Hobbies And Interests
Coloring Books
Children may explore their creativity through coloring books. Coloring books are the perfect activity for kids of any age. Young children can have fun exploring themed coloring books, such as favorite cartoon show or movie characters, while older children may hone their art skills with more complicated coloring book pictures or by coloring pictures online. Coloring books may be purchased at craft and book stores or free coloring pages may be printed from the Internet (See Resources).
Activity Books
Activity books feature games for children such as puzzles, word searches, arts and crafts projects, connect-the-dots games and more. Subscribe to activity magazines, like "Highlights" magazine. Each magazine features multiple activities for children to complete. Local book stores offer various puzzle books for children that offer maze games, hidden picture games, educational games with math and spelling activities.
Online Games
Many major children's book-publishing websites offer online book game resources. On Scholastic.com, kids can play games based on their favorite books and characters, like Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, Goosebumps, The Babysitters Club and more. Games include dressing the girls of the Babysitters Club, casting magical spells in the world of Harry Potter, and battling evil with Captain Underpants. Other resources include HarperCollins, featuring classic children's novel games, and RandomHouse, featuring Dr. Seuss games.
Classroom Games
Turn reading within the classroom into a game. Get all students involved in reading by encouraging a lively trivia match. Assign students part of a book for one night. The next day, separate them into teams and ask questions about characters, scenes and events. Have teams raise their hands to answer and reward points for each correct answer. Make up crossword puzzles for students to complete pertaining to the book they are reading. For example, you might write for five across, "the name of the main character's dog in the novel." Students will be learning while they complete the puzzle.