19 Indoor Recess Games to Energize Elementary Students

26

Can indoor recess be as fun as the real thing? When you’ve got well-organized, low-prep indoor recess games, it can be! Whether you need activities for rainy day recess or active brain breaks, you’ll find what you’re looking for with this list of indoor games for elementary students.

Whole-Class Indoor Recess Games

Some inside recess games are more fun when everyone’s playing together. These indoor recess games were made for the whole class to enjoy. 

Play Would You Rather with movement

Made for any elementary grade, this interactive game is just right for a rainy recess day. To make it more active, make a line down the middle of the room and have students stand on the side that represents their choice for each question. If you have the materials, student’s choices could even lead into the activity they picked. 

Would You Rather | Rainy Day Edition | Indoor Recess | Interactive Game
By Forever Teaching Littles
Grades: K-6th

Would you rather build a pillow fort or play with Legos when it’s raining? That’s just one fun choice that students can make in a special rainy day version of the popular Would You Rather talking game. As a slideshow featuring two picture choices progresses, students choose which activity they’d rather do when they can’t play outside.

Get their wiggles out with Four Corners

Outside recess may be canceled, but that outside energy is still there! Help kids burn off some steam with a fast-paced game of Four Corners. For an extra challenge, label each corner of the room with a number, and have the caller announce a math fact that results in that number (for example, Corner 1 is out when the caller announces “Ten minus nine!”).

Four Corners Indoor Recess Game
By Teacher Gameroom
Grades: K-5th

All you need for a game of Four Corners is this resource and the four corners in your classroom — and maybe a little space to run. After setting a digital ten-second clock, students dash to one of the four corners of the room, and the caller announces a number from one through four. All the students in the called corner are out, and the game continues until there is only one student left.

Exercise indoors with a group stretch break

When you don’t have space for elementary PE games, look for more subtly active activities that fit your classroom. A guided set of stretches makes for a great break between academic activities, a recess game, or part of an indoor routine when students can’t play outside.

Indoor Recess Scoot Game | Task Cards
By Almost Friday
Grades: K-3rd

A set of exercise task cards is sure to get your students’ hearts pumping and their behavior focused — even during rainy day schedules! This resource comes with 24 Scoot game cards, each of which goes on a desk in the classroom. Students rotate through the stations and perform simple exercises, including planks, push-ups, toe touches, and dance moves!

Group and Individual Indoor Recess Games

Sometimes you just need indoor recess games for elementary students to play by themselves, in pairs, or in small groups. Use these games for times when students want to play with their friends but can’t go outside and you don’t have the space for whole-group games.

Choose a unique focus for a game of charades

Charades is a classic game that gets everyone moving and laughing! Ideal for pairs or small groups, charades is great for team-building and fostering relationships at the beginning of the school year. Choose a theme that fits your current lesson plans, or opt for something more modern — like popular movie characters or video games.

Animal Movement Charades Card Game – Physical Therapy Brain Breaks Indoor Recess
By Sunshine and Lollipops
Grades: 1st-2nd

Bring the zoo to your classroom with a fun game of animal charades! Early elementary students select a card and act like their animal for their group to guess. The resource comes with a full set of animal cards, labels for the card basket, and a writing prompt to connect the activity to a sentence frame about their favorite animal.

Inspire young artists with small-group Draw It!

Upper elementary students can test their artistic talents and pop culture knowledge with an engaging game of Draw It! Print up a set of cards and keep them available for Fun Fridays or rainy days, or even ask students to create their own Draw It! card topics for the day. To make the game more active, let them use the whiteboard for their drawings and have them tag-team draw in pairs. 

Draw It! Drawing Indoor Recess Game | Free Choice | Pictionary Inspired
By Learning with Miss LaGrow
Grades: 3rd-6th

Do your students love to draw? Get those pencils moving with a set of 96 Draw It! cards, each with a high-interest card for students to choose from. The resource divides cards into three difficulty levels, allowing you to easily differentiate before handing cards out to small groups. 

Get four in a row with a digital game

For a digital spin on the classic game, students can play Four in a Row in pairs using a slideshow. Include this type of game in a tablet-focused center of your classroom, or allow students to play throughout indoor recess.

