Group activities
If you have a group of several kids together, you can have them engaged in fun snow games -- great for winter birthday parties!
Snow pile: Groups have five minutes to build the highest snow pile.
Spoon balls: Each group is given a spoon and a snowball. One at a time, each child puts the snowball on the spoon and runs around a marker. To be particularly active, the group can continue taking turns for a specified amount of time instead of stopping after each child has gone once.
Dog sled race: Kids can take turns being pulled by their “dog teams” around a marked course on a toboggan.
Fill it up: Groups can fill a bucket full of snow using a scoop. See which team can fill the bucket the fastest or see which team has the most snow in their bucket after a certain period of time.
Heart energizer: Set up a large square using some sort of marker for each corner (clothing, sticks). Each child or group of children can have a corner. Place pine cones, sticks, stones, tennis balls or some other object in the centre of the box. On the “go” signal each child runs to the centre to picking up one item at a time and returning it to their corner. Play as long as you wish and add up the objects in each corner at the end. To make this a cooperative game you can have all children gather the objects in one location and time them to see how fast they can do it together.
So get on those woolies, hike up your boots, catch some fresh air, go for a hike and make the great Canadian winter as much a part of your family activity as you can.
Pat Doyle is a retired elementary school teacher and has authored or co-authored numerous physical activity resources and delivered numerous practical and innovative workshops to educators across Canada. Pat provides consulting services to schools and communities wishing to increase physical activity through active playground games and activities. Pat is a partner to Active Healthy Kids Canada.
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