120 Creative Boredom Busters: Screen-Free Activities for Kids
- Whole Child Counseling
- Mar 14, 2020
- 11 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
When stress levels rise or routines are disrupted, one of the best things we can offer our children is structure and predictability. While screens can be a helpful tool for learning or entertainment, it’s also important to carve out intentional screen-free time during the day. That’s where this Screen-Free Activity Jar comes in. You'll find 120 creative boredom busters in this printable which includes screen-free activities for kids. This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
I created this printable resource as a fun, low-prep way to keep kids busy, creative, and active without needing a tablet or TV. These activities are designed to encourage imagination, movement, mindfulness, and independent play using minimal or no materials—just a little curiosity.
And the best part? You can download it for free by subscribing to my Free Resource Library.
What Is the Screen-Free Activity Jar?
The Screen-Free Activity Jar is a printable set of activity cards you can cut out and place in a bag, cup, or jar. When your child says “I’m bored” or you want to take a break from digital learning or passive entertainment, they can pull out a card and complete a creative, engaging task.
This resource includes:
20 pages of pre-written screen-free activities
Printable labels for decorating your jar, bag, or container
Blank cards to add your own custom activities
Creative prompts that use little to no supplies
You can print the pages, cut out the cards, and invite your kids to help decorate the label. Let them glue or tape the label onto a paper bag, a clean cup, or a recycled jar. You can even let them decorate the outside with stickers or drawings to make it feel special.
How to Use a Screen-Free Activity Jar
There are lots of ways to incorporate this tool into your day, whether you’re at home with your children full-time, using it in a classroom calm corner, or offering it to caregivers as a break-time strategy. Here are a few easy ways to get started:
Create a daily screen-free block of time and let your child pick one or two cards to complete.
Use it as a “boredom buster.” If your child says, “I’m bored,” direct them to the jar to pick an activity.
Encourage independence. Post the jar in a central spot where children can access it on their own.
Use the blank cards to personalize the jar with ideas that reflect your child’s interests or your space.
Rotate the cards weekly to keep it feeling fresh and fun.
Before using the jar, I recommend reading through the cards to make sure the activities are a good fit for your space and your child’s needs. Most require little or no setup, but you might find opportunities to swap or add alternatives.
Why Screen-Free Time Matters for Kids, Plus a List of 120+ Screen Free Activities for Kids
Incorporating screen-free activities into your daily routine helps children build focus, independence, and creativity. It gives their eyes a break from screens, helps regulate emotions through movement and play, and allows for quiet, self-directed learning. When structured in a positive way, screen-free time can become one of the most cherished parts of the day.
List of Screen-Free Creative & Artistic Activities for Kids
Draw a picture of one of your favorite places. Close your eyes and imagine you are there. Use your senses to imagine the sights, smells, sounds, textures and tastes there.
Trace a plate on a piece of paper and then decorate inside of the circle in any way that you like.
Pick at least two different shapes to draw and re-create them in a pattern on the paper.
Cover a whole entire sheet of paper with bright crayons. Next, cover that up with a layer of black crayon. Next, scratch into the paper with a penny to see the color below the black.
Make a bunch of dots on a piece of paper and then connect them with lines.
Draw or color with your opposite hand.
Draw and label a map of your room, your house, your school, your neighborhood.
Draw a picture of your dream house or your dream vacation.
Draw a picture or make a list of all the different things you like to spend time thinking about.
Draw a picture of yourself if you were an animal.
Divide a paper into fours and draw a picture for each season (fall, winter, spring and summer.) Write a poem about each season.
Draw a picture of your favorite Holiday. What makes it special?
Cut strips of paper and practice weaving them together into a piece of paper that has slits cut into it.
Put on some music and draw with your eyes closed. Just listen to the music and feel your hand move on the paper. Don’t be worried about the outcome. Just let go.
Pick an object to look at and try to draw it without looking at your paper.
Try to create a drawing without picking up your crayon or marker from the paper.
Draw a picture or write about one of your favorite memories.
Draw a picture or write about a problem you want to solve when you grow up.
Draw a new invention.
Make shadow puppets.
Create a comic.
Make paper snowflakes.
Make a paper chain.
Fold a paper fortune teller.
Try to draw as many different feelings faces as you can. Experiment with how changing the eyes, mouth and eyebrows can change the emotion.
Close your eyes and make a scribble. Open your eyes and then turn your scribble into a different drawing.
