30 Best Classroom Games to Play With Kindergartners

Is it raining outside? Then, you must have sulking and prankster kindergarten students making chaos in your classroom. When taking your students outdoors is not an option, you can organize fun games to play with kindergartners inside the class. 

Indoor games can help you easily engage and educate your kindergartners. This post will walk you through 30 fun classroom games for kindergarten students to make the environment inclusive and educational. Let’s get started.

30 Best Indoor Classroom Games for Kindergarten Students

It is not easy to be a kindergarten teacher. You have to deal with over-energetic and curious kids all day long. And, when there is no option to take your students outdoors during play period, hosting indoor games to play with kindergartners becomes essential. 

According to research, teachers can foster social, emotional, and economic skills among students with games. Thus, you must choose the perfect indoor teams for kindergarten students to stimulate their senses. And here are the best 30 classroom games for kindergarten students:

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Indoor Learning Games for Kindergarten Classroom

1. Number Matching

Requires: Pen and paper

Number matching is a math learning indoor game for kindergarten students. You should put random numbers on a piece of paper in an improper order. Then, you can give a piece of paper to all your students with a pencil to match the number in chronological order. 

For example, they should draw a line from number 1 to number 2, then 3. This activity will help your students learn to count and identify different shapes. 

2. Guess the Animal

Requires: Animal photo cutouts

For this indoor game, you have to print out animal photos and paste them onto a cardboard sheet. And whenever you have free time to set up learning games in your kindergarten classroom, take out these animal cutouts and place them in your class. Then, ask your students to guess the animal from the photos one by one.

3. Collect Pink Balloons Only

Requires: Colorful balloons 

This is a fun yet learning game to play with kindergartners. Foremost, you have to blow up various colorful balloons and scatter them around your classroom. After that, you can give a color to each student and ask them to collect balloons for that color only, like pink. This practice will help your students identify different colors, and running around the class will tire them out. 

4. Talking to a Mirror

Requires: Mirror 

Do you want to boost confidence and improve the speech skills of your students? If so, talking to a mirror is the perfect indoor game for kindergarten students. In this game, you will place a mirror in your class and ask your students to come forward and talk about themselves in the mirror. This way, students learn to express themselves better and gain the confidence to speak without hesitation. 

5. Guess the Weight

Requires: Different props

For this indoor game, you have to visit the property room in your school and collect different sizes of objects like balls, papers, pencils, etc. After that, place different objects on a table, take two objects at once, and ask your students which one is heavier. 

For example, you can pick a ball in one hand and a piece of paper in another. And ask your students to point out the object which is heavier in weight. This simple game helps kindergarten students to identify different shapes and their physical properties.

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Fun Classroom Games for Kindergarten Students

6. Sticky Spider Web

Requires: Duct tape, waste newspaper 

The best way to engage toddlers is to give them some opportunities to be dirty and messy. So, using duct tape, create a spiderweb-like pattern on the door frame. Give some waste paper to your students and ask them to crunch it into a ball shape. And let your students throw balls on a spider web and have some fun. You might have to do cleaning after this game, but it is worth it when your kids have a blast in the class. 

7. Balloon Football

Requires: Balloons 

If your students are little balls of energy, retaining them inside the classroom is a bit of a challenge. So, you can host balloon football in the classroom to help your students vent their energy. All you need to do is blow up a few balloons and place two chairs parallel to create a goal. And, you can let your students kick and play around the classroom however they want. 

8. Paper Dance

Requires: Paper

There is nothing better than dancing to tire out your students. You can spice up simple dancing with a piece of paper. Simply give a paper to each student and ask them to dance on it. You can keep asking them to fold the paper after the end of every song to make the game interesting. When your little people hop around and fall while dancing, it will create a joyful environment in your class. 

9. Movement Chain

Requires: Blowing whistles 

You can include your entire class in this fun classic game for children. To play this game, you should blow a whistle and ask one student to perform a moment like a jump two times or take five steps. After that, you can again blow your whistle and select another student to perform the same moment but with an additional moment. Keep on repeating this until you create a movement chain in your entire class.

10. Airplane Landing

Requires: Waste paper

Give waste paper sheets to your students and teach them how to make paper airplanes. Let them throw a paper plane on a given target and check who has the best aim. What’s interesting about this game? Once your student is done throwing paper airplanes, ask them to bring back those people’s planes but without walking, crossing, or hopping. It will be interesting to see how your students use their creativity to get paper planes. 

Related Reading: 
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Creative Indoor Games for Kindergarten Students

11. Sock Puppet

Requires: Old socks, buttons, and a glue gun 

Ask your student to bring old socks and buttons from home. Using the glue gun, you can stick buttons in socks to form eyes and nose to create a cute sock puppet for your students. Next, you can ask your student to wear a sock puppet on their hands and perform a puppet show inside your class.

12. Paint a Pebble

Requires: Watercolors and pebbles

This indoor game is perfect for entertaining kindergarten students. To play this game, first, take your students to the school garden and ask them to pick a stone or a pebble. After that, set up an art station in your class and give paint to your students to decorate pebbles. Your students might create some mess, but they will explore their creative side and learn to turn ugly pebbles into something beautiful.

13. Back-and-Forth Drawing

Requires: Lots of crayons

You can bring your entire class together with this simple art game. Just give a piece of paper to one student with some crayons and ask them to draw something on the paper. Give 10 minutes to a student to draw on a paper. After that, keep on passing the paper to other students. In the end, you might get a hideous drawing, but your class will have fun. 

