Indoor

Play Ideas
Children thrive through play
Play is vital for children’s physical health as well as their
mental health and cognitive development. There is also
some evidence that if children are physically active when they
are young they are more likely to adopt healthy lifestyles
as they grow up.

Play builds health and wellbeing – being active through

play helps children physically and emotionally, contributing
to their health and happiness.

Play builds brain development and supports a range

of learning skills.

Play builds resilience – playing boosts children’s confidence,

creativity, problem-solving skills and perseverance, enabling
them to cope with stress and challenges throughout life.

Children from a very young age take part in lots of different

types of play. From early games such as peek-a-boo to more
complex dramatic role play, to just “hanging out”, children
and young people are learning to communicate and build
relationships. So many skills are best learned through play.
There is also no need to buy expensive toys for play, in this
booklet we have ideas for lots of things that can be made
from things you might have in your house. Don’t use small
loose parts for very young children.

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 1 DIY sensory board Adult support 4 Boxes galore
Get a large piece of wood and attach various locks, Boxes are great fun for imaginative play. Keep boxes
latches, baking trays (these can then use magnetic of various sizes and children can use them in a variety
letters and numbers), push on push off battery of ways. They can be boats, cars, treasure islands –
operated lights, a calculator, light switch, chains, keys the possibilities are endless!
attached to ribbon, things that turn (eg small wheels
off toys) and lots more. 5 Count the raindrops
Lots of fun will be had with these. You could get your
On a rainy day, can you count how many rain drops run
child to draw a house on the board then add the lock/
down the window? Choose two and guess which one
latch to the front of the house.
will run down the window fastest.

2 Textile sensory board Adult support

Using a large piece of wood or cardboard attach

various materials to give a variety of textures to play
with and touch.
Examples: cotton wool, felt, ribbon, tin foil, zips, mirror,
sponge, zip lock bags with hair gel/shaving gel/
conditioner – even add in glitter!

3 Match the pegs Adult support

Peg coloured clothes pegs to some string. The object

of the game is for the child to find an object in the
house which is the same colour as each peg.

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 6 Performance box 8 Imaginative play
Get a large box and cut a square out of the front of Be a fire breathing dragon, cast spells and ‘do magic’,
the box, making a television like shape. This can now be use props like sticks and ribbons, pat invisible animals/
used for children to do their own productions, eat invisible food, pretend objects are other things
or even for puppet shows. Crayons can be used e.g. a sofa can be a bus.
to decorate the outside of the box.
9 Dance
7 Perform a play On your own or with your family, just get moving!
Make up a play to perform to an imaginary Dancing is great exercise.
audience and/or another family member!
Try dressing up to add to your performance. 10 Family survey
Ask everyone in your family what their favourite food,
film and animal is. You can make up other things to
ask them too! Write the answers down so you can see
what’s most popular!

11 Stop the clock!

Use a phone or clock to give yourself 30 seconds to
find as many red things as you can in a room in your
house or garden. Change the colour, place,
and amount of time after every shot!

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 12 Family portrait 16 Indoor camping
Draw a picture of all of your family. Think about what Put a tent up in your house and go camping!
everyone looks like and the clothes they usually wear. If you don’t have a tent, use a sheet, two chairs
Don’t be shy in getting creative with colour and other and some string.
materials!
17 Indoor maze
13 Take-it-in-turns storytelling
Use your hallway or other room in your house to
One person starts the story with the first sentence, make a maze! Using string, tape or items of clothing.
then the next person leads on the story with another Just tie things at different heights and see if you can
sentence, and then repeats around the group or pair. get through without touching anything!

14 Poster design
Design a poster of your favourite film! Use pencils, pens,
paint and other materials… Be as creative as you can!

15 Bingo
Make scorecards of 5 squares and across and 5
squares down and then put in some numbers. Put a
matching set of numbers in a bowl, and give everyone
a scorecard. Pull out a number, show to everyone.
Colour over the matching number on your scorecard.
When you have coloured over all your matching
numbers, shout BINGO!!

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 18 Mini music festival 20 Design a monster
Pick your dream line up to suit the whole family, design On the biggest piece of paper you have, draw an
a poster to advertise the festival and start playing outline of your body (or just your head and shoulders).
those tunes! You can even dress up festival style! Left-over wallpaper works well. Once you have an
You could make flowery headbands from paper outline, create a friendly MONSTER with googly eyes
or tissue and dig out those sunglasses! and a funny hairstyle.

19 Dress up 21 Matching game

Use old clothes, new clothes, costumes... Use hard card to make 20 squares, as close to the
and get creative! You can even get into character. same size as you can. On 10 of them draw different
shapes or symbols, then do exactly the same on the
other 10. Turn them and mix them up and you’ve got
your own matching game!

22 New world
Make up a world completely different from our own
and create cities and characters to be a part of it!
You can act it out and even design a poster/drawing
to visualise your new world!

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 23 Play shops 27 ‘Granny went shopping...’
Use cardboard/paper to make pretend money and find The first player says, “Granny went shopping and
some food or other things in the house to pretend to bought...”, then says what she bought. The next player
sell! Decide who is going to be the shopkeeper and repeats and recites what the first player said she
who is going to be the customer... then play shops! bought and adds his or her own item, and so forth.

24 Shape spotting 28 Paper planes

How many circles, triangles or squares can you spot Make paper planes and see which flies the furthest.
in each room in your house or garden? Why not make Does it make a difference if you put weights
it a race to find the most rectangles? (paperclips) on them? Make your plane look great
with your own design.
25 Memory game
Gather together items (maybe start with 8) on a tray/
table, e.g. pencil, sock, spoon, toy. Cover and see how
many you remember. Keep adding items until you can’t
remember them all – how many can you do?

26 Experiment with volume

It’s difficult to guess how much odd-shaped containers
will hold. Gather together different containers and see
how much water they take. Estimate how many times
smaller ones will go into bigger ones!

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 29 Ice cube race 31 Make your own aquarium
Make and freeze ice cubes – add food colouring and Make your own aquarium and go fishing! Fill a
have 4 of each colour. Then see who can melt their paddling pool with water and blue or green colouring.
ice cubes the fastest. Then add some plastic toy animals e.g. frogs, snakes,
fish and use nets, slotted spoons or strainers to catch
30 Create some music as many creatures as possible! Do it on your own or
make it a competition between your family! Who is the
Use pots and pans for drums and wooden spoons for quickest? Who can catch the most exotic creature?
drumsticks! How about making your own percussion
instruments with containers and rice?
32 Make invisible ink
You can make invisible ink by mixing lemon juice &
water. Using a cotton bud write on white paper and
leave to dry. The writing will disappear and reappear
when heated up a little or by using a torch. You can
write your own secret messages.

33 Paint a picture blindfolded

Pin some paper to a wall or fence and lay a plastic
sheet or some newspaper below. Use a scarf for a
blindfold and make sure you are wearing an apron!
Have a family member guide you to the paper and
hand you a paint brush and then get painting!

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 Play Scotland is the lead organisation for the development
and promotion of children and young people’s play in
Scotland. We work strategically to make the child’s right to
play a reality so that all children can reach their full potential
and be able to confidently inhabit an inclusive public realm,
as well as help shape child friendly communities.

Further information
For playful resources visit
www.playscotland.org/parents-families

Also, keep up to date on our website and social channels

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Produced by Sammy Wyeth as part of the

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Play Scotland
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9 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 5EZ
T: 0131 313 8859 E: [email protected]
Company Number: SC197785, Scottish Charity Number: SC029167.
Registered at the above address.