Fun & Functional DIY Games to Play with Kids

Are you looking for a fun and functional DIY games to play with kids? I can promise you that my seasonal category games will exceed your expectations. Using bags and items you have around the house, you can quickly create an electronic free way to engage with your child and foster language skills.

MOM’S PURSE

My love for bagging up objects started with this fun activity that I found on Make Learning Fun during Mother’s Day 2012.  Basically, you play a guessing game about items typically found in mom’s purse.  It was a HUGE hit with preschoolers and middle school students during the spring season, and it was easily adaptable.  All you need to do is search your home for a variety of items that are typically found in a mom’s purse.  I purchased most of my items at the Dollar Tree, bag included!

After your search for objects is over, take a picture or make a computer generated one for each item in the bag.  Then print, hole punch, and clip all pictures to your purse for safe keeping.  During the game, children take turns using just their hands to feel inside the bag for the picture target.  I like to set a timer for one minute to keep the game moving along. Older children can use descriptive words to talk about what item they are looking for while younger ones can reach in and search while you provide descriptors.  Here are some of the many speech and language goals that can be incorporated into this activity:

• articulation practice at the word/ phrase/ sentence level
• describing objects by function
• discussing objects by shape/ size/ textures
• using slow, smooth fluent speech to talk about object features
• answering “why” questions about various bag contents

BEACH/POOL BAG

You can create a seasonal category game for the summer months too.  All you need to do is grab your pool or beach bag, which may already have plenty of items packed in it for the summer, and take a picture of each item.  Then, using contact paper, laminate the pictures and hole punch the stack.  You can use a round clip to attach the pictures to the handle of the bag.

Now, it’s time for some fun!  Following the cards in sequential order, have children take turns reaching into the bag to feel for the item on their picture.  Describe the item by size, shape, texture and more, prompting children to use descriptive words. My middle schoolers loved revisiting the guessing game after enjoying the “Mom’s Purse” activity during spring.

If you want to work on following descriptive directions, you can ask your children to locate the above items given clues, and then play the seek and find game later.  Below are some clues you can provide for items like the ones pictured above:

• Find something made of plastic that helps us see underwater.
• Get something in a hard can that protects our skin outside from the sun.
• Find some small, bumpy treasures that we brought home from the beach.
• Get the soft, large thing that dries us off.
• Find three plastic things we can play with in the water. 

LUNCHBOX

Since it’s harder to ask kids to reach into such a small space like a lunchbox and feel around for things, I created some “What am I” guessing cards.  Grab your level 1 card deck here.  If you are looking for something a bit more challenging, then snag your level 2 rhyming card deck at this link.

The contents of my lunchbox included: water bottle, spoon and fork, sandwich container, Ziploc bag, straw, note, and a napkin.   Once kids guess the object, have them search the lunchbox to retrieve the match.  I also took pictures of all objects in case I want to use this as a matching picture to object task for my preschool kids.  This is a perfect, fun game for your “Back to School” lesson planning and a great way to recycle your child’s former lunchbox!  Enjoy!!

CHRISTMAS STOCKING

I replaced typical gifts in a seasonal game with mini objects targeting speech sounds or vocabulary to enhance expressive skills. For suggestions and sources, see my post.

Given the number of targets that you may use with this game, I typically forego creating pictures as I have with my other guessing game bags.  Think of it this Christmas activity as a sensory bin without the box. For articulation practice, clients can pick one item at a time from the bin and say the word 3-5 times.  Language clients can describe the item retrieved, answer questions about it, or use the target in a sentence.