Airport Activities for Kids: A Free Printable Activity Book From a Child Therapist

Waiting is hard for kids. It's hard for adults too, and an airport is mostly waiting.

You've made it through security. Everyone has their shoes back on. The board says your flight is delayed forty minutes, and somebody has already asked "how much longer?" three times.

A family vacation can be about making memories, and the traveling counts as vacation too. So I made a set of airport games for the waiting: an airport scavenger hunt and two other games to play together, out loud, in a crowded terminal.

Download Hannah's Airport Activity Book (free printable PDF)

I'm Hannah Ly, LMFT, a child therapist and play therapist in San Jose and Redwood City and the founder of Your Therapy Nook. These are the games I'd want in my own bag at the gate.

What's in the free airport activity book?

Three airport games for kids, nine printable pages, and nothing to bring but a pencil.

• Airport Find It cards (an airport scavenger hunt). Four cards, A through D, each with 24 things to spot in any airport: a moving walkway, a kid riding a suitcase, an emotional goodbye, a gate number that matches your age. It plays like airport bingo, except the goal is the whole card, not a line, because the whole card takes longer, and long is the point. The middle square is Ready for Take-Off. You cross it off once you're in the air.
• Destination Alphabet. One person calls a letter and everyone races to name a place that starts with it: a town, a state, a country, a continent. The letters are scrambled on purpose so nobody can plan ahead. There's a scorecard for the caller.
• Airport Tally Marks. Everyone picks one thing to count for the whole trip (people in hats, flight delay announcements, a family in matching shirts) and tallies it every time it shows up. Most marks by the time you land wins.

Why do these games work at the airport?

They're played together, they stretch to fill a long wait, and they use what's already around you.

They're played together. Every game in the book is built around noticing the same things at the same time and saying them out loud. That's connection, and a gate area is full of things to notice.

They're built for helping, not just winning. In Tally Marks, if you spot someone else's thing, you tell them so they get the mark. Destination Alphabet can be played in teams if your kids are at different ages, or if head-to-head would end in a fight. You are in this for the airport long game, after all.

They stretch. A whole Find It card can take a full layover. Tally Marks runs in the background all day, across every leg of the trip.

They won't make a three-hour delay fun. They will give your family something to do together inside it.

How do you use these travel games for kids?

Print them before you leave, then pull them out whenever the waiting starts: in the security line, at the gate, during a layover or a flight delay. Traveling with kids is mostly waiting, so plan for it.

• Print before you go. Cardstock holds up better in a backpack. You can also laminate the Find It cards and use dry erase markers, so one set lasts the whole trip.
• Bring a few copies of the cards. Every airport plays differently, so a new card for each leg keeps it fresh.
• Help younger kids pick a tally item that will actually happen. "People with suitcases" beats "a person in a giraffe costume."
• Save some for the part of the trip you didn't plan for: the delay, the switched flight, the canceled flight, the gate change, or the layover that grew in time.

There will probably still be screen time on this trip. Sometimes that's exactly what everyone needs, and that's okay.

Download Hannah's Airport Activity Book (free printable PDF)

Questions parents ask about airport games for kids

What can kids do at the airport while you wait?

Games that use what's already around you work best: a scavenger hunt card to fill, places to name from A to Z, one thing to count all trip long. They need only a pencil, and they work at the gate, in line, or on the plane.

What ages are these airport games for?

Younger kids can play Tally Marks, and Find It with a grown-up reading the squares out loud. Destination Alphabet works best for school-age kids, or in teams when siblings are different ages.

Is the airport activity book free?

Yes. It's a free nine-page printable PDF, with no email or sign-up needed. Download it here.

Can I reuse the Find It cards?

Yes. Laminate them and use a dry erase marker, or print a fresh card for each leg of the trip.

What if my child is anxious about flying?

Talk about the trip more than once before you go: what will happen, in what order, and who will be with them. Name the worry without trying to talk them out of it: "You're nervous about the plane being loud. That makes sense." Then give their hands something to do at the gate, and a scavenger hunt card is a good one. If the worry starts weeks before the trip, or shows up most days and not just around travel, that's worth a conversation with a child anxiety therapist.

When should you talk to a child therapist?

If waiting, transitions or changes in plans are a struggle in your family most days, not just on travel days, that's worth a conversation. Travel brings out big feelings in a lot of kids: new places, broken routines, long stretches of waiting with nowhere to go. Some meltdowns at the gate are just a tired kid in a loud room.

At Your Therapy Nook, that looks like child therapy in San Jose and Redwood City: play therapy for younger kids, where your child shows us what's hard without having to explain it, and parent coaching with you every four weeks, so what helps in session makes sense at home.

Schedule a Free 15-Minute Consultation and we can figure out together whether Your Therapy Nook is the right fit for your family.

About the Author: Hannah Ly, San Jose Child Therapist

Hannah Ly is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #129711) and the founder and clinical director of Your Therapy Nook, a boutique child and teen therapy practice with offices in San Jose and Redwood City, CA. She is a child therapist, play therapist, and teen therapist, trained in Synergetic Play Therapy and Brainspotting, with a long background in adoption and foster care. Hannah does every family's first call herself, and every therapist on the team practices the way she does. Every family gets child-led play therapy or teen therapy plus parent coaching every four weeks.