15 Fun Flashlight Games and Activities for Kids

You might find flashlights to be a normal thing that you use when you need to see in the dark, but to kids, flashlights represent numerous activities and games that can be played. They are a great source of creativity and fun! At night, when there may not be much to do with the kids due to a lack of light, flashlights can act as tools to help them indulge in activities and games in order to stay occupied. Read on below to find our curated list of games and activities that you can do with your kids after dark with just a flashlight!

Best Flashlight Games and Activities for Children

Most kids have a blast with just a beam of light! Teenagers, tweens, and even younger kids can keep themselves busy with a flashlight for long periods of time. All you need to do is help them streamline this into the form of an activity or a game, and viola! You have yourself a simple solution to the eternal problem of how to keep entertaining your kids! These activities and games can be executed on a normal night, or if your child is at a sleepover, having fun with his friends, or even camping. Here is our list of flashlight games for kids that you can execute.

1. Flashlight Hide and Seek

Flashlight Hide and Seek is the easiest game to execute with kids, because they understand all the elements involved in order to execute the game. Usually played with only one flashlight, this game is the same as hide and seek, but with all the lights switched off. The seeker can use the flashlight in order to navigate through the darkness. The objective is to be able to find as many people as the seeker can within the stipulated time period.

2. Firefly

This is a unique game that can be played with many kids. It is a variation of the popular game, tag. All the players will try to capture the “firefly”, who is the person holding the flashlight. You can make this game a bit more fun by covering the light with coloured paper to make it more colorful. It can also be played around real fireflies, where the kids go around catching them as well as the “firefly”. Just make sure to release all the bugs once you’re done playing!

3. Charades

Your kids might already know the concept of charades, but in this case, they can use the flashlight and shadows to make the game a bit more interesting. The idea of the game is to cast the light against a wall and make the kids act out a shadow charade. The rest of the kids must guess which animal, character, or shape the child is trying to act out within a certain amount of time.

4. Flashlight Freeze

This is a fun game that all kids love because it involves a lot of dancing and shaking. Get the kids to pull out their funniest, goofiest dance moves to some of their favorite songs. You can hold the flashlight and as soon as you shine the light on any one child or group, they must immediately stop dancing and freeze in place. If the kids are found moving even after the flashlight is beaming at them, they are out of the game.

5. Flashlight Limbo

This is one of the more fun flashlight activities that involves the use of two flashlights. Make sure that two adults or kids are standing facing each other and shining the flashlight at each other such that it creates a beam. The other kids need to go down low and make sure they cross over without touching the beam. To make it more challenging, you can lower the beam with each level.

6. Scavenger Hunt

The Flashlight scavenger hunt works with kids that are slightly older, and you will also need multiple flashlights, since each of the kids involved will need to be holding one. Hide things around the house and split the kids up in teams to get them to search for all the items. You can provide them clues on the way, and you can make it more challenging by lowering or switching off the lights in the house.

7. Flashlight Dance Party

This is a good activity for a sleepover. There might be a lot of kids, and the evening might be getting loud and rowdy. Get all the kids together and hand them flashlights. Play some music for them and allow them to create their own discotheque. If you have a disco ball lying around at home, you can use that to make it even more fun. It is bound to get a lot of giggles and tire out the kids for a good night’s sleep.

8. Catch the Moon

Provide all the kids with flashlights and use a dimly lit area in or around your house. This game is just like capture the flag, but uses a kickball or a soccer ball instead of the flag. In case you’d like to make this game more fun, you can buy a glow-in-the-dark ball so that it looks like an actual moon.

9. Shadow Puppet Show

Divide the kids into teams such that there are two or three, and give them flashlights. Ask them to come up with their own skit or story, which they will have to execute using the flashlight and shadows. This game really helps bring out the creativity in kids, and they learn to appreciate and pick up from their peers’ creativity and execution as well.

10. Relay Race

This is a cool twist to the simple relay race that all kids know and love. Split the kids into teams and hand the first child in each team a flashlight. Pick a target destination like a wall, tree or chair and yell, “go!”. They must switch on the flashlight, point it at the target, run to it, run back, and switch off the flashlight while handing it to the next person in their team. Repeat until one team finishes.

11. Mirror Target

This is a simple enough game for kids where they have to use a flashlight and hit the target that you call out. The only catch is that they have to shine the light through a mirror in order to hit the target. It is a great learning opportunity for them to find out how light and reflections work.

12. Morse Code

This one is probably more suitable for older kids, or kids who are able to understand the concept of Morse code. Split the kids into two teams and get them to stand at a distance from each other. Give them the Morse chart, and have them send out a code to the other team. The other team must correctly identify and decode the message.

13. Light Stomp

Hand the flashlight to one of the kids or an adult. Get the kids to stand together and wherever you shine the flashlight, the kids must run to it and try stomping the light. The last child to get to the light is out.

14. Flashlight Photography

All you need is a camera and a flashlight. Using the long shutter feature in the camera, you can get the kids to draw something in the air using the flashlight. It will appear as one photo in the camera and it’s a fun way to test their creativity. The level of the pictures can be increased or decreased based on the ages of the kids involved.

15. Messages

With the help of some basic material like black paper, a punch and flashlights, you can create a fun game that will keep the kids occupied for a long time. All they have to do is use the punch and create holes in the black paper. The holes must be created in such a way that they form words or letters. Using the flashlight, you can get them to project their message, and the other kids must decipher it.

Flashlights are a very effective way of keeping kids busy and having fun. Sometimes, the easiest ideas turn out to be the most efficient ones! It’s definitely a lot of fun to shoot beams of light in the darkness and now that some activities have been rolled into it, it will be doubly fun. So, the next time you are thinking of different things that you can do with your kids to keep them busy, don’t look any further than the flashlight that is lying in your drawer. All the best, and enjoy!

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