[00:00:00] Hey friends, welcome back to the Firstieland Podcast. I’m your host, Molly Schwab, and today we’re tackling the topic of indoor recess.

I live in Ohio, and I’m honestly not sure which recess I dislike more, indoor or outdoor, because in Ohio you never know what the weather is going to be like. Kids can come to school in the morning in shorts, and by noon it’s pouring down rain or freezing outside. The weather here is just so crazy. In fact, I woke up this morning to about two inches of snow on the ground, and we had no clue it was going to snow overnight.

I mean, yesterday I was out shopping in just a hoodie and jeans, and today it’s snowing. It’s really crazy. And so we just never knew if the kids would be playing inside or outside from day to day.

But no matter where you live, having a plan for indoor recess is necessary. You may live someplace that’s below zero in the winter, or maybe you have bad air quality, or maybe you’re just on duty and you don’t feel good enough to go outside yourself. I mean, you never know when you’re going to have to let the kids [00:01:00] play inside.

So let’s talk about some ways to do that without losing your sanity, and so that indoor recess feels calm and not totally wild. Let’s go.

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So I’m a big believer that kids should be allowed to play during recess. They really need that time to just talk, laugh, and be kids for a while. But that being said, if you’re inside, you need it to be somewhat calm. [00:02:00] You can’t just let kids go crazy running around the room and stuff like that.

The first thing you want to do is establish some kind of indoor recess rules. I think it’s a good idea to sit down with your class and talk to them about this before you have your first indoor recess, because they don’t really know what to expect. When you say the word recess to kids, all they know is that’s when they get to play and be rowdy. When they’re outside, they can run around, shout, and play tag and all that kind of stuff.

But more than likely, you don’t want that same behavior inside your classroom. So take some time before you actually have indoor recess to talk about your expectations. Explain to kids that even though they’re going to be playing, they’re still inside the classroom, so they need to keep their voices a little quieter than usual, and they can’t run around the room.

Whatever your expectations are, you need to let them know. Maybe make an anchor chart where you list your rules for indoor recess and bring it out on the days when your class is going to be inside and review [00:03:00] it. That can really help keep problems to a minimum.

When I was teaching, we had one or two teachers on recess duty. So if it was your duty day and it was indoors, we had to walk up and down the hallway monitoring all the classrooms because the regular classroom teacher usually wasn’t in their room. So the kids were in their rooms alone playing, and it usually wasn’t a huge problem.

Having some kind of rules established ahead of time is important. Like what do they do if they have to go to the bathroom? What do they do if a toy gets broken, or it’s missing pieces, or somebody isn’t sharing? These are all things to discuss before indoor recess begins.

Okay, so the next thing you’re going to want to do is decide what the kids are allowed to do during indoor recess. Like I said before, I really think kids should be able to play during recess. I’ve had days when I showed a movie, but I don’t think it’s a very good practice to do that all the time.

And my personal opinion is that computers or tablets should be [00:04:00] off-limits during recess. Honestly, I think kids get enough screen time at home and even during school, and I personally feel like kids should be encouraged to be creative and just play during recess time.

So what kind of things can you have the kids do? Well, number one, I think anything where they get to create something is a good idea. I had an art center in my room, and my kids were allowed to use that during recess. They could make anything they wanted to. I had things like construction paper, watercolor paints, craft supplies like pipe cleaners, beads, stamps, stickers, toilet paper rolls, cotton balls, just all sorts of things.

And the kids loved to go there and create whatever they wanted. They loved it, and they knew the only rule was that they had to clean it up when they were done.

Another great indoor recess activity is Play-Doh. Put some different colors of Play-Doh at a table along with a tub of cookie cutters or Play-Doh toys, and kids are going to entertain themselves for a long time.

Another idea is any kind of building [00:05:00] activities. Kids love Magna-Tiles, LEGOs, building blocks, pattern blocks, and Lincoln Logs. All stuff like that. You can challenge them to see who can build the tallest tower or see if they can build a little town, anything like that.

If you give the kids the blocks, they’re going to figure out what to do with them all on their own.

If you have math and literacy centers in your room, you could open those up during indoor recess time too. My kids used to love going to the writing center during indoor recess. Every kid is different. Some kids want to just play with toys, but there are always kids who like to draw, color, or write, so having all your different centers open gives everybody a chance to do what they really enjoy.

