Indoor recess can create a long day for teachers and students. Everyone needs a little time to work out their wiggles and take a break from the formalities of the classroom. Instead of turning on a movie, give students some fun activities that will get them moving, thinking, and learning.
Check out these easy and fun ways to let kids release their pent-up energy in a controlled way and play educational games. These indoor recess activities can also be adapted for classroom holiday parties to keep students engaged and focused.
1. Dance Videos
Need I say more? One of the perks of teaching in the 21st century is the abundance of kid-friendly technology. Hook up your computer and smart board and grove your way through recess. Go Noodle is a free resource for teachers!
2. Board Games
Hit up your local garage sales for used board games to keep on hand. Keep in mind that your students will have limited time to play, so time-sensitive games like Monopoly may cause some frustration.
Train your students to keep game pieces together and choose games that do not contain noise makers. Also, limit players for each game from 2 to 6 to prevent crowding.
Game suggestions:
Connect Four
Candy Land
Go Fish cards
Large puzzles
Uno
Battleship
Jumanji
Apples to Apples Jr.
Chess/Checkers board
Scrabble
Legos (A sign-up list may be required for this popular activity)
3. “Paper Chase” Measurement Activity
“Paper Chase” is a ten-minute indoor recess activity that combines movement with a learning activity. Teams of students measure lengths of paper hidden around the classroom; the group with the longest line is the winner.
Download your free instructions for grades 3–6 here.
Materials:
Scrap paper
Ruler
Yardstick/Meter stick
How to play:
- In advance, cut up paper into strips of equal width but with varying lengths, from 2″ (5 cm) to 18″ (45.5 cm) or longer if you have paper of longer lengths.
- Hide the paper lengths around the room.
- Divide students into three or four groups.
- Explain that you have hidden lots of paper strips around the room and that some are short and some are long.
- Allow 3 minutes for groups to find as many strips as possible.
- Designate an area for each group to lay out their strips end to end.
- Measure the lines of the strips. The group with the longest line is the winner.
4. Heads-up 7 Up
This is an old school indoor game quiet enough to keep your students under control while still having fun.
How to play:
- Select a small group of students (5 or so) to stand in the back of the classroom.
- The rest of the class puts their heads down on their desks with their thumbs up. (no peeking)
- The selected group of students walks through the classroom and each chooses one person. They gently touch the students’ thumbs and quietly return to the back of the classroom.
- When each person has touched a student’s thumbs, tell the rest of the class they can sit up.
- Students whose thumbs were touched must guess which of the students selected picked them. If they get it correct, they switch places and get to choose for the next round.
5. Simple Arts, Crafts, and Coloring
No matter how old your students get, some of them will still love art projects and coloring. You don’t need to drag out all your art supplies for students to enjoy themselves. Scrap paper, dollar store coloring books, recycled magazines and seasonal puzzles and worksheets are great to keep in your rainy day art bin.
If students need inspiration, suggest making a colorful collage:
In this activity, students can work together and cut and paste warm and cool colored pictures from magazines. Here’s a free printable from How to Teach Art to Children.
6. Dice Game Sixes
This simple numbers game will surprise you. My students loved playing this game and didn’t even realize they were practicing their number fluency.
Materials:
One dice per group
Paper and pencils
How to play:
- Group students into groups of four or six with one dice. (or vice versa to match above; either is correct)
- Each person in the group rolls once, trying to get a six.
- The first person to roll a six takes the paper and pencil and begins to write the numbers 1–50 (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.).
- The rest of the group continues rolling to try and get a six.
- The next person to roll a six takes the pencil and paper and continues where the first person stopped writing the numbers to 50. The person who was writing gets to roll the dice again.
- The person who writes the number 50 is the winner. (Even if someone else wrote the numbers 1–49, the person who writes the 50 wins.)
7. Indoor Recess: Invisible Recess
Practice dramatic play in your room with a classic game of charades.
- List on the white board the equipment found on the playground, such as monkey bars, jungle gym, swings, slide, tetherball, and skill balls. (You can include items not found at your school.)
- Ask students to imagine that they can play on any piece of playground equipment.
- Call on a student to pantomime something he or she would do on the equipment.
- The other students try to guess what activity is being portrayed.
- The student who guesses correctly gets to do the next pantomime.
8. Hot Potato
This is a simple activity you won’t need to prepare for, but one that students enjoy playing.
- Gather students into a seated circle.
- Select one student to be the caller. The student must close his or her eyes (you can blindfold the student to make it fair).
- Pass a beanbag or ball around or across the circle (gently thrown only).
- When the caller calls out “STOP,” the person holding the ball must leave the circle.
Best Practices for Indoor Recess: Keep your classroom calm and organized during indoor recess, with an organized list of rules and expectations for this time period.
- Rotate your game selections to keep students from getting bored.
- Set up sign-up sheets so everyone gets a turn with their top choice.
- Review rules such as noise level, inclusion, clean-up, and remaining at their chosen station.
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Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.
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