20 fun games play with a flashlight
Flashlights are like magic in a child’s hand! Toys, nature, and everyday surroundings become new possibilities. A wall becomes a screen. A blanket becomes a camping tent. And the outdoors at night becomes a place for new and exciting activities.
With a flashlight, a dark room or yard can change from a scary space to a fun, inviting spot. There are so many flashlight games and activities your kids can play!
To start, make sure you get a flashlight that’s the right size for your child’s hands, with buttons that can be easily turned off and on. (This is a cool rechargeable one.) And remind your kids not to shine flashlights into each others’—or their pets’—eyes!
Note: Before playing any of these flashlight games, ensure that all players are aware of the boundaries in which the games are being played. Make sure that the area is also clear of any tripping hazards.
1. Flashlight Tag
A combination of tag and hide and seek, this game is so fun your kids will want to play it again and again!
Choose one person to be it (the seeker) and the other players are the hiders. The seeker must cover their eyes and count to 50 while the other players find hiding spots. When the seeker has finished counting, they must then seek out the other players with a flashlight in hand. If a player is caught in the beam of the flashlight, they must return to home base. Once all players have been caught, the game begins again with the last person caught taking on the role of the seeker in the next round.
2. Shadow Drawing
Tape a long piece of paper onto a wall using painter’s tape (which can be peeled off without damaging your walls!). Turn off the lights so the room is dark, and have one person hold a flashlight or set it up on a table or floor facing the piece of paper—or “screen.”
Place a favourite toy or other item on the floor or on a table in the beam of light. Your child can then trace around the shadow that has appeared on the wall. To make it even more fun, hold the flashlight far away, up close, or over the object to make it different sizes for tracing.
3. Lily Pad Leap
Play this game in a dimly lit or dark room and have your kids prepare to be jumping frogs. Explain to them that you’ll shine a light in one spot and they then have to hop quickly like a frog to the spot. Change up the spot every time and they can jump all over the “pond!” Your kids can then take turns being the flashlight leader.
4. Flashlight freeze dance
Turn up the music and get ready to groove freeze!
Choose one player to hold a flashlight and be the leader. The leader turns their back to the rest of the players, who must dance their silliest dances until the music stops. As soon as it stops the leader must quickly turn around and turn on their light. Whoever is in the beam of their light is out. The game continues until every player is out.
Make sure the players know the boundaries of where they can dance to ensure the leader can “catch” them with their beam!
5. Flashlight Red Light, Green Light
Pick up a roll of red cellophane from your local dollar or craft store and make a red light by taping a cut-out cellophane circle over the top of a flashlight—or use an elastic band to keep it attached.
Choose one player to be the traffic signal or leader. The leader stands at one end of the playing area with their back to the rest of the players, who stand at the far end of the area. The leader must keep their flashlight off and call “green light!” The rest of the players then move towards the leader. After a few seconds, the leader must turn around quickly, turn on their flashlight, and yell “red light!” All players then have to freeze on the spot. If anyone is still moving, that player has to return to the start line.
6. Flashlight Rescue Mission
Hide some of your kids’ favourite toys around their bedroom or your living room and then turn off the lights. Let your kids know that their toys are “lost in the dark” and that they need to rescue them! With a flashlight in hand, have your kids search to “rescue” each toy and return it home.
Put a twist on the game by playing outdoors at night or seeing if your kids can rescue all the toys before a timer goes off!
7. Shadow Puppets
Have your child use their hands to create birds, dogs, or monsters on the wall, or print out cardstock figures and tape them to popsicle sticks to put on a theatre show. Here are some great ideas for different hand puppets your kids can make:
8. Silver Egg Hunt
Aluminum foil is a perfect item to be discovered with a flashlight in the dark! Roll or scrunch up small balls of foil and, while it’s still light outside, hide them throughout your yard behind trees, under or on lawn chairs, on patio stairs, etc. (Just not in prickly bushes!) When it gets dark, give your kids flashlights and have them hunt for the silvery eggs. Kids can play as a group trying to find them all or they can play as competitors to see who finds the most.
9. Cozy Story Fort
Line up four chairs and place a large bedsheet over them to make a cozy reading nook for your child to snuggle up in with a favourite book or two. They can use their flashlights to read or you can snuggle with them and have them use the flashlight to point at specific words. If you’re looking for some books your child might like, check out this list or this one.
