Hand games are a great way to develop hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination, motor planning and midline crossing and they have been one of our top posts at The Inspired Treehouse. Why? Because nothing beats good old fashioned fun!
Today, we are taking things up a notch and adding a bit of concentration to the traditional hand clapping games. The following four challenges require focus and sequencing and they still pack the motor punch that our last batch of games did.
Hand Games for Concentration and Motor Skills
These may take some practice to master, but once your kids get the hang of them, they’re sure to be a hit!
Concentration
A modern day clapping game, “Concentration” goes on for hours in our house and has everyone giggling uncontrollably! This is the rhyme that goes along with it:
Concentration (clap, clap, clap)
64 (clap, clap, clap)
No repeat (clap, clap, clap)
Or hesitation (clap, clap, clap)
I’ll go first (clap, clap, clap)
You go second (clap, clap, clap)
The category is (clap, clap, clap)
_____________________ (the “first child” fills this in).
Here’s a video demonstration of how to play the concentration game!
Boom Snap Clap
This one takes some coordination but is amazing for working on midline crossing as you will see in this video demonstration. It takes some practice and a lot of motor sequencing but, once you master it, it is so much fun!
Chopsticks
The object of this game is to be the last player left with a hand in the game.
Here’s how to play:
Players each present both hands to each other with one finger extended.
Have one person go first, tapping the other person’s finger with one of his or her extended fingers. The person who gets tapped adds the number of fingers from the other person’s hand to theirs, putting up that number of fingers.
So the person receiving the tap would put up two fingers, while the tapper’s hand would still have only one.
As soon as a player’s hand has five fingers showing, that hand is “out”.
When you get to a number higher than 5, you begin using your other hand. For example, for the number 6 you would put up 1 finger on the other hand. For 7 you would put up 2 fingers and for 8 you would put up 3 fingers.
If you have any number higher than 5, for example 6, you put 1 finger up on your other hand. If it’s seven then it’s 2, 8, then it’s 3, so on and so on.
Let’s say one hand is out (0) and the other hand has 2 fingers up, you can “bump” the 2, splitting it evenly (half of 2 is 1, so you have one finger in each hand) by bumping your hands together. You can only bump with even numbers! If you bump, this move takes your turn. You cannot get your own hand out!
Play until you get the other players’ hands out.
A hand is “out” and has to be hidden behind the back when all 5 fingers (or chopsticks) are extended.
Here’s a video demonstration of the chopsticks game to help make things clearer.
Odds and Evens
Each player declares if they will be either “odds” or “evens”. Then both players clench their fists, count to three, and each player – at the same time – opens one hand, to show one or more fingers. If the combined number of fingers (found when adding all of the fingers together) is equal to an odd number – the player declaring “odds” wins and vice versa.
If you like these games, you’ll love these other awesome hand clapping games for kids!
And check out these fun ways to help kids build hand strength!
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