Screen-free plane activities for kids ages 4 to 12
A tray table is about the size of a sheet of paper, there is no floor to drop things onto that you can reach, and the person in front of you will recline at some point. Those three constraints decide almost everything about what works on a plane, and they are different enough from a car that a car kit does not transfer.
Here is what does.
The constraints, briefly
Worth understanding before the packing list, because they explain every choice in it.
- The surface is tiny and it moves. Anything wider than a sheet of paper does not fit. Anything that needs two hands plus a stable surface does not work.
- Nothing dropped is recoverable. Small pieces are gone the moment they leave the tray. Not inconvenient. Gone, for the duration.
- The light is poor and gets worse. Cabin lights go down on long flights. Fine detail becomes unusable.
- Your neighbor is very close. Anything noisy, anything with an elbow-heavy motion, anything that smells.
- The hardest hour is not the first. It is the last one, plus the descent, when ears hurt and everyone is finished.
What to pack
Printed sheets, one per activity, in a flat folder. Six to eight of them. Paper is the ideal plane material: flat, light, silent, replaceable, and it does not matter if it gets crumpled. A folder keeps them from bending in the seat pocket.
A clipboard or a hardback book. Tray tables have a lip and a seam, and writing across a seam is annoying enough to end an activity. A firm surface fixes it.
Colored pencils in a flat zip case. Six or eight, not twenty-four. Pots roll, cases do not. Pencils rather than markers, nothing that can mark a seat.
A sticker sheet, but only the big ones. Large stickers are excellent on a plane; small ones are a hundred tiny objects waiting to be dropped.
A short chapter book or a comic, for any child who reads. This is the highest-value item per gram on the entire list.
One thing they have not seen before. Held back, unmentioned, and produced in the last hour. This single item does more work than everything else combined.
What to leave at home
- Scissors and anything requiring cutting. They may not clear security, and the offcuts are unmanageable in a seat.
- Anything with more than about ten pieces. Card games, small figures, magnetic sets. One turbulence event and they are under row 14.
- Modeling clay and putty. It ends up in the seat fabric.
- Anything that makes a sound. This is not really about you.
- A full activity book. Too heavy, too big for the tray, and children flick through books rather than doing them. Loose sheets get done.
- Anything that needs an adult to explain it. You will be wedged in a middle seat holding a drink.
By age
4 to 6. Four or five sheets, not eight. Big-shape coloring pages, simple dot-to-dots, large stickers, a spot-the-difference. Expect ten to fifteen minutes per activity and pack accordingly. Bring one soft familiar object for sleeping.
7 to 9. The full folder. Mazes, word searches, dot-to-dots, drawing prompts, spot-the-difference. This age gets the most out of a plane kit and will use every sheet.
10 to 12. Fewer sheets, more resistance. A harder sudoku, a crossword, a logic puzzle, and blank paper, which older children use more than any prepared activity. A book matters more than the sheets at this age.
The order to hand things out
Same principle as a printable kit for long car trips: one at a time, never the whole folder.
A rough sequence that maps onto how a flight actually goes:
- Boarding and taxi. Nothing. There is enough happening.
- First hour. The easiest sheet. Energy is high and concentration is not.
- Middle stretch. The longest activity: a word search or a detailed maze. This is the best hour of the flight and worth spending well.
- After the meal. A break. Looking out of the window counts as an activity and is underrated.
- Last hour. The thing they have not seen before.
- Descent. Nothing again. Ears hurt, and something to chew or drink is more use than any page.
The blank sheet
Pack more blank paper than you think you need.
Across every age group, the sheet with nothing on it gets used most. Drawing the plane, drawing the person in 22C, inventing a game with a grid, writing a list of everything they are going to do when you land. It requires no instructions, works in bad light, and does not run out.
Print it before you go
Print the night before, not the morning of. Airport printers do not exist, hotel printers exist but are a bad hour of your life, and the whole kit takes four minutes to produce at home.
Our free printable activities cover most of the list: coloring pages, mazes, word searches, spot the difference, kids’ sudoku, and writing practice, in US Letter and A4, at full size with nothing cut off.
Common questions
What can kids do on a plane without screens?
Printed activity sheets on a clipboard work best: coloring pages, mazes, word searches, dot-to-dots, spot-the-difference, large stickers, a book, and plenty of blank paper. Everything should fit on a tray table and survive being handled in poor light.
What should I not bring on a flight with kids?
Anything with small pieces, anything noisy, scissors or cutting activities, modeling clay, and full activity books. Small items dropped on a plane cannot be retrieved.
How do I get through the last hour of a flight with a child?
Hold one unseen activity back specifically for it, and expect the descent itself to be a write-off, and something to chew or drink helps more than any activity once ears start hurting.
Activity books made to be finished
Colouring pages, puzzles, fun facts, activities and creative challenges for kids!
Browse the books→Keep reading
Come along for the day-to-day.
Print the folder here. Our books are sized for a carry-on if you would rather not.
Our activity books put all of this in one place. See the books →