Shooting Stars

This is a good activity to get kids running around.

Materials Needed

• Thick cardboard
• Tissue paper - Lots of different colours.
• Popsicle sticks
• Glue
• Sequins

Method

1. Printout a Star and trace it on some cardboard. Make sure you use good scissors to cut out the star or it will be near impossible.
2. Using your sequins and whatever you can find lying around decorate the star to be as spacey or glittery as possible.
3. Using the tissue paper cut nice long strips of different colours and attach them to the back of the star.
4. Attach the Popsicle stick to be used as a handle.
5. Tell the kids to run around!

Relay Games

Relay games can be a lot of fun and you can make them as interesting as you want. Making the 'baton' can be an activity in itself.


Below are two examples.


Suit Case Relay


What you need:

• Cardboard
• Tissue/Crepe Paper- Brown
• Glue
• Scissors

We did this relay in conjunction with an Olympic Games theme day. 

1. We got some old cardboard boxes, sketched and cut out some suitcases with easy hold handles. 
2. Cutting out some tissue/crepe paper we glue it all over the suitcases.
3. We stuck some travel stamps and stickers we found on the internet over it to give it some authenticity. Have a look here.
4. Most of our suitcases didn't last the race as some of the competitors were quite 'passionate'.

Rocket Relay

What you need:

• Different coloured paper
• Cello tape
• Scissors

We did this relay on a space theme day.

1. Roll some paper into a cylinder and stick it together.
2. Cut out a small circle and create a cone, this is for the top of the rocket.
3. Cut out some triangles for flaps on the side of the rocket.
4. To make this one a bit more interesting I put a hula hoop 'planet' at the end and the runners needed to orbit the planet three times before going back to home base.

Musical Planets

We held a space theme day at the vacation care I am working at and I made up this variation on Musical Chairs.

• Put out some hula hoops spread out over a large area. The number doesn't matter at the moment but make sure there is enough.
• Play space related music and encourage  the children to run around like spaceships between planets. 
• When the music stops they have to go to the nearest planet.
• You can change the game by introducing rules such as planets can only fit so many people or a planet might blow up once in while.
• We played for at least 40 mins and the kids ran the whole time.

Artist's site

Buzz Off

This is a fun outdoor game that requires little equipment. It is also called Sharks and Islands.


It is a variation of Tiggy (or Chasey or Tag, depending where you are from)


One person is 'it' and the rest need to run away from him/her. 


The trick is they are only safe when on a marker and only one child can be on a marker at a time. There is always one or two less markers then people playing, which means there are always kids being chased. 


If one child is on a marker and sees another child approaching they yell "Buzz Off Sam!", which means that Sam cannot go onto that marker so Sam continues running. Sam then spots Julie, who isn't paying attention and yells "Buzz Off Julie!". This means that Julie must leave the marker and find somebody else. The game then continues on this. There is no real end point usually when they get tired.