5 Fitness Activities for Kids to Do with Paper

Are you in search of activities to increase physical activity at home but short on supplies? There are plenty of ways to get active indoors only using a piece of paper! You can use regular 8.5″ by 11″ white printer paper, recycled paper or colored paper. Here are 5 fitness activities for kids using paper!

Fitness Activities for Kids with Paper and Pencil

Cross the River Games

Cross the River is an easy activity to set up to increase aerobic fitness. Encourage your children to imagine themselves deep inside the forest and they have to cross the river. The river can be any floor you have in your house. For example, if you have an area rug that can be the river. Lay down the paper across the rug. Jump or step from paper to paper to cross the “river”.

Cross the River Challenge game requires only two pieces of paper. Stand on one side of your “river” on a piece of paper. Can you cross the river by placing one piece of paper in front on you and standing on it. Then squat down, turn around grab the other piece of paper and put it in front of you. Keep going until you cross your “river” and make it to the other side.

Box Jumps

Put one piece of paper on the floor. Jump from side to side over the paper. Switch and jump forwards and backwards over the paper. Advance to doing box jumps over the paper. Start with the paper on your right side, then jump forward, jump left, jump backwards and jump to your right returning to where you started. Continue for several minutes to get a great home workout.

Agility Ladder Jumps

Lay down several pieces of paper in a line on the floor. Make sure each piece of paper is about 12-18 inches apart. Start at the beginning and jump over each piece of paper moving down your home made agility ladder. Increase the challenge and try hopping on one foot over each piece of paper.

Try hopping feet apart over the paper and feet together in between the paper trail.

Paper Tap Race Fitness Activities for Kids

Get 4 pieces of paper. Write the numbers 1 through 4 on the paper. Make a starting line with a throw pillow or chair. Place the four pieces of paper scattered throughout the room. On GO the child can run to the paper with the #1 and back to the starting line, then run to the paper with the #2 and back to the starting line, run to #3 and back and finally run to the #4 piece of paper and back to the starting line. Count how long it takes and see if you can get faster and faster.

If your child is too young to read numbers, put stuffed animals on the paper. You can call out who they have to rescue and see how long it takes.

For older children, write letters on the paper. For example, write the letters R, S, T, N, A, E and O on papers. On GO they have to tap the paper in order to spell and word and come back to start as quickly as possible. The child can run, tap and spell T-A-N or S-T-A-R-T and return to start. How long did it take? See how many words you can run and make.

Paper Obstacle Course

Some of the best fitness activities for kids are obstacle courses. They are super easy to make with pencil and paper. Write different exercises on the paper such as 1. RUN IN PLACE FOR 30 SECONDS, 2. 10 JUMPING JACKS, and 3. LARGE ARM CIRCLES FOR 30 SECONDS. Place the exercise papers outside around the yard or throughout the house. On GO the child has to run and find the exercise cards. Perform the exercises and return to start.

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