School-Aged Children's Activities

Use cards to reinforce addition skills.

School-aged children are bursting with physical and mental energy. To keep them active, present them with activities that exercise their bodies and minds. There are a variety of entertaining activities that you can engage children in that will foster their creativity, mental and motor skills development.

Three-Legged Race

A three-legged race is a classic game that is fun, promotes motor development and teaches kids good sportsmanship and cooperation. To play the game, mark a starting and ending point for the race by setting out cones or running strips of masking tape across the floor. Pair up children and have them stand side-by-side. Use a piece of cloth to tie the ankles that are next to each other together. Have teams stand at the starting point and on your mark, they run and try to reach the ending point. The first team to make it to the ending point wins the game.

Torn Paper Collage

It may seem simple, but creating a torn paper collage provides several educational benefits for school-aged children -- such as fine motor development and artistic expression. Provide children with a pile of different colored construction paper and instruct them to tear the paper into small pieces. Have them glue the small pieces onto paper to create a picture, a pattern or an abstract work of art.

Card Math

Have children use cards to practice their math skills. Place children in pairs and provide them each pair with a deck of cards. Instruct each player to remove two cards from the deck and have them add the digits on the cards; assign face cards a value of ten. The player with the highest sum earns a point. The game continues in this manner until one person earns 10 points.

Cooking

Children reap several benefits from engaging in cooking activities. Creating recipes and menus allows them to express their creativity and individuality, while measuring ingredients teaches them valuable math skills. Additionally, children gain a sense of purpose, as they learn how to prepare food for themselves and others.

References

• Kids Cooking Activities: Why Teach Kids Cooking Activities
• Family Education: Three-Legged Race