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Simple, Fun, Waiting Room Game for Kids

Children love this simple and fun drawing game! Paper golf is another fun on the go drawing based game you may enjoy.

sheep-duck, drawn by Mike and Emma

I’m always looking for games to keep kids entertained in waiting rooms, on airplanes, and during unexpected delays. This fun and simple drawing game is one Mike’s mom used with him as a kid, and it has become our favorite waiting room game for kids.

It’s simple! Take a sheet of paper and a pen/crayon/marker. Fold it in half. Without letting the other person see, draw half of something, like this:

simple drawing game for kids

Extend the lines slightly past the fold, and pass the paper to the other player, with the side you extended the lines onto facing up. Their job is to extend those lines into something of their own choosing, like this:
sheep drawing with mystery legs

And so, you get the entertaining sheep-duck featured at the top of this post! Here are a few other favorite creations:

chicken-cow drawing

Did you ever see a chicken cow?

goat clown drawing

How about a goat clown? Or an airplane blimp?

airplane blimp drawing

What are your favorite ways to entertain kids when they have to sit and wait?

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

26 thoughts on “Simple, Fun, Waiting Room Game for Kids”

  1. That’s a fun game. We sometimes do simple mazes that I draw for Logan. We were there right before Christmas so we did Santa to the house.. really simple sketches. older kids could even draw them and trade to solve.

  2. I LOVE this idea! Our favorite in-line game is face making: I do things like smirk, wink or snarl and see if the kids can replicate them. Once they learn to wink, we play “sneak a wink” – I try to wink at one person without the others seeing and then they try to do the same etc. These are my favorite because they giggle a lot but don’t talk because their face is busy. I also love to hand out gum and try to teach them to blow bubbles. It takes a while since you have to dissolve the sugars in the gum so I love it for longer waits. Once the older ones can blow bubbles, they teach the younger ones while you read a magazine1

  3. That looks like fun! We will have to give it a try. I always keep a few crayons in my purse for emergencies. My daughter likes to make up and tell her own stories to pass the time. Or we play the Alphabet game where you pick a category and go through alphabet trying to think of things that start with each of the letters (i.e. Animals — Ape, Bear, Cat …)

  4. What a fun and engaging game! I must try this with the kids – they will love it. And I won’t even wait for waiting room situations! Thanks, MaryAnne!

  5. How neat! Our favorite is a “guessing game” where the objective is to ask questions to figure out what the other person is thinking of.

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