Five Minute Pencil and Paper Games
Quick Transition Activities for Kids Who Need Something to Do
Aug 20, 2009
Give kids a pencil and some paper and a little bit of direction and they’ll be able to fill a few minutes with a drawing, number, or word game. These make great diversions when working with a group of kids finishing projects at different times or when with a couple of children who are feeling antsy.
Quick Drawings
Children draw a simple shape such as a square, heart, clover, diamond, random blob, etc. Next, follow the lines of the first drawing and draw the shape inside the shape. Make the lines as close as possible. Repeat, each time drawing the new line just inside the previously drawn shape so the shape keeps getting smaller. Then, start drawing the shape outside the original line. Keep going until the entire page is filled.
If colored pencils are available, children can change pencils with each line they are drawing to create a colorful piece of art.
Number Maze
Write the numbers from one to twenty on a piece of paper so the numbers are scattered as opposed to being in any order. On the same piece of paper, write the numbers from one to twenty again, avoiding writing the same number beside its match.
Next, draw a line connecting two identical numbers. Continue, with the child working from pairing the ones to the twos, threes, etc. The catch is that none of the lines can cross one another. The more numbers paired, the greater the challenge to this maze.
Alphabet Word Challenge
In Super Fun for One: 366 Solo Activities for Kids, [Andrews and McMeel, 1996], authors Patricia Gordon and Reed C. Snow offer the "Hawaiian Alphabet Challenge," a word game to test children’s ability to build English words using the twelve letters of the Hawaiian alphabet. The alphabet consists of the letters: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, and w.
Children write the letters at the top of a sheet of paper. Then, they think of words that use only those letters and record them on the paper. It’s okay to duplicate a letter if a word uses the same letter twice, such as in ‘moon.’ Children can time themselves, testing their word-building ability in the space of five minutes. However, if they keep the list handy, chances are that they’ll keep discovering more and more words that use just those twelve letters.
With five minutes, and some paper and a pencil, kids can take a break or fill time between activities with a drawing, word, or number game. No paper or pencil? Look to no-materials needed word games.
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