10. Flashlight Rainbow Room
Cover the top of your child’s flashlight with clear tape or a piece of plastic food wrap taped down at the sides. Have your child use markers to draw lines of multiple colours. (Permanent markers work best, but if you don’t love the idea of your kid using permanent ones, use regular washable ones instead!) Turn off the lights and have your kids shine the rainbows they’ve made onto walls, the ceiling, and the floor.
11. Flashlight Follow the Leader
Choose one person to be the leader and give all the players flashlights. The leader then makes actions on the walls, ceiling, or floor that the other kids must copy. For example, if the leader moves their flashlight in a large circle, the other players must do the same.
Other actions they can make? Wave the flashlight from side to side across the ceiling. Make a letter V on the wall. Jump from side to side while keeping the flashlight on the ceiling. Make large arm circles with their right arm, then small circles with their left. There are so many fun options!
12. Simon/Simone The Flashlight Says
Give every child a flashlight and pick one child to be the leader. The leader then calls out commands such as, “Simon says shine your flashlight on the ceiling,” “Simon says shine your flashlight on your toes,” or “Simon says make circles on the wall with your light.”
If the leader gives a command without saying Simon Says beforehand (such as “Shine your light on your hand”) and a child does the action, they’re out of the game. Or they have to do a task such as five jumping jacks before they return to the game.
13. I Spy With My Little Light
Choose one person to be the leader and give the rest of the players a flashlight. The leader must then give a clue about an object in the room or yard where everyone’s playing. For example: “I spy with my little eye something that is red.” The other players must then move around the area and find a red object by pointing the light from their flashlights on it. Clues could include colours, shapes, or objects that start with a certain letter or rhyme with a certain word.
For older kids, clues could include objects that are the opposite of a word (such as something that is the opposite of heavy, the opposite of tiny, the opposite of up, etc.). You could have them spy something that is a certain number of letters or has two vowels in its name.
14. Flashlight Limbo
How low can you go? Have two players stand apart from each other each holding a flashlight. When they turn on their lights—voilà, a limbo bar!
Turn on your child’s favourite music and have each player walk bent over backwards, feet first without touching the beam of light. After each player makes it under the beam, the flashlight holders must then shine their lights at a lower level. The final child to make it under the lowest level wins!
15. Firefly Chase
Can you find the flickering firefly in the dark of night? Set up the boundaries for the game and choose one person to be the firefly. Have the other players cover their eyes and count to 30 while the firefly finds a hiding spot. The firefly holds a flashlight, moves around the play area, and every 30 seconds or so must flash their light once or twice. If a seeker tags them, they become the firefly for the next round.
16. Ghost in the Graveyard
The name of the game might sound spooky but it’s really all about fun! Each player has a flashlight, and one is chosen to be the ghost. First, pick a home base. Then, with their eyes closed, flashlights off, and backs turned to the ghost, the rest of the players count loudly to 30 while the ghost runs and hides. The players then turn on their flashlights and search for the ghost. If a player spots the ghost, they yell, “Ghost in the graveyard!” The ghost and the rest of the players must then run back to home base. If the ghost manages to tag another player before they reach home base, they then become the ghost for the next round.
17. Rainbow Tree Dance
Gather up some old CDs and use them as singles or glue them back to back. Hang several of them with clear wire or fishing line to branches of trees at different heights.
When it gets dark outside, have each person shine their flashlights on the tree and watch as the CDs reflect shiny rainbow colours. Turn on some music and have the kids dance in their own disco forest. Show them how the colours change as they move their flashlights up and down and side to side, or as the CDs blow in the wind.
18. Flashlight Colouring Surprise
First, have kids draw or colour pictures on white paper. Then take turns magically transferring their images! Do this by taping the white paper onto a piece of construction paper—with the drawings facing the construction paper. Have your child hold the flashlight behind the white page and watch as the images from the page magically appear on the piece of construction paper.
19. Morse Code Motion!
Choose one person to be the leader. This child will use a flashlight and send signals to the other players. Let the players know that when the leader flashes their light in certain ways, they have to do different actions.
For example: Two short flashes mean the players have to do three jumping jacks. Three long flashes mean players have to hop like a frog until the leader calls “stop!” Two long flashes followed by two short flashes could mean that the players have to waddle like a penguin.
There are endless possibilities! You can write out the actions on a poster for them to follow until they learn the signals and switch them up as the game moves along.
20. Flashlight Chase
Have one person hold a flashlight and move it quickly on the ground around a room or outdoor space. The rules are simple: Have your kids run or walk to chase that beam and when the leader turns it off, whoever is closest to where the beam was wins.
To make it simpler for toddlers, just have them chase the beam of light!
