In our more than 20 years at Playworks John, we've seen thousands of playgrounds and play spaces—and they're all unique.

Whether you're in a large outdoor area, an indoor gym, or in an unconventional space like a carpeted classroom, experiment with setting up a variety of games that are safe and fun for each environment and mindful of equipment and adult supervision.

For instance, in smaller outdoor areas—can a ball bounce over a wall or fence? In large outdoor areas, are there blind spots where adults can't properly supervise?

Here are a few of our favorite tips to consider and games to try for outdoor and indoor recess to maximize safety and engagement:

Set up Rotational, Large Group, and Independent Activities at every recess.

Rotational games are fast with high turnover of participants—students move in and out in an organized way. Fun rotational games include Switch, four square, and Three-Lines Soccer. Large group games are those that engage a lot of students in a contained space. Examples include kickball, Rock Paper Scissors Relay, and Magic Tag. Independent games are great for students who may want a more mellow recess. Examples include Jump Rope, Hopscotch, and Cat and Mouse.

Watch our Playworks Coaches demonstrate Switch and Magic Tag—two great examples of a rotational and large group game—and get the full scoop on rotational, large group, and independent games:

I hear you John—what about unconventional spaces?

We've got you covered.

Here are a couple games kids can play inside or in smaller spaces:

Dots and Boxes
To play Dots, you need a square of dots on the page—start with 6×6 and challenge your kids to go up to 30×30 or more. Players take turns with a different color pen creating line segments between dots. When a player forms a square with their line, they put their initial in that square and play again. The game continues until all the lines between the dots have been drawn.

Bob the Bunny
Introduce the students to "Bob the Bunny," a small object, ball, or stuffed bunny. Standing in a circle, students place their hands behind their backs. Choose one student to be in the middle, and ask them to close their eyes. The group begins chanting in rhythm, "Bob the Bunny, Bob, Bob, the Bunny!" while passing the bunny around the circle, keeping the bunny behind them. Once the bunny is in motion, the student in the middle opens their eyes, and gets three guesses as to who is holding the bunny.

Check out more games for unconventional play spaces—like Look Up and Look Down or Pictionary—at Recess Lab.

Have fun this week!

Your Recess Lab Team

Want to know what's really happening on your playground? Take our Recess Checkup, a 3-minute quiz to help principals and teachers evaluate recess—and discover areas for improvement.
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