Trace your hand and draw or write all of the places you have been on it.
Draw a picture of you and your family doing something.
Draw a picture of a gift you would like to give someone.
Draw a picture of what you would ask for if you were given 3 wishes.
Read a book and draw a picture of what you read.
Ask your family if you can cut up old magazines and glue or tape them on a paper to make a collage.
Fold paper airplanes and have a contest to see which ones can fly the furthest.
Writing & Storytelling Activities for Kids
Write a letter to yourself in the future.
Write a poem with the starting line “I wish…”
Try to write a silly song.
Write a story with a beginning, a problem to solve and an ending.
Play story share. One person starts the story with one sentence. The next person adds on another sentence and stops. The next person then adds another sentence and so on….
Write down a list of things you want to learn more about and research them later.
Write a letter to someone.
Create a poem with the first part of each line: “I am the one who…”
Write in a journal or draw a picture of what has been going on this week and how you are feeling.
Write down a bunch of different words on slips of paper. Put them in a cup or jar. Pull them out and arrange them to make a poem or a silly saying.
Make a list of some of your most favorite memories.
Write a list or draw pictures of all of the things you are thankful for.
Write down the names of people that you know and then write down something good about each person.
Write a letter to yourself in the future.
Create your own board game using paper, cardboard, or recycled materials. Include instructions.
Make up a scavenger hunt for someone in your family. Leave clues!
Reading & Literacy Activities for Kids
Read a book with a stuffed animal.
Read a book in the dark using a flashlight.
Read a book under the kitchen table or in another unusual place.
Read a book and draw a picture of what you read.
Animal Alphabet: Say each letter of the alphabet and name an animal that starts with the same letter.
Place Alphabet: Say each letter of the alphabet and name a place that starts with the same letter.
Food Alphabet: Say each letter of the alphabet and name a food that starts with the same letter.
Name Alphabet: Say each letter of the alphabet and say a person’s name that starts with the same letter.
Using adjectives in alphabetical order, each person says “The teacher’s cat is a ____ cat” and fill in the blank by adding an adjective that starts with that same letter.
Memorize some tongue twisters like “She sells sea-shells by the sea-shore.” Or “Peter Piper” or “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?”
Mindfulness, Relaxation & Self-Awareness Activities for Kids
Lay down and place a stuffed animal or lightweight object on your belly. Practice taking slow, deep belly breaths and watch your stuffed animal rise and fall as you breathe in and out.
Pretend you are moving through the room very slowly like you are moving through thick jello.
Practice drawing or writing with your non-dominant hand.
Give yourself a shoulder massage.
Make a list of coping skills you can use when you feel upset. Hang it up somewhere where you can see it everyday.
Go with an adult and take a sound walk. Walk outside and count or write down how many different sounds you hear.
Go outside and listen to see if you can hear any birds or any other nature sounds.
Go outside and look at the clouds. See if you can find any that look like animals or any other objects.
Place objects inside a box and have someone close their eyes, touch what object is inside, and try to guess it without looking at it.
Find objects of different textures. Place the object under a sheet of paper, and use a crayon (with paper peeled off and hold it sideways) to make crayon rubbings.
Practice something you can’t do yet but could learn with practice like: tying your shoes, drawing stars or riding a bike.
Ask a family member to help you make a family tree. Ask them if they have any interesting stories about your family to share.
Ask a family member to share with you the story of how you got your name.
Movement & Physical Play Activities for Kids
Measure the room to see how long it takes to get across it by using steps, skips and jumps etc.
Try to see if you can sculpt your body to look like every letter in the alphabet.
Try to make up a dance where you are opening up and then closing up your body. Move through the house in a pattern as you open up, close up, open up, close up..
Practice skipping.
Create an indoor obstacle course. Use objects around the house to create a course to
climb over and crawl under.
Use your body to act out emotions like happy, tired, frustrated, and excited without
using words.
Play freeze dance. Put on some music and dance. Pause the music periodically and when the music stops, everyone stop dancing.
Play freeze tag.
Blow up a balloon and try to bop it and keep it off the floor. Count how many times you can bop it without letting it touch the ground. Try to beat your best score.
Put on a favorite song and make up dance moves for the song.
Practice some of your favorite dance moves or make up some new ones.
Ask your family if you can put painter’s tape on the floor. Use it to practice walking a balance beam, or walking backwards in a straight line.
See how many sit-ups you can do.
See how many push-ups you can do.
