Do you have your indoor recess games mapped out yet? It’s that time of year when rain and snow tend to keep kids inside during recess, eating up teachers’ prep periods and sending them scurrying for indoor activities to burn off all that energy their elementary (and middle) schoolers have been building up all morning!
Sure, you could play yet another movie, but maybe you want to try some indoor recess games instead? We’ve got you covered with games our teachers have tested to help your students get some of that much-needed physical activity when it’s too cold or wet for outdoor recess.
The teachers on the Teach Starter team have created a list of some of our favorite games to save your sanity when recess has been moved indoors! Read on for game ideas that will get kids up and moving, whether you’re able to use the gym or everyone is stuck in the classroom! Plus, we’ve included some other activities that will make the recess time pass quickly.
What Can You Do For Indoor Recess?
Let’s talk about recess for a second. When they’re outside and running around the playground, it feels easy to agree with the latest science that says kids need unstructured play. It helps kids develop confidence, increase focus, socialize and learn to better manage feelings and emotions. Not to mention, researchers have found some 44 percent of all school day activity for elementary students occurs during recess. Kids need this time to play and move!
On the other hand, when you have the whole grade in one room, it gets harder to provide a means to move. We know that structure is inevitable in inclement weather when you’ve got 100 kids in indoor recess.
The good news? That doesn’t mean play and the benefits it brings have to go out the window. One small study looked at the physical activity achieved when kids had a chance to use dance videos during indoor recess, for example, and they found the students spent as much as 68 percent of their recess being physically active.
There are plenty of indoor recess games and activities that can supply students with an active alternative that gives their brains and bodies a break from the rigor of traditional hind-end-in-seat academic learning.
What Do You Do for Indoor Recess Games?
There are plenty of fun and educational indoor recess games that will make kids forget about the bad weather outside and enjoy the company of their peers inside. From organized active games to slower-paced activities, students are sure to find a favorite among these ideas from our teacher team here at Teach Starter.
Fun Rainy Day Games to Get Kids Moving
Let’s look at some rainy day games that can be played inside — whether it’s in your classroom, the gymnasium, the cafeteria, or wherever your students have been slated to spend their indoor recess period. We’ve got options for kindergarten games and options that will occupy kids all the way up through middle school!
Use Your Whiteboard for Eraser Tag
Eraser tag is a fun game that gets your class moving. The premise is simple — one student writes the name of another student on the whiteboard. The student whose name has been added must get to the board, erase their name and catch the writer … before the writer makes runs around the classroom and back to the board!
Try Silent Ball
Do you need a break from the noise? This rainy day game is incredibly easy to play, and just as the name implies, it drops the classroom buzz down to blissful quiet.
Here’s how to play:
- Arrange students in a loose circle around the classroom.
- Provide a soft ball that they can throw around without anyone (or anything) being injured.
- Set your classroom timer, and let them know the goal is to throw the ball back and forth without saying a single word.
- If anyone talks or drops the ball, they’re out!
- The winners are the kids left standing when your timer goes off!
Break Out Some New Board Games
Don’t think you can possibly handle one more day with the kids battling over that Trouble popper? Freshen up the inside recess staple with some brand-new board games! Grab your manipulatives or mini erasers to use as your pieces, and the kids will have plenty to do.
Explore printable board games here!
Challenge Students to Make Their Own Game
Print a blank board game template, set your students off into groups, and challenge them to come up with their own board games! This will test their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and you might just end up with some new games for future days when it’s too rainy or snowy for students to spend their recess in the great outdoors.
Pull Out the Masking Tape
The simplest of classroom supplies can be surprisingly helpful when it’s too cols to send the kids outside for regular recess on the playground. Did you know you can create many fun indoor games using a simple roll of masking tape?
Use the tape to map out your own human tic-tac-toe board, hopscotch, four-square or shapes right on the floor of your classroom. Then, challenge students to follow the tape via crab walk, hopping, walking backward, etc.
