45 Activities for Little Kids that Require Zero Prep Work

Here are 45 activities for little kids that require zero prep work and create zero mess.

I love crafts and being creative. I also don’t mind a game that involves getting messy. But sometimes preparing for an activity takes longer than the activity itself. The beauty of kids is that they find everything new and exciting. I think grown-ups forget this and end up making things more complicated than they need to be.

Last night, my son Oscar challenged me to an eye staring contest. This little game is so simple and yet so fun. It reminded me that not all games and activities have to involve crafts or toys.

So with this in mind, I searched for zero prep and zero mess activities for little kids. I found a lot of what I would call minimal prep ideas since many still required some kind of object or craft to play, plus there was cleanup involved. The list below is full of classic activities and games that genuinely require zero prep work and zero clean up. You probably know all of them, but need a little reminder as I did.

Giggle

1. Eye staring contest | This one always makes us giggle. It’s so simple, but hard to do. Stare into each other’s eyes and the first one to blink loses.
2. Hide and seek | I am quite surprised at my self with this one. I have found some pretty great spots for me to hide, and the kids take forever to find me!
3. Telephone game | Sit next to each other, and whisper a sentence to the person next to you, keep passing the words until the last person repeats it out loud. The last sentence usually sounds way different than the original.
4. Tickle fight | This one is only good if everyone involved wants to be tickled, but it can be fun.
5. Simon says | My kids can play this game for hours! Here are some ideas from bighappybackyard.com
6. Charades | Pretend to be an animal or character and act it out, without using words or sounds. Whoever guesses right, gets a point. Take turns
7. I spy | Another favorite in our home. We play I spy most when we are driving somewhere. This is an excellent game for learning colors, shapes, and objects.
8. Tell stories | Improv your own stories or share some stories from when you were little. For Christmas, I purchased a table topics game for the family, and it has been on our table ever since. They love hearing stories about the family.
9. This little piggy | I know some people get creative with this, but we just do the classic; This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy ate roast beef, and this little piggy went wee wee all the way home.
10. Thumb war | This game is almost unfair to play with little ones. Lol! But my six years old beats me sometimes.
11. Tell jokes | I am not good at memorizing jokes, or joke delivery for that matter. But I like to hear jokes. We use the Alexa echo dot to learn new material. I think knock, knock jokes are the best for little ones.
12. Ask would you rather questions | This is a silly game. Kids are great at coming up with yucky would you rather questions.
13. Practice whistling | My kids get frustrated because it’s hard to learn how to whistle, but I think it is good to practice.
14. Arm wrestling | Just go gentle on the little ones.
15. Butterfly kisses | My son loves this so much! I just put my eye close to his cheek and open and close my eyes as fast as I can. My eyelashes tickle him, and we get some giggles.
16. Tour the house | Do your kids know where things are around the house, or where things go? Do you have art or pictures around the house that tell a story? Walk around the house as the guide and give the kids a tour.

Move

1. Freeze Dance | This really gets the heart pumping. There are many variations to this song, so it never gets old. This is the one we ask Alexa to play for us.
2. Have a race | Get creative, with this one; my kids like to show me how fast they are, but you can do a one-leg race or relay race.
3. Tag | Remind the bigger kids to tap the little ones, so they don’t go flying.
4. Dance Party | We usually take turns picking songs. We all have different tastes in music, so it’s an excellent way to teach the kids how to share and respect other people’s taste in music. I am usually the big baby here because I refuse to do the chicken dance. Haha!
5. Wheel barrel race | This is great for building strength. My son does this in Kung fu practice and my daughter in acro class. It’s a fun way to build muscles.
6. Practice cartwheels | Another hard thing to do, at least for me. It takes so much strength to do this, and kids get so much sense of accomplishment any time they get close to doing one.
7. Red light, green light | Have the kids begin in the same spot. Yell out green light for them to start moving towards you, and red light to stop. The first one to get to you wins. You can also pretend to be cars and run around calling out red light, green light.
8. Follow the leader | What kid doesn’t like to call out the shots? Get in a line and follow the leader. Say, and do whatever the leader does.
9. Pretend Play | Crawl, rollover, tiptoe around the house, like ninjas. Pretend you are animals, or superheroes, or anything else. My son is into Zombies these days.
10. Pony rides | This one I leave to dad. They ride him around the house. The animal changes from time to time, but the game is the same.
11. The floor is lava | This is easier if there are different floor textures and colors. Decide what is lava and avoid stepping over it.
12. Make silly faces | How can you not giggle with this?
13. Practice whistling | The kids get frustrated, trying to whistle, but practice makes perfect, so pucker up!
14. Make up a secret greeting | Before the quarantine, this would have been a handshake, but now it’s time to make up a new and fun greeting.
15. Hand shadow | This is a fun night time activity. I can do a bird and a dog. But there are lots of animal shadows you can do.
16. Duck, duck, goose | You need a lot of kids to play this game, but it is still fun.
17. Ring around the Rosie | I can do this game three times max. I get very dizzy, but the kids can do it a lot. Hold, hands, and walk around in a circle while singing ring around the rosie.
18. Look for bugs or wildlife | Go to your back yard or go on a walk and see how much wildlife you can find. Around us, there are many different types of birds, and we look for ladybugs or worms around the backyard. Last year, we were lucky and saw a pair of lizards running around in or yard.
19. Head, shoulders, knees, and toes | Get the kids moving with this classic song.

Calm and relax

1. Clean up | I love this one. Ha! Make it a competition or a sorting game. Sometimes I ask the kids to clean up only the large objects first, then the medium, and the small ones last.
2. Organize | This might be way more fun for me because I love to organize. I don’t like to get rid of toys without getting the kids’ permission, so we go through things together and decide what stays, what gets donated, what is trash, and what we can sell at a kids’ consignment store.
3. Count stuff around the house | My son, came up the stairs the other day super excited because he counted 19 steps on our stairs. There are so many things to count around the house, and it’s great practice for little ones that are just learning how to count.
4. Find shapes around the house | Once you are done counting, then you can start finding shapes around the house.
5. Take a nap or cuddle | I can’t get my 3-yr old daughter to nap by her self anymore, but if I cuddle with her, it works, sometimes the best activity is to stop and recharge.
6. Go on a walk | We like to take short walks around the neighborhood after dinner, and hikes during the weekend; this is a great bonding activity for the whole family.
7. Yoga | Yoga is very soothing. If things are getting hectic, take a pause and stretch a little.
8. Cloud watch | Take out your picnic blanket and go lay down outside. This takes patience because we are usually busy running around; you will probably end up taking a nap or telling stories.
9. Look at the stars | Before going to bed, go outside and do some stargazing.
10. Meditate | I find meditation to be very helpful for our kids and me. This activity doesn’t take long but is very soothing for all of us. We use the kids’ section on our headspace app. The meditations are by age, and they take only a few minutes. There are lots of different topics to meditate to, such as being kindness, appreciation, and settling down.

Find more activities for little kids here