Indoor Recess Activities Teaching Resources
Do you need indoor recess ideas to take the stress out of those days when rain or snow keep the kids indoors at playtime? This teacher-created collection of activities, games and more is ready to save the (rainy) day!
From movement games that give students a way to get their wiggles out in small indoor spaces to coloring pages, drawing challenges and partner activities, there's something for every grade level in elementary and middle school and an option to fit every kind of student!
And we didn't stop there! Read on for some indoor recess ideas from our teacher team!
Our Favorite Indoor Recess Ideas for Teachers
The wind is howling. The rain is falling. And you have a bunch of kids who are bouncing of the walls. What do you do when you've got recess duty, and the kids are stuck indoors?
Explore this collection of activities, and peruse this list from our teacher team, of course!
- Create a Board Game Center — Ask classroom parents, friends and neighbors if they have extra board games that they no longer use to build a board game center in your classroom where students can turn on thosedays when it's too cold or wet to go out for recess. The advantage of filling your center with used board games is that you lose a lot less when pieces go missing! One member of our teacher team suggests putting all game pieces in large zipper plastic bags so when board game boxes start to fall apart it's easier to keep all those small pieces together.
- Build a Coloring Station — Print out coloring pages, add some crayons, and you have a quiet space for the kids who like to spend their recess quietly reflecting. Did we mention coloring is meditative for many kids?
- Create a Tournament — Are you a chess or checkers player? If the weather indicates that recess will be indoors for a while, why not teach your students to play and issue a tournament challenge to pass the time day after day?
- Turn to YouTube — Find a favorite (educational) show on YouTube that students can watch together. There are some great science-based shows that even we enjoy watching as teachers!
- Play Trash-Ket Ball. Have students ball up pieces of paper for a trivia game of trash-ket ball. Check our site for trivia questions you can use, or create your own. Each time a student answers a trivia question correctly, they get to attempt to make a basket in your classroom trash can.
- Create a Giant Rock, Paper, Scissors Game. Set students up in a circle, and select one student to go around the circle and play each student. When they lose, they take the seat of whoever beat them. that person continues playing around the circle until they lose. The first person back to their seat wins the game.
- Create a Class Drum Circle. Want to incorporate some movement into the day? Aside from the movement games in this collection, we suggest a class drum circle using their desks!
- Make Indoor Recess Bags. There's something extra exciting about bringing a toy from home, so why not lean into that excitement for indoor recess? Send parents a note asking them to create small plastic zipper bags with (quiet) toys that students are allowed to bring to school and store in their desk or cubbies to play with on indoor recess days.
- Set Up STEM Stations. Give your students a chance to stretch their STEM muscles with engineering challenges on the days they can't head to the playground.
- Indoor Snowball Fight. Throwing things in the classroom will never not excite kids. Roll up socks or pieces of paper for a simple snowball fight that won't make (too much of) a mess.
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How to Make an Origami Bunny Rabbit: Step-By-Step Instructions for Kids
Teach students how to make an origami bunny with printable step-by-step instructions for kids perfect for a classroom spring or Easter activity.
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Groundhog Day Paper Bag Puppet Template
Download a printable Groundhog paper bag puppet template for kids — the perfect kindergarten or 1st grade craft for Groundhog Day!
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30 Mindful Drawing Tasks — Meditation Drawing for Kids
30 mindfulness drawing tasks to promote calm in your classroom.
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3D Christmas Ornaments Printable - STEM Challenge
Challenge your students to make three-dimensional paper Christmas ornaments with a STEM challenge.
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Christmas STEM - Tallest Tree Challenge
Experience hands-on STEM concepts with your students with this Christmas Tree Building STEM project.
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Christmas Brain Break — Spot the Difference Interactive
Put on your Christmas goggles and spot the difference between Christmas scenes with an exciting Spot the Difference Christmas Game!
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Paper Ornaments - Christmas Templates
Get crafty and make your own paper Christmas ornaments with eight printable templates.
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Christmas STEM Challenge Cards - STEM Activities for Elementary
A set of 12 Christmas STEM activity cards for your students to enjoy during the holiday season.
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Christmas Corner Bookmark Templates
Craft a batch of Christmas bookmarks with our printable corner bookmark templates.
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Pin the Nose on Rudolph - Classroom Party Game
Spice up your Christmas festivities with a fun game of Pin the Nose on Rudolph.
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Winter Words Headbands Game
Introduce winter vocabulary words with our picture and word card headband game.
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Zoo Trip - Coding Robot Mat
Implement coding for kids with coding robots and a printable coding robot map activity.
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Whole-Class Coloring Sheet - Christmas Tree
Build a classroom Christmas tree with a giant coloring sheet!
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Fall Bingo Game
Celebrate and review the symbols of fall with a fun Bingo game.
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Catch the Ball - Theater Improvisation Game
Don’t drop the imaginative ball with this warm-up game for students.
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Add to the Scene - Theater Improvisation Game
An active warm-up game that every student can participate in!
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The Oregon Trail Board Game
Engage and excite your students to learn about traveling on the Oregon Trail with an eventful board game!
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Would You Rather? 100th Day of School
Engage your students in thought-provoking discussions with this set of 27 random question cards that involve the number 100.
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Would You Rather? - Winter Wonder!
Use 23 seasonally-inspired question prompts to engage your students in winter-wonderful discussions.
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New Year, New Fun! Activity Sheet
Keep students' minds and hands busy during your mid-school-year lull with four fun activities on one handy worksheet!
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Winter Fun - Picture Dominoes
Build a seasonally-inspired vocabulary with this set of 28 winter picture dominoes.
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Pangolin Mindful Coloring Sheet
A pangolin mindful coloring sheet.
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Cockatoo Mindful Coloring Sheet
A cockatoo mindful coloring sheet.
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Ready, Set, Brainstorm! - Board Game
A board game to practice brainstorming using mind maps, Venn diagrams, and cause and effect charts.
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Origami Box Step-By-Step Instructions
A visual instruction page to use when creating an origami box.
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Spot the Difference
A fun game for students to try and find the differences between two pictures.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets for 6th Graders
Practice different parts of speech with your 6th graders using this set of 10 ad-lib style stories.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets for 4th Grade
Practice different parts of speech with your 4th graders using this set of 10 ad-lib style stories.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets for 5th Grade
Practice different parts of speech with your 5th graders using this set of 10 ad-lib style stories.
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Comical Chronicle 3rd Grade Part of Speech Worksheets
Get your 3rd graders excited about parts of speech with this worksheet filled with 10 ad-lib style stories.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets for 1st Graders
Practice different parts of speech with your 1st graders using this set of 10 ad-lib style stories.
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Disappearing Snowman (Hangman Alternative)
An interactive word guessing game.