Boot Camp Games for Children

Do a toned-down Marine-style boot camp so the kids can pretend they've joined the Marines. Have them do standard exercises like jumping jacks, sit-ups and arm circles. Make sure they do only a few repetitions at first to avoid stressing themselves out. Turn each exercise into a competition; tell them you want to see which of them can get to 10 jumping jacks the fastest, for example. This is also a good way to warm up prior to participating in sports.

Create a "fun run" course for the kids in marathon format. The Marine Corps Marathon, for example, has a "Healthy Kids Fun Run" that coincides with the regular marathon and involves a closed course, after which kids get medals and snacks. Adapt this idea for your own use and create a closed course in a wide-open area with orange cones.

Get a children's book with some repetitive phrases or words. Choose three or four phrases or words and assign them to a certain exercise (i.e., when the phrase "jumping" is uttered, the kids must do five push-ups). Tell the kids to jog around the room in circles as you stand in the middle. Read the book to them as they jog. When you say one of the repetitive phrases or words, the kids must all stop running and do the exercises assigned to it. When they are done, they resume jogging and you resume reading.

Spread out about 20 cones in an aerobics area with half the cones lying on their sides. Separate the children into two teams and have team one put all the cones upright and tell team two to pull all the cones down. Start the game by turning on some energetic music of your choice. After about a minute and a half, turn the music off, signaling that the game is over. The team that has more cones standing up, or vice versa, is the winner.