Organizing your own PLAYATHON event is easy. All you need is a cause to support, a location for your PLAYATHON, activities, and a little imagination to make a difference while having fun. You can use games and toys that you already own, or any age appropriate fun play activities. Keep in mind that each game/activity should allow for 15 minutes of play.

To help make it easier, we have created customizable templates to assist you in promoting your PLAYATHON, including flyers, pledge sheets, etc. You can download those documents at no cost right from this site. As an added convenience, we have developed PLAYATHON fundraising kits which are available for purchase. The kits come with age specific games and activities as well as a CD with the customizable templates for promotion. Information about the kits and supplemental products for larger numbers of participants is also available on this site.

There are many ways to host a PLAYATHON, depending on the number of participants. A typical PLAYATHON is about two hours long, which includes six 15-minute play periods, with five minutes in between each period for cleaning up and moving on to the next game or activity.

Set Up 

• Set up different games, toys and activities at each age specific play area. You can choose to post a sign with the name of the activity and number the area. Make sure the activities you select are appropriate for 15 minute play periods. 

• Divide participants by age, then break up into small groups (4 maximum) and provide them with a name tag that indicates their group. Each group then takes its place at the appropriate play area and moves together throughout the PLAYATHON.

Supervise 

• For younger participants, each group should be supervised by an adult who can assist with the rules of each game and help them move from activity to activity. Easy to read instructions should be posted for each activity.

Play! 

• At the sound of the bell, participants begin to play. After 15 minutes, the timekeeper sounds a bell. 

• Each group now has five minutes to clean up for the next group of players, and to move on to their next activity. 

• At the end of the five minutes, the bell sounds again for another play period to begin.

When all six play periods are complete, the event is over, and everyone receives a certificate of participation that verifies the number of activities and minutes they played.

NOTE: If you are using PLAY-DOH® compound please keep in mind, that for hygiene purposes it should not be reused.

Here are just two PLAYATHON Set-Up Examples: