Rethinking Recess: Indoor Games and the Academic Schedule
When winter weather keeps students trapped indoors, teachers face a familiar challenge: restless energy that threatens to derail even the best-planned lessons. A toolkit of engaging indoor games can do more than help us with managing behavior; it can give students a way to channel their energy productively and create the moments of joy that make learning possible. But there is a question worth pondering: in an era of packed curricula, can we justify spending precious instructional time on games?
We’re providing some resources below to help inspire the teachers who are indeed looking for play-based activities, and we liked Edutopia's recent list for indoor play in particular. Teacher Donna Paul presents some practical solutions for energy-filled classrooms that may feel cooped up in the colder months. Her games emphasize movement, mindfulness, and connection:
- The Floor Is Lava turns a childhood favorite into a classroom activity during which students navigate between designated “islands” while music plays, then balance or stretch when the floor “becomes lava.”
- Slow-Motion Relay Races flip traditional races by challenging students to move as deliberately as possible through stations—walking heel-to-toe, doing slow squats, or holding poses—combining physical activity with self-control.
- Vocabulary Moves transforms vocabulary review into physical charades, with students acting out words like “orbit” or “eruption” through movement.
- Mirror, Mirror pairs students to silently mirror each other's movements, building focus and connection through synchronized motion.
- Shape It! challenges students to form letters, shapes, or concepts using their bodies, either individually or in groups.
For some teachers and administrators, such games might elicit scrutiny, since they ultimately represent time diverted from core academic instruction, time that could be spent on direct teaching or content mastery. In schools facing pressure to improve standardized test scores, devoting even ten minutes to games might seem like an indulgence rather than a necessity.
One might also question whether movement-based activities inadvertently reinforce the expectation that learning should always be entertaining; the constant entertainment and stimulation to which most students now have access have undermined their ability to engage in sustained, focused work that isn't immediately fun. Any emphasis on student comfort and enjoyment could perhaps come at the expense of building the discipline and perseverance that they need for rigorous academic work.
But even skeptics would acknowledge that brief movement breaks could serve a purpose if they genuinely improve subsequent focus and productivity—essentially functioning as an investment in attention, rather than a distraction from it.
Games and play in American public schools have long occupied contested territory. Progressive educators like John Dewey championed experiential, play-based learning as early as the 1900s, arguing that children learn best through active engagement. But the various educational movements of subsequent decades have consistently pushed back and emphasized structured academics over play.
More recently, however, teachers have seen renewed interest in game-based learning, driven by research in neuroscience and child development that has shown connections between physical activity and cognitive function. Specifically, brain break programs and movement integration strategies have gained the most traction, particularly as concerns about childhood obesity and sedentary lifestyles have grown. Still, the debate continues about how much classroom time should be devoted to activities that aren't directly academic, a tension that reflects broader questions about the ultimate purpose of public schools.