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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Marvin Measurement's Treasure Box - Whole Class Game
A whole class game that consolidates your students' knowledge of measurement concepts - in a fun way!
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Pack of Fun - Quick Fitness Games
14 quick, easy, and fun fitness activities for all ages.
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Cooperation Puzzles - Team-Building Activity
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a tangram-style team-building activity.
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Basketball Memory Game
Discover the game of basketball and boost vocabulary skills with a fun basketball-themed Memory game.
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Friendship Coloring Pages
Bring your students together for Friendship Day with a fun pair of friendship coloring pages.
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Spring Riddles Bingo
Bring spring into your classroom with a fun game of Spring Riddle Bingo!
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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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Playdough STEM Challenge – Task Cards
Use this set of STEM challenge cards to foster critical thinking and problem-solving by building various items with playdough.
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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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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 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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Disappearing Snowman (Hangman Alternative)
An interactive word guessing game.
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Verb Charades Active Game
An active game that allows students to consolidate their understanding of action verbs.
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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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Dinosaur Mazes
A set of 6 fun mazes with a dinosaur theme.
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Tricks in 60 Ticks Task Cards
A collection of 10 active games that take 60 seconds each!
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Technology Maze
A fun, technology-themed maze for students to complete.
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Fruit Salad Active Game
A whole class or large group active game that encourages listening skills.
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STEM Challenge Cards - Upper Grades
A set of 20 STEM challenge cards for students in the upper grades.
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Pirate Ship Model Building Activity and Ship Template
Make indoor recess fun with a pirate ship model building activity and pirate history project idea.
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Underwater Escape! - Maze
A fun marine themed maze for students to complete when learning about oceans.
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Block Beasties – Task Cards
Create fabulous block beasties with this set of differentiated construction task cards.
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Corner Bookmark Craft Template
A template to use when creating a corner bookmark.
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How to Make Frog Origami — Step-By-Step Instructions for Kids
Download a printable guide to teach kids how to make origami frogs in the classroom when you're teaching about amphibians.
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Mindfulness Coloring Sheets - Portrait
A set of 3 mindfulness coloring sheets.
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Alphabet Coloring Pages - A to Z
Print a set of alphabet coloring pages to boost letter recognition skills.
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Christmas Calendar - Advent Coloring Pages
Count down the days until Christmas in your classroom with printable advent coloring pages.
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Veterans Day Worksheets - ABC Order
Support your students in reviewing the vocabulary and concepts surrounding the Veteran’s Day holiday with an ABC Order Worksheet.
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We the People - Constitution Day Coloring Page
Introduce your students to the Constitution and the Preamble with a fun Constitution Day coloring page.
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How to Draw a Firefighter — Directed Drawing for Kids
Encourage creativity and boost fine motor skills with a pair of "How to Draw a Firefighter" worksheets.
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Oink, Meow, Moo Icebreaker Game
Break the ice with your students on Day 1 with this silly movement game.
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Science Lab Dramatic Play Kit
Create a dramatic play center with this science lab decor kit.