Four in a Row | Google Slides | Indoor Recess & Fun Friday Game
By Golden State Classroom
Grades: 2nd-8th

Play Four In a Row without cleaning up checkers underneath the desks! This Google Slides resource has pairs take turns placing digital checkers into the grid, trying to be the first to get four checkers in a row. The resource was designed for distance learning but works well when students are working in the same classroom as well.

Indoor Recess Kits and Printables

A successful indoor recess is right at your fingertips when you print an indoor recess kit. Most come with a variety of printable games for individual or partner play, perfect for rainy days, sub days, or any other time when you need a set of inside recess games that don’t require planning.

Hand out printable games and activities

Printable games and activity worksheets might not get kids active, but they can provide a break from lessons that’s fun. Have students work on the games individually, or let them partner up to try and finish as many games as possible during indoor recess.

Indoor Recess Kit Ideas and Activities for Inside Recess Rainy Day Recess Games
By Lucky Learning with Molly Lynch
Grades: 1st-3rd

Sudoku, classroom scavenger hunts, word searches, and cootie catchers are some of your students’ favorite ways to play inside — and they’re all together in one big resource! Print up the whole packet of activities or pick and choose the ones your students will enjoy the most for an upcoming indoor recess session.

Foster independent play with indoor recess games

One-person games are great for recess when students really need a break from their peers. Print activity worksheets and place them in a sheet protector for students to write on with dry-erase markers, allowing you to reuse the same activities throughout the year (and in years to come). You can also set up stations for students to rotate through and complete each game, or set up indoor recess folders for repeated use.

Indoor Recess Games and Morning Bin Games
By Miss DeCarbo
Grades: K-3rd

Younger elementary students won’t even miss the playground when you show them this indoor recess kit. It comes with activities like Word Hero, The Triangle Game, Spin and Draw, and Memory Game — many of which pair well with your existing language arts and math curriculum! The resource also includes teacher tips, binder and folder cover pages, and photographs for set-up suggestions.

Select mini-games from a rainy-day jar

An array of mini-game prompts is a great way to get indoor recess started! Add small game prompts to circles of paper, laminate them, and keep them in a jar to use over multiple years. Consider color-coding the prompts to differentiate for emerging bilingual studentsand struggling readers.

Recess in a Jar: Activities for Indoor Recess
By Aimee VanMiddlesworth
Grades: K-6th

Can you really contain recess in a jar? When you implement this fun, low-prep set of activities, you can! This resource provides 20 pages of activity prompts like Telephone and Mirror, each of which fits inside a jar for students to pick one at random. It also comes with instruction sheets, a label for the jar, and six blank activity cards for you to add your own indoor recess ideas.

Classic and Easy Indoor Recess Ideas

Looking for more indoor recess ideas? Don’t forget about the classics — or modify your old favorites for use in a modern classroom. Many of these indoor games even align with National PE standards because they help improve social skills through movement.

• Board Games: Have a collection of board games ready in the classroom for students to stay busy during indoor recess.
• Card Games: Teach students to play popular card games, or use a deck of cards to practice math facts in the classroom.
• Heads Up 7 Up: This classic indoor recess mystery game has students guess which of their peers touched their thumbs when the lights were out.
• Simon Says: Practice following directions and listening closely with a rousing game of Simon Says.
• Kahoot: Organize a learning game on a program like Kahoot! for students to compete against each other.
• Puzzles: Collect puzzles of varying sizes for students to complete when they can’t play outside.
• Dance Competitions: Inspire the dancers in your class by putting on music and voting on who’s got the best moves.
• Musical Chairs: Set up chairs in the middle of the classroom, turn on the music, and see who gets left out of a chair when the music stops.
• Yoga: For a relaxing moment during a busy school day, host a recess yoga session for students to stretch and cool down.
• Beach Ball Hot Potato: All you need is a hot potato and music to play! Students pass the ball around the classroom until the music stops, and the person holding the ball is out.

Look forward to the next indoor recess with TPT

Students may not be able to play outside, but the fun doesn’t have to stop due to bad weather. Keep the fun going all year long — even when the sun is shining outside! — with more indoor recess ideas and resources from TPT Teacher-Authors. From activity stations to breaks between testing periods, each makes a great staple in your classroom.