The 13^th November is World Kindness Day when everyone tries to make the world a better place by promoting acts of kindness. So, here at Discovering Days, we thought we would help by looking at some outdoor play activities to celebrate world kindness day.

The History Of World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day was created in 1998 by The World Kindness Movement. There are 28 countries within the project and their mission statement is “to create a kinder world by inspiring individuals and nations towards greater kindness.”

Here in Britain, Kindness UK is the organiser of World Kindness Day and it has grown in popularity year on year since its inception.

Teamwork

Many of the outdoor activities that children participate in are competitive, so it is a good idea to teach them to work together and help each other. They will also hopefully carry over this behaviour into other activities in the classroom and at home.

With that in mind, let’s have a look at some fun outdoor play activities.

Activity Panels

Activity panels, such as the ones that we build, are large frames that are secured into the ground and various games can be played on them. For example, a water wall panel encourages children to work together and figure out how to get water flowing through a succession of tubes.

The Traffic Light Game

This is an excellent team building game for a group of children, with the added benefit that you don’t have to buy any equipment, all you need is some space!

If you haven’t already heard of this game, here’s how it works.

Split the group of children into two teams. Two adults (or children) stand at either end of a garden or park. They are the ‘traffic lights’.

The two groups also stand at opposite ends of the garden (road).

Each ‘traffic light’ can shout out ‘GREEN’, ‘AMBER’ and ‘RED’.

When they hear ‘GREEN’ they can run/walk, when they hear ‘AMBER’ they can walk slowly run, and they have to stop when they hear ‘RED’.

The aim of the game is for each group to work together to get to the other side of the ‘road’.

 

Obstacle Courses

Obstacle courses are a classic teamwork game. If you have access to a playground with slides, swings and objects like our wooden galleons and boats, then children can be split into teams and have to race to get through the obstacle course together.

Even if you don’t have access to playground equipment, as long as you have plenty of outdoor space you can create an obstacle course with chairs, chalk (think hopscotch) and hula hoops. Speaking of hula hoops…

Hula Hoop Race

We all know how to hula hoop, at least I hope we do, but there is also a hula hoop race game.

All you need is some hula hoops and some space.

Split a group of children into at least two groups. Have two adults (or children) take half of the hula hoops each and stand at one end of a garden.

Then they role a hula hoop towards the group of children and shout out one of the children’s names. The child then has to catch the hoop.

The aim of the game is to collect as many hoops as possible, the winning group being the one that ends up with the most hula hoops.

If you haven’t got or can’t get any hula hoops then you could use beach balls, tennis balls, small beanbags, basically anything that can be thrown and caught.

A Scavenger Hunt

This is a fun summer game and if played in a park or some woods, it could also help children to learn and identify various objects in nature.

Take two or more groups of children and give them a list of objects they have to find.

You could hide different objects around the area, but you could simply just get them to collect things like dandelions, bark, sticks from a particular tree, a certain colour of stone etc. Basically, anything that will help them learn about the nature of their surroundings.

It doesn’t have to be just a summer game either, Autumn is a good time too, with conkers and different colours of falling leaves everywhere.

 

Get In Touch

If you would like more information on our wooden playground equipment, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Here at Discovering Days, we create and make high-quality playground equipment that is ideal for outdoor play activities.

Our extensive range of wooden playground equipment is carefully made to ensure the utmost safety and durability. We also make sure that we meet every playground equipment safety standard.

You can contact us online here for more information or you can telephone us on 01282 416 755 to have a chat about any of our products.