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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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 2nd Graders
Practice different parts of speech with your 2nd graders using this set of 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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Memory Matcher Interactive Game (International Foods Theme)
An interactive match-up activity exploring foods of different cultures.
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New Year Charades
Get your students up and moving with a fun game of New Year Charades!
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Around in Circles Active Game
An active game to use when reviewing any type of content with your students.
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Coin Toss Active Game
An active, whole group game to play when learning coin recognition and counting money.
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Hopping Through Hoops Active Game
An active game that allows students to review vocabulary words for any content area.
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Hidden Picture Puzzle Activity Worksheet
An activity worksheet paired with a poster where students search and find objects and characters.
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Easter Egg Mindful Coloring Sheet
Easter egg mindful coloring sheet for children to enjoy.
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Easy Origami Animals Worksheet and Step-By-Step Instructions for Kids
Make origami animals with your students with printable step-by-step instructions plus a 2D shapes worksheet for your math lesson planning.
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Dinosaur Mazes
A set of 6 fun mazes with a dinosaur theme.
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Pirate's Treasure – Maze Quest
A fun, pirate-themed maze for students to complete.
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Rainforest Maze
A fun, rainforest-themed maze for students to complete.
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Technology Maze
A fun, technology-themed maze for students to complete.
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Stegosaurus Mindful Coloring Sheet
A stegosaurus mindful coloring sheet.
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Rhino Mindful Coloring Sheet
A rhino mindful coloring sheet.
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Orangutan Coloring Sheet
A cute picture of a orangutan for students to color.
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Brain Break Activities with Instructions
Signs and posters with games to play with your class when they need a quick brain break!
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Brain Break Activity Cards
Give your students a quick brain break with this set of 19 whole-class brain break activity cards.
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If You're Something and You Know It Active Game
A whole class active game that encourages observation skills, focus, and creativity.
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Chicken Evolution Active Game
A whole class active game that encourages cognitive processing skills, physical activity, and social skills.
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Yes Let's! Active Game
A whole class active game encourages the development of listening skills, confidence, and leadership.
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The Team Freeze Frame Active Game
A fun active game that encourages the development of listening skills, creativity, spontaneity, and teamwork.
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Snake Sheds Its Skin Active Game
Take a quick break from learning and encourage teamwork with this fun whole class game.
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Shazzam! Active Game
A whole class active game that encourages teamwork.
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Mirror, Mirror Active Game
A fun active game that can be played by the whole class in pairs.
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Human Knot Active Game
A fun active game for small groups that encourages teamwork.
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Fruit Salad Active Game
A whole class or large group active game that encourages listening skills.
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Follow the Leader Active Game
A whole class active game that encourages the development of leadership, teamwork, movement, and coordination.
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Capture the Treasure Active Game
A whole class game that encourages focus and creativity.
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What Are You Doing? Active Game
A whole class active game that encourages communication skills.