Practice Crab Walking around the house.
Practice planking. Have a contest to see who can plank the longest.
Try using your whole arm to write the alphabet, one letter at a time, in the air very big. Now try a different body part. Can you do it with your foot? Your elbow?
Sock Basketball: Ball up a sock and throw it into a bucket/pail or bowl.
Pretend the floor is lava and try to get around the room without touching the lava.
Play red light green light: the leader calls out ”green light” and the players go, “yellow light” and the players go slow, “red light” and the players stop.
Games & Problem-Solving Activities for Kids
Play Pictionary: One person draws a picture, and the other person guesses what it is.
Play Simon Says. One person is “Simon” and gives a command. If they say “Simon Says” beforehand the other person does it, if they don’t say ”Simon Says” they don’t do it.
Play Hide & Go Seek: The seeker counts, while the other people hide. The seeker tries to find the people after they are done counting.
Matching Game: Cut up equal size pieces of paper and make 2 sets of cards with the same word or picture on them. Place all cards face down and flip over 2 at a time to try to make a match.
Play hot potato. Play music and pass around a small object. Pause music now and then. When the music stops, the person who is holding the object is out.
Play 20 Questions: The first person thinks of something and says whether it is a person, place or thing. The other people try to guess it by asking yes/no questions.
Create a treasure hunt with clues.
Play Charades: The first person tells the others what category it is and then they act it out without using words or making sounds. The other players guess.
Play I spy with my little eye.
Create a scavenger hunt for your family or sibling.
Invent your own game using household items.
Use recycled materials to build a tower or fort.
Play a board game or a card game.
Design your own scavenger hunt.
Do an alphabet scavenger hunt. Find things from all over the house for each letter in the alphabet.
Do a color scavenger hunt. Find objects around the house for each color in the rainbow. Can you find all the colors in every different room?
Do a shape scavenger hunt. Find objects around the house that are in different 2D and 3D shapes (circle, sphere, oval, cylinder, square, cube, rectangle etc.)
Kindness, Family & Connection Activities for Kids
Find a toy or book you don’t play with anymore that you might like to donate or give away to another child.
Make a card for someone.
Write three nice things about someone you live with and give it to them as a surprise.
Interview someone in your family about a memory or story from their childhood.
Call or text a family member to share a kid-friendly joke like: “How much does it cost a pirate to get their ears pierced?” Answer: “a buccaneer!”
Ask an adult what you can help out with around the house.
Make a card for someone in your family or neighborhood. Drop it off or mail it.
Draw a picture of a gift you would like to give someone.
Imagination & Pretend Play Activities
Use blankets and pillows to build a fort inside your house.
Put a small small toy in water and place it in the freezer. Take it out later to play with it.
Build something.
Go in your room and try to find a toy you haven’t played with in a long time and play with it.
Have a lip sync battle. Put on a song and pretend to sing it by lip syncing.
Pretend the floor is lava and try to get around the room without touching the lava.
Make up your own silly holiday and celebrate it.
Build a blanket fort.
Even More Screen-Free Activities for Kids
Do 10 jumping jacks every time someone says your name.
Build a blanket fort.
Make up your own silly holiday and celebrate it.
Interview someone in your family about a memory or story from their childhood.
Make a card for someone in your family or neighborhood. Drop it off or mail it.
Write three nice things about someone you live with and give it to them as a surprise.
Create your own board game using paper, cardboard, or recycled materials. Include instructions.
Make up a scavenger hunt for someone in your family. Leave clues!
Summer Break Schedule Example and Tips
During breaks from school, creating a simple, consistent routine can help children feel grounded and secure. Here's a look at the schedule I’ve been using with my own kids, along with a few ideas to help you build one that works for your family.
Daily Structure Tip:
Break the day into flexible blocks (morning, midday, afternoon)
Alternate between high-energy and calm activities
Include time for movement, creativity, reading, and rest
Make screen-free time predictable and inviting
Use visual schedules or timers for transitions
How to Get Your Free Printable
You can download the full Screen-Free Activity Jar resource by subscribing to my Free Resource Library. You’ll get access to this 20-page printable set, plus dozens of other resources to support social-emotional learning, creativity, and connection at home or in the classroom.
Share the Joy
If your children or students try these activities, I would love to see what they come up with. Please tag @wholechildcounseling on social media so I can celebrate their creativity with you. Let’s spread the word about screen-free fun that doesn’t cost a thing and nurtures the whole child.
