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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.
The words Free Snakes & Ladders Game Board Template appear beneath an image of the board game template on a lavender & beige background. A lime green button has the text download now
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.
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