Indoor Recess Activities

Winter brings with it a host of issues for recess. Sometimes it's too cold to go outside, and sometimes ice develops on the playgrounds or fields making play unsafe. When weather dictates that students stay in for recess we need ideas to keep that time fresh and active for everybody. Listed below are some ideas that may be used with or without computers, with or without a large space.

• Turn on dance videos from YouTube. Use key words like "indoor recess dance videos", in your search engine on your computer to pull up videos. Some schools use a laptop in their lunchroom or a Promethean board in their classroom.
• If you, as a classroom teacher use Responsive Classroom, you can use the recess time for Morning Meeting Activities like:  Silent Ball, Group Juggle, The Cold Wind Blows, Hoops or Shrinking World. These are great games to be used throughout the day as a body activity.
• Peaceful Playgrounds 10 Rainy and Snow Day Activities for Indoor Recess
• Improv/Circle games are a great way to get students moving around, or to spark creativity.
• GoNoodle is an interactive classroom activity site for students in grades Kindergarten - 5th.
• Yoga Journal offers free videos online. The user may select a class from "under 5 minutes" to "16-35 minutes".
• Cosmic Kids Yoga - YouTube. Free yoga videos for kids
• Alliance for Healthier Generation offers a guide for indoor recess.  
• Optimizing Indoor Recess | Playworks ideas for indoor recess
• During recess or playing games Helping kids to find new friends and feel included | Playworks