Share Some Happiness: Ideas for Random Acts of Fun

You don't need an excuse to have a fun-filled day. Just gather the gang, use your imagination, and turn an ordinary day into a happy day! Here are some tips for random acts of fun.

Play Ball Day!

Gather a variety of toy balls, such as beach balls, bouncy balls, knitted kick balls, and inflated sports balls and spend the day playing wacky ball games.

• Stand opposite a partner and toss a ball back and forth. Each time you toss the ball, take a step backward to make it more difficult. Try different sizes of balls to the game for added fun.
• See how long you and your partner can keep a ball or balloon up in the air by batting it back and forth.
• Play a game of baseball, football, basketball, or soccer, using plastic and inflated equipment instead of the regular bats and balls.

Drama Day!

Have the kids dress up as princesses, pirates, cowboys or clowns. Don't forget the accessories, such as tattoos, jewelry, hats, crowns, and masks.

• Put on a Play. Dress up, then create a script featuring the costumed players. Or let them improvise skits based on their costumes. Give them a prompt to start with, such as, "First date," "Teacher/parent conference," or "Just landed on an alien planet."
• Happy Hats. Have the kids wear a funny hat and act like the person who wears that hat. Or give them a hat to decorate with beads, feathers, jewels and other craft items.
• Videotape the performances and play them back at the end of the show.

Animal Adventure Day!

Take a trip to the zoo or go on a safari for an Animal Adventure Day, with your stuffed animals, teddy bears, puppets, and toy miniatures!

• Puppet Show. Slip on animal hand puppets and put on a puppet show, using a cardboard box for a stage. Stuffed animals, miniature animals, or inflated animals work great too!
• Have a Picnic. Spread a blanket on the floor and invite the animals to join you for miniature sandwiches, juice, and animal crackers.
• Be an Animal. Put toy animals in bags, pass one to each player, and have them act like the animal in the bag for others to guess.

Light up the Night!

Stock up on glow-in-the-dark toys and accessories, such as necklaces, bracelets, swords and wands, then turn off the lights, and brighten the room with iridescent color!

• Treasure Hunt. Hide glow in the dark toys around the room, then turn off the room lights and have the kids try to find them.
• Dress up. Turn off the lights and have the kids dress up with lighted accessories in the dark.
• Light Wave. Give everyone a light stick, turn off the lights, and wave them in the dark.

Make it and Take it Day!

Let the kids personalize their own t-shirts, baseball caps, carry bags, or backpacks, using permanent markers, fabric pens, beads and jewels!

• Decorate white t-shirts with funny phrases using fabric pens - then add beads, jewels, and embroidery.
• Design your own baseball caps to look like monsters, with wiggly eyes and pompom noses.

Silly Sports Day!

Set up toys and game stations for silly sports, using non-standard equipment, such as inflated bats and balls, giant bowling pins, water ball yo-yos, flying discs, and sticky stuff!

• Play Ball. Play a regular ball game but use oversized or miniature equipment.
• Yo-Yo Contest. Give everyone a yo-yo and see who can yo-yo the longest.
• Flying Disc Golf Game. Set up markers around the yard and try to hit them with a flying disc.
• Bean Bag Toss Game. Set up a bean bag board and have the players try to score points by throwing balls or bean bags through the holes.
• Give the kids sticky toys, such as sticky monkeys, splat balls, or plastic slime walkers, and have them race down windows and other surfaces.
• Car Chase. Race little toy cars, such as die cast cars, balloon racers, press-n-go vehicles, friction racers, and pull-back cars at a mini racetrack. Give the game winner a checkered flag!

Mad Scientists Day!

Cover your clothes in lab coats (white shirts or smocks) and let the discoveries begin!

• Mad Lab. Provide lots of interesting supplies, such as gobs of goo, putty, stretchy noodles, splat balls, metallic slime, glow in dark slime, nose green slime, and let the kids experiment!
• Outer Space. Fly gliders and foam jets, and then create a new universe with stretch aliens, alien bubbles, and glow-in-dark sticky eyes.
• Dinosaur Discovery. Go back in time and discover your own dinosaurs with dinosaur eggs, dinosaur grabbers, growing dinosaurs, and dinosaur puppets.