You know that parks and playgrounds are great for fresh air and exercise, but it’s less obvious that they’re are also perfect locations to work on word games with your elementary school child! Travis tackled three word challenges outdoors today, each having to do with a different concept or part of speech. (And yes, little sister Veronika tagged along for all the fun wearing her Halloween costume a bit early!).

Rhyming:

For a “rhyme-off”, have your child point to any object or action on the playground and then find a rhyme for it. Take turns saying a word that rhymes until someone can’t think of one. “Swing!” he said. “Ring!” I countered. “Ting!” Whoops, that’s not a word.

Travis loved the challenge and got silly with real versus invented words thereafter.

Opposites:

Our next game was to search for opposites. One person would spot an action, emotion, or other concept and the other person had to find name its opposite. Little sister Veronika loved helping with this one, so for example if one person had to stop, the other had to go!

Or if one child was up, the other was down.

Vocabulary:

Finally, we took the play home to our backyard where we set up an obstacle course using plastic stepping stones. (Note: you can use natural elements, too, like clumps of grass or piles of leaves). The challenge was that Travis had to think of a new verb each time he went through the course, whether to tip-toe, to run, to stomp…

or to jump!

What word games does your family enjoy playing on the playground? Please share in the comments!