Best Bean Bag Games and Activities for Kids

Bean bags are a must-found toy in places like daycare, preschools, crèches, as they proffer immense benefits to kids. You can use these bean bags easily to engage your kids in quick fun games, which are also highly beneficial to build their motor skills, awareness level, and concentration. And, the best part is that these games can be played both indoors and outdoors!

10 Bean Bag Activities and Games to Play With Kids

Unlike other toys in the markets, these bean bags are completely low-priced. You can also engage your kids if they are old enough to sew these bags in different shapes and colours of your choice for a more cheerful time. Let’s have a look at these bean bag games for kids that are extremely fun to play with kids:

1. Bean Bag Toss

For this game, you will need beach towels or big baskets and a bean bag. Make the kids stand apart and make them hold a basket. If you are using towels, you can divide them into pairs and make each pair hold the corners of the towel and open it. You can toss the bean bag in the air and whoever catches it in their basket or towel correctly earns a point. This game is more fun when playing outside.

2. X’s and O’s With Bean Bag

X’s and O’s or Tic Tac Toe is a popular game involving thinking skills, but with beanbags, you can instantly turn it into a motor exercise as well. Using chalk or paint, draw a large Tic Tac Toe board on the floor or a big sheet of paper. Play the game with two different coloured bean bags as X’s and O’s to represent the two players.

3. Relay With Bean Bag

Relays help build team-work and agility in an individual, be it any age. Engage your kids in fun relays with bean bags to help them inculcate such qualities at a young age. Gather a group of kids and make them stand some distance apart in a line. Pile up some beanbags at a point far from the first kid and a basket at a farther point from the last kid. Make the first kid pick a beanbag and pass it overhead without turning to the kid behind and without dropping it. Each kid will do the same till the last kid tosses the bean bag in the basket. You may make the last kid run to the front to repeat the process. You can also make the kids pass it under their legs or alternate passing under and over for older kids.

4. Barriers and Bean Bags

This outdoor bean bag game is a fun way to spend time with your kids on a perfect afternoon or evening. Using chalk, draw a line from a start point to an endpoint that your kids have to follow. The kids take turns walking on the line with a bean bag on their heads; they have to walk without letting the beanbag fall. Have small barriers in between to make it more fun and challenging.

5. Treasure Hunt

An absolutely fun game to play anytime with your kids is the treasure hunt. And now, you can play it with beanbags! Hide the bean bags around your home or garden and give clues to help kids find them. They can earn small rewards or a point for each beanbag they find. You can modify it in a smaller space for young tots and incorporate counting or math lessons, too!

6. Catch and Catch

The classic catch game, when played with a bean bag, is a great way to develop hand-eye coordination. The game can be easily modified according to the number of kids available to include them all. For example, if your kid is alone, this game can be played by counting the number of times they catch it without dropping it. If there are two or three kids, you can play it by tossing the bean bag to each other, and whoever drops it first shall lose. You can also modify it by asking the kids to take a step back after each toss, and whoever goes farthest and still catches the beanbag wins.

7. Aim and Throw

This bean bag throwing game is another fantastic activity for building aim and hand-eye coordination. Place few round tubs or hula hoops on the ground and assign points to each tub or hula hoop depending on their distance. The nearest can be 1 point, and the farthest can be 5 points. Make your child throw the bean bags into the tubs or hoops and record their score. You can make variations with distances according to the children’s age.

8. Hot Potato

Make the children sit in a circle and pass the bean bag AKA the ‘hot potato’ around while playing a popular song or rhymes. When the music stops, the kid who has the bean bag has to come to the middle. The last kid still seated, wins the game. Make sure to inform your kids that they must not hold the beanbag for a long time or drop it as it is the ‘hot potato’!

9. Freeze Now!

Also called musical statues, this game also involves music and fun! Play the music and dance with the kids making them toss the beanbag to one another. When the music stops, the kids have to freeze in their position. Nobody should move a limb till the music is turned on again, even if the beanbag is in the air or it falls on someone. Make it competitive by eliminating the kids who move or make it fun by repeating it over till the kids get tired.

10. Snow Bowling

A fun variation of the popular adult’s game, you can play snow bowling with your kids by swapping the bowling ball with a bean bag.  Place some empty plastic bottles, cups, cones, or even old metal tins for the pins. Use the bean bag as the bowling ball to throw or slide along the floor to knock down the bottles or cups. This is a fantastic game to hone gross motor skills, and the number of bottles or cups that fall can be used as the score to decide the winner.

Make your bean bags in your kids’ favourite colour or buy them from a local store and enjoy these amusing games while helping your kids develop their skills and have great fun at the same time!

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