Memorial Day Activities for Children to Make the Day Great
Hello Friends,
Today I want to share some Memorial Day activities for children to make the day great! Memorial Day is around the corner and for many it is the start of summer. Somber though this day is, it is often celebrated with barbecues and picnics. I don’t take this day lightly; nearly every man in my family has served in the military, and I cannot imagine having any of them not come home. I do think that it is a time to appreciate having our loved ones close and our ability to enjoy each others company because we are not guaranteed tomorrow. We are able to celebrate in our wonderful country in part because of those brave soldiers we remember. This memorial day take in every precious moment with your children because these days don’t last for long. Try these simple fun activities to enjoy time with your children and make memories that will last.
– Paint or draw poppies while or after you read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John Mccrae. Painting, especially watercolor or dot paints for toddlers, is a fun activity for children and adults. Watercolor poppies would be beautiful. This would also be a short digestible lesson on what Memorial Day is about.
– You can use fresh flowers, or almost anything really, in place of batons and have relay races if you have enough people to race.
– You can make obstacle courses using things like a rope ladder on the ground to run in, or cones to run around, you can even make a long jump. Allowing your children to help make the course itself will be fun too.
– Bubbles are so much fun at any age! Toddlers love them and older children like to try to see how big they can make them. Bubble guns and bubble machines are fun too but just blowing bubbles is great.
– Sidewalk chalk is another great activity because it is so versatile. You can just draw pictures of course, but you can also draw hopscotch games, play tic tac toe, make a court for four square, make outlines of each other; the possibilities are pretty much endless.
– Jump ropes are another fun outdoor activity that I think is pretty underrated. I remember loving to jump rope when I was little. I loved playing with my friends using a long rope with two people holding the ends and a third jumping in the middle. You can try double dutch with two ropes if you can. Doing tricks with jump ropes is fun too, like crossing your arms in front of you and jumping over the rope.
– Hula hoops are great too!
– If it is a good day for it, you can try flying a kite with your children. I remember very fondly flying kites with my family when I was young. Kite flying makes me think of Mary Poppins or Charlie Brown. Poor Charlie Brown and his kite eating tree, hopefully you don’t find one of those trees.
– If there are a lot of people playing you could get a large parachute. There is something so magical about playing with those as a child. You can bounce a kickball on top of it too.
– Pass down playground games you used to play as a child like red rover and freeze tag.
– When I was young my grandmother introduced me to what she called puddle jumpers. I could not find them for years because they’re more commonly known by other names like; hand dragonfly, hand helicopter, hand propeller toy, and Aero Props. This toy is exactly as it sounds, a propeller blade on a stick. you make it fly by holding the stick between your hands with the palms of your hands pressed together. Keeping them pressed together slide one hand away from you and the other hand toward you and watch the puddle jumper fly! It takes a little bit of practice , but once you get the hang of it, it is a lot of fun!
– Water activities are great! We love squirt guns, water balloon toss, and water tables for the youngest children. To make a makeshift water table use two plastic totes/bins one large deep one and one shallow one. Use the deep one to store toys that you will use for the water table. When you want to use the water table take the toys out of the deep tote and put the lid back o the deep tote, then put the shallow tote on top of the large tote and fill it with water, add the toys and watch your littles have fun!
– If the weather is not great for outdoor play board games are wonderful! Try classics like Mancala, Sorry, Trouble, Chutes and Ladders, Catch Phrase, or Mad Gab.
– Word games are fun too. Yes and No is a game where someone says “I’m thinking of something,” and everyone else asks yes or no questions to try to figure out what it is. We tend to start by asking if it is alive. Other fun word games are; continue the story; where someone comes up with one part and then passes it to another person to continue it. The same can be done with poetry, in a type of rhyming game story, one line at a time, then another person makes up the next line with a rhyme to go with it.
I hope you try these activities this Memorial Day weekend or even just during a nice day outside. They are really nothing new but these are what I enjoyed most as a child, and what I saw being played the most by the elementary school and preschool children I worked with. I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend together with family and friends, and you make the most amazing and fun memories together.
Your Friend,
Amanda
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