In the past, free time was the privilege of the wealthy, but today it is one of the main components of everyday life. Free time could be defined as the time that one has after fulfilling its everyday obligations. For adults, those obligations are mostly work-related, while for children the obligations are related to school and family. Well-organised and well-spent free time is the key factor in development of every individual. Children and the youth spend their free time in various ways. One of them is participating in extracurricular activities. Every school organises them according to their possibilities, as well as the interests of their pupils. Most of the schools offer a wide variety of extracurricular activities the pupils can benefit from. Through those activities pupils develop their social skills, fulfill their needs for entertainment and belonging, develop creativity, acquire knowledge in more interesting and easy way, and develop many other competences. The aim of this thesis is to present and describe the most common extracurricular activities organised in schools, and to emphasize their importance for child's growth and development.