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Indoor Games
By Teachers.Net News Desk
Great activities to enjoy when your students can’t go outdoors, or for active time fillers by classroom and substitute teachers!
Request posted by Yvonne:
I am a substitute teacher for elementary students and I need some ideas for indoor games when the children can not go outside. Can you help?
Posted by berrington/4th:
First of all, this will be a great thread and I can’t wait to learn of new games to play indoors!
Silent ball – I bought fluffy stuffed balls at the dollar store years ago for this game. Have your class form a circle. On the count of 3, games starts and no one may talk. Throw the ball to someone. If they catch it, they throw it to someone else. If they miss, they sit down where they are and watch. The faster the ball is thrown the more exciting the game is.
Oh, if anyone talks, they are out too.
Steal the bacon
Across the sea
4 corners
Heads up, seven up
Hangman
and my kids invented a game – the statue game, where one child gets to choose the best statue. Hey, I don’t complain because this game is SILENT! lol 
Posted by Disney Cathy:
Elephant Soccer – My kinders use to love this game:
The children get into a circle and their feet are spread apart, they cup their hands and hit the soccer ball only with their hands trying to get the ball to go through one of the other kid’s legs. They are out of the game if they kick the ball. Don’t forget other favorites: Hot Potato, Musical Chairs, Simon Says (let kids be Simon sometimes), Duck, Duck, Goose.
Posted by Rita/KY: I don’t know why, it is a game I learned years and years ago when I was doing student teaching. My kids like the statue game, too. We also do “one, two, three, freeze” in which one student is the judge. The other students move slowly around the room then the judge calls out “one, two, three, freeze.” He then picks the person who is “frozen” the best. Even my older kids in bus duty room like that one. They like “Doggie where’s your bone” too. “Button, button” is another one that my kindergarteners liked. The students sit on the floor in a circle. One student sits in the middle with eyes closed. The students pass a plastic button around the circle, until the teacher says stop. The students all hold their hands in their laps, and say, “Button, button who has the button?” The student in the middle tries to guess who has the button. If he is right he goes into the circle and the student holding the button becomes “it”. If wrong, the button is passed around again. Heads-Up, Seven-up is good, but I always emphasis that we do NOT hit the other person’s head too hard. My class likes Hangman, we use our vocabulary and spelling words. We also do math relays and spelling relays. The class divides up into two teams and takes turns racing to complete a math problem or spelling word on the board.
Posted by Disney Cathy:
Huckle, Buckle Beanstalk! I almost forgot about this really favorite game that my daughter taught me when I went back to teach. This was her favorite game in grade school.
One child is “It” and he hides an object that the teacher has given him. I always used a small toy pony. Depending on your class size you select children to go out in the hall and be very quiet while out there while “it” hides the object. The rest of the class must remain quiet and not give clues as to where the object is hidden unless it takes too long to find the object. Once the object is hidden ( I had the rule that it had to be out in the open not in a desk or cupboard, etc), the teacher calls the children back and gives them a general area where the object is hidden. I taught K so I would say the doll area or the block area) When one of the children finds the object he does NOT pick up the object but goes back to his seat and says Huckle, Buckle, Beanstalk.Then this person gets to hide the object and new kids go out in the hall. The object is to be very quiet when the object is found so you can be the one who gets to hide the object in the next game. You have to watch carefully because sometimes another person will run to his seat but really hasn’t found the object. When I sub now at my school I still get requests to play this game. It can get noisy but my k room was in the basement so it didn’t matter.
Posted by Kare/Can:
questions would just vary depending on the group.
One chair for each individual, less one, placed in a circle. Everyone is seated and the person without a chair stands in the middle of the circle. That person calls out for people to trade places if ………………. Those people that fit the statement have to get up and go to another seat, cannot return to the one they just left. The person in the middle goes for a chair and the person left without a chair takes the next place in the middle. You can also get to know something about your fellow players by the questions that are asked.
Some examples,
Trade places: if you have a wiggly tooth
if you wear glasses
if you have a cell phone
if you have a pet dog
if you are wearing laced up shoes
if you have a CD by ….
if you plan an instrument
if you walk to school
(teachers) if you had wine with dinner last night
ask something specific if you want to get just one person up so you can take their chair and leave them with no chair to go to i.e, …if you went to Costa Rica last week and for real confusion, ask a question that you know everyone will have to get up for, i.e….. if you came to school today.
Posted by anon:
Who is Missing? Good for younger children Requires observation skills. Children should not be seated in their desks. Have one child leave the room or stand somewhere where they cannot see. Pick a child to crouch down in a lump and cover them with a blanket. Ask the other child to return and tell you who is missing from the group and hidden under the blanket. Limit the number of guesses.
Posted by az-husker:
When I taught 2nd grade they loved “Pinky, Firmy, Bagel”
Pinky = wrong number, wrong place
Firmy = right number, wrong place
Bagel = right number, right place
-You pick three numbers from 0 – 9 (or more depending on age) but do not let the kids know.
-Draw three lines on the board.
-Kids try to decide what the numbers are – after the first round, under each number you write P=pinky, F=firmy, B=bagel (and after each subsequent round write P, F, or B)
-You continue rounds until the kids pick the correct number in the correct sequence
Hope this makes sense the kids love this game.
PS – it tends NOT to be a quiet game, they get very excited and loud, but a good deductive reasoning game that they love:)
Posted by Debbie Ann:
Choose one student to leave the room and change one thing one their person. When they return, the others have to guess what is
different.
1. Be sure kids get a good look at person before they leave.
2. Things kids change are: untie one shoe, take off a piece of jewelry, unbutton one button, take off glasses etc.)
Or, have kids close their eyes. Choose someone to disguise their voice and say a few words. Others guess who spoke.