Play Hot Potato — With a Twist
This is a good indoor recess game that involves ball play but can be done in smaller spaces like your own classroom. It’s a way to make students think and sneak in a little practice of possessive pronouns. The game is played by passing a potato (well, a ball!) around a circle BUT students have to introduce themselves by saying, “My name is …” and then before passing the ball along to another classmate in the circle, they must say “Your name is …” See where we’re going with the pronoun practice?
Set a timer (you can use your phone), and allow your kids to pass along that hot potato. The person who is holding the ball (potato) when the timer goes off is out.
Channel Improv With Zip Zap Zoom
Designed for the whole class to get involved, Zip Zap Zoom! is an indoor recess game that will help your students improve their concentration and listening skills. Set your students up in a circle, and start someone off with an imaginary “ball of energy,” then have that student hand it off to another student.
Students can change the direction of “energy” by saying “zip” for a clockwise direction,”‘zap” for a counterclockwise direction or “zoom” to send the energy across the circle.
You can increase the pace of the game for extra excitement, or set a 2-minute timer. The challenge is not to be the person who was last to get the handoff when the timer goes off.
Use Balloons for a Fun Classroom Version of Volleyball
Have an interested group of students sit in a circle on the floor and toss in a blown-up balloon. The game’s purpose is for the balloon to stay in the air and not touch the ground while the students are still seated.
Play Bob Ball
The name may be strange, but once your students get the hang of Bob Ball they’ll be begging for more! This game is perfect if you’ve got the gymnasium or cafeteria to yourselves for indoor recess.
Bob Ball gives students a chance to practice their throwing skills. It requires students to catch and throw the ball to increasingly large distances.
But watch out! Students need to be speedy in order not to get hit. (Get the full list of directions here in our ball-handling drill game cards).
Engage in Chicken Evolution
You can break students up into groups to play rock, paper, scissors while they while away their playtime indoors, but why not change things up?
The Chicken Evolution Game is a twist on the old Rochambeau favorite that turns your students from chickens into supreme beings — ahem, metaphorically that is! Designed to get kids active while also helping them build their social skills, it’s a perfect pick for indoor recess in small spaces.
Practice Quick-Thinking Games
Set your students up in groups, and assign each group a letter of the alphabet. Challenge the groups to come up with as many words that start with that letter as possible. You can keep the game general or make it more challenging by writing categories on your whiteboard such as “animals” or “something you would find in a school.”
They’ll practice vocabulary without realizing it … and have fun doing it!
Play Tunnel Ball
Tunnel Ball is the fastest of the ball drills in our ball drill cards, and it’s another game that can be done in indoor recess if you have a decent amount of space to get kids up and moving.
The front and end players are engaged in this game – the middle players just need to make sure they stay out of the way. Don’t worry, they’ll get their chance!
For an even more action-packed game, ask the students to zigzag their standing position. Each student can catch the ball and roll it between their legs to the next player!
Bring Out Kid-Friendly Card Games
If your students have the opportunity to spend their indoor recess in the library, take advantage of the table space with some classic card game stations. Try setting out one card game at each table and rotate amongst the pairs or groups to make sure everyone is learning and having fun! Here are some ideas:
- Old Maid
- Go Fish
- War
- Spoons (students can use pencils instead of cutlery)
- Memory
- Crazy 8s
- Uno
Change things up with fresh cards like these fun famous artist cards that can be used to play Memory, Go Fish, or Snap…while they’re getting an introduction to Mondrian, Degas, and their pals:
Play The Bean Game
This downloadable Bean Game contains a set of flashcards including pictures of a baked bean, broad bean, jelly bean, etc. Before playing, model each bean shape or movement and ask the students to copy and rehearse.
Ask the students to move carefully around a safe, open space and listen carefully for the “bean call.” As soon as they hear it, as the students to make the shape or movement of the corresponding bean as quickly as they can. As students become more familiar with the different bean actions, increase the game’s pace!
