Activities for ages 4-7

Here you’ll find our challenges for kids to try themselves, and some amazing activities to download and try any time.

We produced these activities to keep girls of Rainbow age (4-7 years old) entertained and challenged during the Covid-19 pandemic. But they’re still available for your little ones to explore however they want. They aren’t part of the Girlguiding programme, but they’re inspired by our interest badges. We hope they inspire children to try new things!  

Activities for connecting with the outdoors

Fresh air fun

How do you get outside? Outside can be anything, it can be your local park, your garden, a balcony or even a massive window that lets you look outside. 

Close your eyes and think about what your favourite things to do outside are. Maybe you like to play with friends, splash in water, read a book or even do a bit of gardening. 

We want to challenge you to try something new outside. Think about what you like to do outside, now think about something that’s the opposite. Your challenge is to do that instead. So, if you enjoy being active and running around, why not try a relaxing outdoor activity? Or if you like chilling in your outside space, how about going on an adventure instead? 

Download the Shapes into nature activity sheet 

At Girlguiding we love the outdoors and we’ve put together some ideas of things you could do in your outdoor space. Check them out and pick 1 (or more) to try! 

• Where do you normally eat your breakfast? We bet it’s inside! Why not take it outdoors and have a breakfast picnic with all your family? 
• Did you know you could do all your Rainbow interest badges outdoors if you wanted? The Agility and Nature badge work really well outdoors. But you could challenge yourself to do your Drawing or Construction badge outdoors. 
• Want to be creative outdoors? Try out our Shapes into nature activity sheet to create some amazing outdoor art. If you can’t print it off, grab a blank piece of paper, draw your own animal and cut it out.  
• Don’t have much outdoor space? That’s fine, think about how you could bring the outdoors indoors instead. Plant some seeds and watch them grow, or cover your room in pictures of flowers. 
• Can’t get outdoors? Ask an adult to help you find a virtual nature walk or use a maps app to visit famous outdoor places like the Grand Canyon. Where will the outdoors take you? 
• Does your unit love adventure? Why not check out our Adventure for girls pages. This will help you and your leader see everything that's on offer to you - from axe throwing to zorbing! 

Stargazing story time 

Look up to the sky! What do you see? Have you ever noticed that you see different things in the sky at different times of the day? 

We challenge you to discover what you can see at nighttime from your home. Whether that’s from your bedroom window or just outside your front door - it’s time to look up and appreciate our night sky. Have you ever heard of the word stargazing? This is to look up to the sky and see the stars. 

Each day, jot down or draw what you can see in the night sky. How many stars can you count? Are they in the same place as they were yesterday? You might see different things in the sky depending on where you live, and what the weather is that day. 

At the end of the month, print out our fun activity sheet to bring the stars into your home. Ask an adult to help you cut out the holes and shine a light (you could use a torch) at the paper to see a constellation of stars appear on your wall. A constellation is a group of stars that appears to form a pattern or picture. You could even try making your own constellation activity sheet! 

Hold your own evening of stargazing story fun for your household. Choose a story to read that’s all about the night sky, or why not make up your own together about a journey through the stars? 

Inspired to find out more about the night sky and space? We created this fun challenge with our friends at the Royal Astronomical Society. You can find lots of great things about stargazing with our extra information sheet, or about space and the night sky on their website. 

Rainbow adventures

Summer is a time for lots of outside fun at camps, festivals or parties.  

Try out some of these fun outdoor (or indoor) activities and have some amazing adventures: 

Get out and about 

• Set off on an adventure in your local area – make sure you take an adult with you. Look at a map before heading out and make a route with an adult, or put on your shoes and see where they take you! We’ve created an activity sheet to help you make your own local adventure map. Download the adventure map activity (PDF). 

Try it this way: unable to go outside? Why not have an adventure in your home, garden or even virtually! Choose a place you’d love to visit, and ask an adult to show you using online maps. 

Get hidden 

• Find out about animals who hide to protect themselves. You could make some camouflage or create the best den to hide in your home or garden to hide like the animals you’ve discovered. 
• Play a fun game of hide and seek with your friends and family too! 

Get creepy crawly 

• Go on a bug scavenger hunt. What creepy crawlies can you find outside? Can you find a different bug for each letter of the alphabet? If you’re missing any letters by the end, make up your own bug names and draw pictures of what you think they’d look like! 

Get interested 

• Inspired by all the fun things you’ve been doing outside? Why not check out the Nature interest badge

Activities for wellbeing

Happy me

What makes you happy? Is it spending time with your family or reading your favourite book? What about eating your favourite snack or playing fun games in your room? We want to make sure you’re looking after yourself, especially when things get a little tough. 