14. Simon Says, Draw!

Requires: Paper and crayons 

Give a paper sheet and crayons to all your students. Then, give them instructions to draw different objects, such as Simon says, draw a circle. However, when you don’t say “Simon says” before giving instruction, and if still, your students draw, they will lose the game. This will teach them how to listen and follow the instructions properly.

15. Fun Family Drawing

Requires: Paper and crayons 

Ask your students to draw portraits of their family members. It will be a lot of fun to see all those weird shapes and characters that your kindergarten students draw to portray their families. You can also let them take their family drawings home and show them to their parents.

Activity-Based Indoor Games for Kindergarten Students

16. Find an Object

Requires: Lots of miscellaneous items 

Gather different objects like a clock, pen, ball, etc. Scatter all these things around your classroom and ask your students to find those objects. For example, you can say Lily find a clock or Sam, find a blue color pen. You can set a time limit to find an object to make the game interesting.

17. Jump and Say

Requires: Blackboard 

On your classroom blackboard, write down a few common words that your students often say in the class, like thank you, sorry, etc. Now, make it a condition that whenever students have to say those specific words, they have to jump and then say them out loud. And if they don’t follow the instructions, they must constantly jump for one minute. This activity will surely tire out your energetic kindergartners. 

18. Indoor Bowling

Requires: Paper cups and balls

All it requires is paper cups and balls to create an indoor bowling alley inside your classroom. Then, you can divide your class into a team of two and organize a little bowling competition to keep your students active.

19. Tape Hopping

Requires: Duct tape 

It is a simple game — create small and big blocks on the floor using duct tape. After that, ask your students to cross the blocked pathway, but they can’t touch the tape with their feet. So, they have to hop around the class to cross the path. 

20. Cross the Obstacle Course

Requires: Hula hoops, chairs, blankets, exercise ball, or anything that can create an obstacle 

This isone of he easiest games to play with kindergartners. You can create a difficult obstacle course inside your class using all the different objects. When your students have to move between hula hoops, climb chairs and crawl beneath blankets, this will be a good exercise to tire them for a long nap. 

Sensory Games to Play With Kindergartners

21. Blow Bubbles

Requires: Dish soap and straw

If you have sensory-challenged students in your class, you can use blow bubbles games to calm them. You need to dissolve dish soap on a plate and give a straw to your students to blow bubbles. You can add different colors to the bubble mixtures to stimulate students’ visual senses. 

22. Color Matching Activity

Requires: Colorful balloons 

You can blow up balloons with your sensory-disordered students to relax them. After that, you can ask them to find matching colored balloons. For example, you can hold a yellow balloon in your hand and ask students to find a matching color balloon. This indoor classroom game will help to improve visual senses. 

23. Suck It Up

Requires: Straws and soft toys 

This is the best indoor classroom game for kindergarten students to improve their oral senses. You can scatter small soft toys around your class and request your students to pick those toys by sucking through a straw. This activity will help improve your students’ oral senses and muscular strength.

24. Shaving Cream Finger Painting

Requires: Shaving cream and watercolors 

You can improve tactile senses in your students using a shaving cream finger painting game. You can mix different colors into shaving cream and give them to your students. After that, you can let them dip their fingers into different colors and paint. This will also help to improve their visual senses. 

25. Salt Art

Requires: Loads of salt 

Simply spread salt on a big plate and ask your students to draw different letters, shapes or numbers on it. When students trace salt with their fingers and draw different things, it will stimulate their feelings and channel their senses better.

Virtual Learning Games for Kindergarten Classroom

26. Scavenger Hunt

Requires: Video calling software 

Running a virtual kindergarten classroom is challenging to keep young students engaged via a screen. However, you can host a scavenger hunt to make your kindergarten students learn and have some fun. For example, you can say a color name and ask students to find the same color item in their home. 

27. Shared Story

Requires: Video calling software 

This is a fun virtual classroom game that involves your entire class. You have to first give a prompt to your student and ask them to complete the story around it. 

28. Take a Picture

Requires: A smartphone 

You can give a theme to your students like happiness, anger, sadness, etc. Then, ask them to use their parents’ smartphones to click a picture suitable to the theme and share it with the class. This game will spark creativity and help your students understand different emotions. 

29. Cute Debates

Requires: Video calling software 

You can host a debate on fun topics so your students can learn to express their thoughts better. For kindergarten students, pick light debate topics like Superman vs. Spider-Man, pizza vs. pasta, etc. 

30. Where I Lie

Requires: Video calling software 

Ask your students to name the places where they have lived, like their house, apartment, city, village, etc. This way, your students will learn something new without noticing.

Indoors Are Fun Too!

You can make fun indoors for your kindergartners too. You only need to find the best indoor classroom games for kindergartners. And they can learn, evolve and have fun within your classroom. 

Now, don’t wait and try all the awesome 30 classroom games discussed in the post.

FAQ

How to make your kindergarten classroom attractive?

There are several ways to make your kindergarten classroom fun, such as: 

• Incorporate mystery lessons 
• Create classroom games 
• Give chores to your students 
• Use technology 
• Make your lessons interactive

Which indoor classroom games can be played in 30 minutes?

There are many games to play with kindergartners that can be finished up in under 30 minutes, such as:

• Drawing games
• Paper dancing
• Jumping on command
• Team debates
• Color matching activities