I used to go to garage sales during the summer, and I was always looking for indoor recess toys. And by that, I mean actual toys. Stuff like Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels cars, or board games.

I had a little shelf that I kept in the hallway. My room was at the end of the hall, and I had a little extra space outside my room because of that. So I [00:06:00] put a shelf in the corner of the hall, and it held all my indoor recess toys.

I had a big box of Barbie dolls and Barbie furniture. I had another box full of Polly Pockets and little houses. I had another box of Transformers, Lincoln Logs, LEGOs, all sorts of stuff. And there were a bunch of games too.

During indoor recess, the kids could grab things from that shelf, bring them into the classroom, and play with them just like they would at home. And they loved it. Sometimes they’d actually ask if we could have indoor recess instead of going outside because they wanted to play with the toys.

And since those toys were reserved just for recess time, they felt extra special.

I honestly think the best thing you can do for indoor recess is let kids have free play, as long as they stay within the rules you’ve set up for your class.

If you want things to be a little more structured, you can always use things like GoNoodle. Kids enjoy it, and it gets them up and [00:07:00] moving, but not in a crazy way. You can let them have a dance party, or they can do kids’ yoga. My kids loved playing “The Floor Is Lava.”

Sometimes you might want to switch it up and do something like that instead of free play. Or you could have half of recess be free play and the second half be something like GoNoodle or a YouTube movement video.

Another idea is to play some old-fashioned whole-group games with your class. The first one that comes to mind is Red Light, Green Light. I’d probably play this in the hallway because you need space for kids to line up and move forward.

To play the game, have everyone line up across the hallway. You stand down the hall facing them, turn your back, and say “Green light.” The kids walk toward you. Then you quickly turn around and say “Red light.” Anyone still moving after you turn around is out. You keep playing until someone reaches you, and then they get to be the caller.

[00:08:00] Another fun one is Four Corners. To play this game, give each corner of your room a name. You can use simple colors like red, yellow, green, and orange.

Choose one person to go out into the hallway. Everyone else picks a corner to stand in. The person in the hallway comes back in blindfolded and calls out a color. If they call “red,” everyone in the red corner sits down.

Then the caller goes back into the hall, and the remaining kids scatter to the corners again. This keeps going until only one person is left standing, and then they become the caller.

Another fun whole-group game is Heads Up, Seven Up. For this game, pick seven kids to stand at the front of the room. Everyone else sits at their table with their heads down.

The seven kids walk around quietly and tap one person on the shoulder. If you get tapped, you keep your head down but raise your hand so the seven kids know you’ve been chosen.

[00:09:00] Once all seven kids have tapped someone, they return to the front of the room. Everyone lifts their heads, and the kids who were tapped stand up and guess who tapped them. If they’re right, they switch places. If they’re wrong, they sit back down. The kids always love this game.

So there you have it. Lots of different ways to make indoor recess fun for kids while also keeping your sanity. Just remember to establish rules and expectations so things don’t get too wild.

I have a list of some of my favorite indoor recess toys that my kids absolutely loved. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes so you can check them out and maybe keep an eye out for similar items at garage sales or thrift stores.

You can also send a note home asking parents to donate toys their kids don’t play with anymore for your indoor recess shelf. Just because one kid is bored with a toy at home doesn’t mean another child won’t love it.

[00:10:00] I used to ask parents for donations all the time, and you’d be surprised what you can get.

Alright friends, that’s it for today. Don’t forget to sign up for the Winter Read Aloud Challenge. You can hop in anytime during the month, and be sure to join the free Facebook group too. That’s where I’m giving away fun prizes this month for anyone who participates.

So far, people have won gift cards, picture books, and some of my TPT resources, and I’d really love it if you joined us. I’ll leave the link in the show notes.

Until next time, remember to make learning feel like play, and I’ll see you soon.

Thanks so much for tuning in. I hope you’re walking away with tips you can use right away. Be sure to hit the follow or subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a review.

You can find the show notes and links for everything mentioned in this [00:11:00] episode at firstieland.com.

I’ll see you next week in Firstieland. 💜