Your task is to create a happiness map – this will be something you can use to think about what you enjoy doing and reflect on the things you could do to check in with yourself. 

Download Doodle activity sheet 

So, let’s get started! Grab your favourite notepad or something to write or draw things on. Write the word happy in the middle. Think about the questions below and draw or write your answers around the page – you can have more than one answer to each question. 

• What makes me happy is…. 
• Something someone else does that makes me happy is… 
• I really enjoy doing…. 
• I think [name] would cheer me up the best. 

Now this is the most important thing to think about. 

• If I want to make myself feel better I can… 

There are lots of different things you could do to feel happy. Remember, what makes you happy might be different to someone else – we’re all unique! If you need some help with thinking of things you could do, look at our list below of things to try. 

• Doodling, colouring and drawing can let your mind wander free. Check out our doodling sheet to have a go yourself! You could print it off, ask an adult to copy the squiggles onto a page or use a drawing app on your computer or tablet to complete the doodling challenges. 
• Watch our How To Video: A big blue whale. It’s a really great story to listen along to and do the actions, to help you feel calmer. 
• Hold a one-person dance party. Play your favourite song and dance like no one’s watching. 
• Ask someone else what makes them happy and try it out. You might find something new that makes you happy too. 
• Hold a laughter challenge. Did you know that if you pretend to laugh you’ll probably end up really laughing? Try it out, perhaps on your own or with a friend. Will you get the giggles? 

Challenge other Rainbows to complete their happiness map too. You could then share them and find a way to spread happiness to everyone at once. 

Remember if you feel sad, that’s okay, its an emotion we all feel sometimes. You can talk to a trusted adult like your family, leader or teacher about it. They can help you! Make sure to speak to a trusted adult if you think something that’s making you sad isn’t right. 

Note to leader 

Girls have told us that they are feeling more lonely, more worried and more fed up. But they also told us they are doing the things that they can to take care of themselves and keep well. For example, keeping in touch with friends and family, playing games and enjoying the outdoors. This challenge is designed to help them understand what they can do to look after their wellbeing. 

If you receive any disclosures or have a concern for welfare, follow our safeguarding policy for guidance. If there's an immediate risk of harm, call the police and out-of-hours safeguarding team on 07508 032997. 

Supporting our friends 

Some people get treated unfairly based on who they are or what they look like. You might have heard about Black Lives Matter - this is a campaign for Black people to be treated fairly. You might be affected by this or something similar yourself, or want to help other people. 

A way to help people be treated fairly is to be an ally. An ally is a kind and supportive friend who sticks up for somebody who’s being treated unfairly. They listen really well and find out about how others feel. 

At Girlguiding we want to include everyone and want all communities to know we stand together. If you’re affected by any issues, you could share this with family and friends so they know how to support you better. 

There are lots of things you could do to listen, learn, question and discover how you could be an ally to someone. 

Here are some ideas:

• Send notes of positivity to your friends and family to show that you care. 
• Fundraise to support charities and organisations that are supporting the cause you want to help. 
• Use your voice to tell others about the things you care about. Why not write to your local MP to make sure your voice is heard! MPs are people in power who can help make change. We’ve made some top tips to help you. 
• Have a go at our Uncrumpled friend activity, which looks how we can be kind to everyone. 
• Ask an adult to help find child-friendly resources about the things you and your friends care about. For example, we have lots of activities here about Black Lives Matter for you to explore. 

Why not try? 

These activities, available to download and try at home, or use online, were designed to support the monthly challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here we explored making your voice heard by writing to your MP. Why not give it a go? 

Download the activity 

The Rainbow promise

Rainbows are all a part of a big guiding family and we want everyone to celebrate our amazing community together. 

Our promise is something that connects every member of Girlguiding across the world, no matter their language, culture or beliefs. It brings us all together - and is what makes guiding so special. Your guiding family is all around the world and members of a global group called the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). 

Explore 

Let’s explore what our promise means to us this. You can then either choose to make your promise for the first time or remake it in a new, challenging way! 

Our Rainbow promise is: I promise that I will do my best to think about my beliefs and to be kind and helpful. 

Use our activity sheet to help learn your promise. Colour in the words as you remember them, and use the back page to plan your dream promise party! 

Make 

What does the promise mean to you? Think about what you say in the promise and how you could do things this month to live your promise.   

For example, for 'be kind and helpful' - what could you do this month to be kind and helpful to your friends or family?  

Celebrate 

Think about how you could make or remake your promise. It could be together as a unit, sharing the experience with your family and friends at home or making plans for when you’re back meeting after the holidays.. 

• Already taken your promise? Why not challenge yourself to make your promise in a different way – perhaps using Makaton, in a different language or whilst doing something that pushes you out of your comfort zone.