Raining During Recess? Have Fun With These Two Classroom Or Gym Activities
As the teacher of young elementary school children, you might look forward to recess as a time when your students can engage in relaxed free play as you observe them. Rainy days can be somewhat stressful, as your kids might be confined to the classroom or gym and unable to do some of the things they enjoy outside. Luckily, with these activities, you can pass the time in an enjoyable way.
Making Up a Story
You might have spent many days in your teaching career reading books to your class, but there's another way you can pass time indoors: have your kids make up a story for you. Offer them a story prompt or initial sentence, and allow each student to add a sentence or two to the narrative. To make this easier, use a stuffed animal or another object and have every student hold it while they say their sentence before passing it to the next child. If they aren't holding the object, they have to remain quiet so that they can hear how the story is unfolding.
When the story is done or recess time is over, you can revisit the story later or refer to it in future lessons. You can even take the story that the kids came up with and turn it into a showpiece for parents at some point in the school year.
Going on a Treasure Hunt
Scavenger hunts can be great fun outside, but a rainy day can present an opportunity to have a similar activity inside a classroom or gym. To make the hunt even better, call it a pirate treasure hunt and allow them some arts and crafts time to come up with appropriate decorations, like pirate hats. There can be less hiding places in your classroom or school gym, so "hunting" might a be challenge; instead, you might want to have different stations where the kids have to solve a problem or do a task in order to get suitable "treasure." Treasure could be something as simple as gold coins made of chocolate, or you can have the kids accrue gold stars that they can use for homework passes or other classroom rewards at a later time. You can enlist the help of other teachers and classes to provide more teams and prizes.
These activities can help a rainy day recess to be just as fun as any day outside. Talk with your fellow teachers about finding kid activities that are suitable for rainy days.