Play Musical Chairs
Musical chairs is a classic and will involve the entire group! Have kids set up chairs in a circle in the middle of the room (one less than the number of kids) and turn on some fun music. When the music stops, everyone has to sit in one of the chairs as quickly as possible. The student left without a chair will stand aside for the next round and so on.
Test Your Kids Against the Human Knot
Have students stand in a circle with each child holding hands with two different kids in the group (next to each other, across from each other, etc.). The intertwined hands will form a human “knot,” and they must try to undo the knot without breaking the chain (or letting go of each other’s hands).
For a more complex version of the Human Knot, have the group try the next round with their eyes closed or in complete silence!
Fish for Place Value
Ahem, no one ever said that we couldn’t use indoor recess to brush up on math skills! Fishing for place value is a fun, hands-on activity that’s perfect for younger kids. Don’t worry … there is no water involved. This simple game is engaging, effective, and easy to set up. To get started you need:
- Base-10 blocks
- Small strong magnets
- Mounting putty and string
- A suitable fishing rod (a ruler works!)
- Timer
To create this place value game, attach magnets to the Base-10 blocks. Next, attach a piece of string to your fishing rod and a strong magnet to the end of the string.
How to Play
- Encourage your students to fish for as many Base-10 blocks as possible in 1 minute.
- Ask students to use their knowledge of place value to calculate the total value of their catch!
More Fun Indoor Recess Activities
Playing games isn’t the only option to keep your students engaged while they’re stuck inside. From collaborative art activities to storytelling fun, here are some of our teacher team’s favorite indoor recess activities!
Have a Dance Break
As we shared earlier, researchers have found that dance videos can help give kids the physical activities of outdoor recess even when it’s too snowy or rainy to play outside. Not sure where to start? There are plenty of free options on YouTube!
Create a Work of Art Collaboratively
Create a group art masterpiece with this creative team-building indoor recess activity. After students have formed a seated circle, give each student a piece of paper with a crayon or marker. Start a timer for 30 seconds for them to draw whatever they want using as much or as little of the page as possible.
When the 30 seconds is up, have the students pass their drawing to the person on their right and restart the timer. Continue these steps until the art gets back to the original owner. Add these creations to a hallway bulletin board display for other students and teachers to admire!
Make Up One Word Stories
Get the entire class together to create a story, but it has to be done improv-style rather than written out! You can start things off with one word, and then assign a student to add the next word, going around in a circle as students spout off one word at a time. Set a timer, then assign one student to mark the words down on your whiteboard so the whole thing can be read off at the end. Giggles are sure to ensue!
Haul Out the Hula Hoops
Indoor recess time is a good time to encourage students to work together. Why not try this popular team-building activity with the simple hula hoop?
Have students stand in a circle around the classroom and hold hands.
The total is to pass a hula hoop around the circle without letting go of one another’s hands. Stuents have to move their bodies to keep the hula hoop moving!
Practice Rainbow Breathing
If your class has let their silliness get the best of them, and you want to calm them down at the end of indoor recess to refocus and get back to class, turn to the rainbow. Rainbow breathing, that is!
This colorful meditation activity helps students to find their center through gentle movement and breathing.
This rainbow breathing video will guide your students through the whole exercise in just 5 minutes!
Sing Action Songs
If students are in a classroom for indoor recess, play an action song on the Smart Board or computer. Lively tunes and narrated action words such as clap, shake, and stomp are sure to get some of that pent-up energy out!
Make Fortune Tellers
This is a perfect inside recess activity for pairs or small groups! Print out copies of our free fortune teller template, and have your students tell each other’s fortunes. Also called a cootie catcher in parts of the US, you can fill in the templates before printing with fun “fortunes,” make it more academic with concept review, or instruct your students to get creative. We’ve also created a few pre-made options for those busy days when you just don’t have time to make your own!
Browse all our Fortune Teller Templates here!
Color a Giant Coloring Page
This downloadable 8-page giant coloring page is perfect for creating a collaborative mural or interactive bulletin board. Lay this on the floor or communal table and let students’ creativity run wild!
This may take a few indoor recess sessions to complete fully.
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