Balloons Activity
Playing with balloons indoors is a great way to keep children entertained while helping them improve their ball handling skills and practice taking turns. Whānau can be creative and make up new games together with their tamariki.
Why do it?
Playing with balloons helps our tamariki to:
- use their big muscles and strengthen their ball handling skills when indoors
- practice taking turns
- talk about and agree on rules for the game
- have fun at very little cost.
Balloon play is especially good so that tamariki get regular physical activity when it’s too wet to be outside.
How to do it
- Move any precious or fragile things out of the way.
- Blow the balloon up, but not too tight.
- Bat the balloon up with your hands as many times as you can. Count how many bats before the balloon drops.
- Try hand-batting between you and your tamaiti.
- Play hand-batting the balloon over a string between two chairs — lounge volleyball! How many times can you get the balloon over the string before it touches the ground?
- Add a challenge by using a cardboard tube, like an empty cling-wrap roll, as a bat.
- Make up new games together with your tamariki using objects and obstacles from around the house.
pdf 11 MB
Using more te reo Māori
| Te reo Māori | English |
|---|---|
| Rākauhau | A bat |
| Hāua | To bat |
| Ki runga | Up |
| Ki raro | Down |
| Ki te taha | To the side |
| Ki tua | Over |
| Ki raro | Down |
| Teitei | High |
| Pāpaku | Low |
| Nāu i haua te poihau mō ngā wā e whā! | You batted the balloon 4 times! |
| Kei tua i te here | Over the string |
| Kei muri i te tūru | Behind the chair |
| Haua te poihau ki tua i te here | Bat the balloon over the string |
