’t love building a cubby house? The best and most simple way to do this is to round up any large wanted cardboard boxes from places like Bunnings, Mitre 10 or JB Hi-Fi. With these free cardboard boxes you can cut and shape them however you want! Use extra cardboard to shape roofs or chimneys and scissors to cut-out windows and doors! For extra fun, why not try using paint, crayons or stickers to decorate the outside of the cubby house? To create an outside cubby house you could also try using plastic tables and chairs together, with a large dark coloured sheet over the top. This tepee style cubby house has become very popular in recent years! On the inside of the cubby house children can set up their toys and play with others.
Create a Mudpie Kitchen
The perfect way to get dirty! Not only is this a great way to exercise a child’s imagination, children will also have hours of fun digging up dirt, mixing and forming mudpies, letting them dry and pretending to serve them to family and friends at the end of the day. To get your mudpie kitchen started, set up small work table using an outdoor plastic table that can easily be cleaned. On this table add a set of play kitchen pots, pans, spoons, bowls and trays! Next, let the kids dig up dirt using plastic spades and buckets. On the table let the children add the dirt and water together to start forming a thick, dirty, mudpie paste! From here, the rest is history. Children will enjoy making mudpies outside for hours!
Pro Tip: Encourage the children to frolic around the garden and collect fun, natural decorations to put on top of the mudpies. Some ideas for decorations include sticks, rocks, leaves, gumnuts, flowers and bark.
Go Camping in the Backyard
Afterschool, or on the weekend, spend time erecting a tent in the backyard. This is a super easy and fun way to get kids outside and physically active. Setting up a campsite is hard – but also a lot of fun! Once the tent is set up, a child’s imaginations will run wild. Encourage them to think about what kind of activities they would be doing if they were actually camping. For example collecting wood, building a fire, going fishing, roasting marshmallows, or going on a hike! This will lead to hours of play incorporating both imagination and the outdoors. This is also makes for a fun group activity!
Go on a Bike Ride
This super easy and super simple outdoor activity is ideal for children 5+ years old! The wind, the warm sun and the blue sky! What else could you ask for? For a family this a great way to get out of the house and explore your local neighbourhood. In the afternoon try rounding up the family to head off for a 30-60 minute long bike ride. Make sure the route you choose includes a bike friendly path. To avoid accidents, lead the ride on the bike path and always ensure the children are an appropriate space length apart. No one wants any crashes! For the ultimate bike ride experience, we recommend riding to a nearby park or playground. This way, when you reach the park the children will have time to rest and drink plenty of water.
Read more on National Day of Real Play – 5th of June 2017
Build a Veggie Patch Garden
Not only is this child-friendly activity great for the environment it is also really cost-effective! Growing your own fresh produce is a sustainable and environmentally friendly way of providing fresh food. With a homemade veggie patch you can grow a range of healthy produce including; lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, beans, spinach, capsicum and herbs. The children will love touching, tasting, smelling and seeing the plants and vegetables grow! Building a veggie patch for the day care or for your family to tend to is a great way to bond and be active, outside in the sun!
To get started on your own veggie patch garden – either as childcare or family project – you will need these basic materials:
A premade garden bed (available from all hardware stores for under $50)
A bag of soil
Fertilizer
A spade
Watering can
Gardening gloves
A compost bin
Seeds to plant
Build Sandcastles
This can be a lot of fun – especially with epic castle shaped buckets, mini flags and water moats! Encouraging children to get outside and create things with their hands is a great way of sparking creativity at a young age! Try filling the sandpit with a range of beach related toys like different sized buckets and spades. Children may also enjoy decorating their sandcastles with mini flags, plastic figurines, toys, balls or even natural materials like sticks, leaves, rocks and feathers! And let’s not forget the best part about building a sandcastle – being able to jump on it at the end of course!
Pro Tip: Have a sandcastle competition! Whoever makes the biggest, or most magnificent sandcastle wins!
Do Chalk Drawings on the Driveway
A great alternative to drawing all over the walls – drawing all over the driveway! Buy a bucket of multi coloured chalk and let the children go wild. This life sized canvas will inspire the artist in every child. Not only is it cheap and easy to set up, chalk drawings on the driveway, or on the day-care pavement will entertain children of all ages. Aside from getting creative and using the chalk to draw pictures, children could also use it for starting other games like hopscotch, body outline tracing and four square.
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