Indoor Recess Games Wheel

Ways to use this list

• Before the bell: spin as soon as you know recess is indoors, so the class knows the game and can push the desks back quickly.
• Quiet afternoons: press Quiet games when the class next door is testing or children need to calm down after lunch.
• Pre-K and kindergarten: press Pre-K & K and lead each game yourself the first time; after two or three rounds the children can run it.
• 5th grade: set Winners to 3 and let the class vote for one of the three games, which ends the arguing before it starts.
• Student game leader: give one child the leader job each day, so you can supervise rather than referee.
• A whole week of rain: choose Remove the winner so a different game comes up every day.

Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.

The full list (36 entries)

• Four Corners – one player counts with eyes closed while everyone tiptoes to a numbered corner; the corner called sits out
• Silent Ball – toss a soft ball around without a sound; a bad throw, a drop or any talking means you sit down
• Heads Down, Thumbs Up – a few pickers each press down one thumb; tapped players guess their picker and swap places if right
• Simon Says – do the action only when the caller says "Simon says" first
• Freeze Dance – dance while the music plays and freeze the moment it stops
• Charades – act out a word or phrase without speaking while your team guesses
• Draw and Guess – one player draws on the board and the class guesses before the timer ends
• Twenty Questions – think of an object; the class has twenty yes-or-no questions to find it
• Hot Potato – pass a soft ball while music plays; whoever holds it when it stops answers a question
• Telephone – whisper a sentence around the circle and compare the start with the end
• I Spy – give the first letter or the colour of something in the room for others to guess
• Tic-Tac-Toe – three in a row on a 3 × 3 grid, in pairs or the class against the teacher
• Dots and Boxes – take turns joining dots; finish a box to claim it and go again
• Snowman Spelling – guess the letters of a word; each wrong guess adds a part to the snowman
• Paper Airplane Contest – fold a plane and test whose flies furthest or stays up longest
• Balloon Keep-Up – keep a balloon off the floor as a team and count the taps
• Who Is the Leader? – a secret leader starts actions, everyone copies, and the guesser finds the leader
• Musical Chairs – walk round the chairs while music plays and sit when it stops, with one chair fewer each round
• Red Light, Green Light – walk on green, stop on red; anyone still moving goes back to the start
• Paper Basketball – throw scrunched-up scrap paper into the recycling bin from marked lines
• Cup Stacking Challenge – build the tallest tower of paper cups before the timer runs out
• Pass the Story – each player adds one sentence to a class story
• Duck, Duck, Goose – walk round the circle tapping heads; the "goose" chases the tapper back to the gap
• Sleeping Lions – everyone lies perfectly still while the hunters try to make them move without touching
• Mother May I? – players ask to take steps ("May I take two giant steps?") and the caller says yes or no
• Zip Zap Zop – pass "zip", "zap" and "zop" around the circle in order with a clap and a point
• Indoor Scavenger Hunt – find something round, something blue, something that starts with S…
• Memory – turn over two cards at a time to find matching pairs
• Go Fish – ask other players for cards to collect sets of four
• Hot and Cold – hide an object; the class says "warmer" or "colder" as the seeker moves
• Categories – name something in a category, such as fruit, before the count of five
• Rock, Paper, Scissors Train – whoever loses joins the winner's train and cheers them on
• Mirror Me – partners face each other and copy every slow movement
• Puppet Show – make paper-bag puppets and perform a short show
• Board Game Tables – set out board games on tables and rotate every ten minutes
• Would You Rather Sides – read a would you rather question; players walk to one side of the room

↺ Put this list back in the picker 📋 Copy the list ⬇️ Download (.txt) See all 263 ready-made lists

📖 Related guide: How to pick students at random, fairly