🥶 Stuck indoors? Grab these "no-prep" recess ideas

💡 Tips, Tools and Templates

Indoor recess ideas

Welcome winter and welcome antsy students. Below are our top 5 ways for you to help get the sillies out of your students. 

1. 🕺🏽 Go Noodle- Want to dance, stretch, and sing. Go Noodle has a mix of everything you need. Students can call and repeat, follow along, freestyle, boogie, and sing with silly sing alongs. In addition, you can search Go Noodle by grade, subject, and class routines. 

2. 👍🏽 Heads Up, Seven  Up- A classic game for all ages. Have 7 students go to the front of the room and call “Heads down, thumbs down!” Students that are standing will tap a thumb. Once all 7 students have tapped a thumb, the teacher will say “Heads up, seven up!” Students whose thumbs were tapped will guess who selected them. Get even more ideas with these printable cards from Fit4Kids.

3. ⭕️ Hula Hoop Pass- Divide students into two teams. Once students are in their teams, have them stand in a line holding hands and let the fun begin! Have the hula hoop wiggle, jiggle, and shake from student to student as they race to see which team will be the quickest. 

4. ✏️ Directed Drawing- Do your students love making pictures? Join the Art Hub family to create step by steps pictures.  Have students create a snow family, pet rock, father and son penguins fishing, and much more. 

5. 🌋 The Floor is Lava- Set up some “islands” around the classroom using rug squares, painter’s tape shapes, or floor dots. Start playing some music for students to walk around the room. Call out “The floor is lava” and students will have five seconds to get to an island. Challenge students by having them do an activity while on the island such as “Balance of one foot,” “Freeze like a statue,” or “Make a silly face.” For students to return to playing say “The lava has cooled.” Want to add some math or sight words into the mix by adding them to the island on an index card or dry erase board. Grab even more fun ideas for classroom based physical activities in this printable PDF from Eat Smart Move More North Carolina.

📺 Teaching with Teachflix Junior

 😁 Animals in Winter

🎥 Video Link: Animals with Winter Coats

Have you ever wondered how animals stay warm in the winter? Learn all about their natural cozy coats and the other awesome tricks they use to make it through the cold conditions!

Key points covered in the video:

• Learn vocabulary including hibernation, migration, burrow,and camouflage.

• Learn how animals grow thick winter coats to stay warm and adapt to the cold.

• Learn how the Arctic fox, Arctic hare and ptarmigan each adapt to the winter weather.

Ready-made video resources:

These activities pair great with the video above or as part of an animal unit you might be working on.

✏️ Printable Worksheets

Try any one or all of these activities from Canva. To print these activities just click on the link and then “Customize this template”. You can make any changes you’d like. When you’re ready click on the “Share” icon in the upper right hand corner and then “Download” from there choose PDF as your file type then the purple “Download” button to save to your computer.

• Migration, Hibernation, Adapt Sort: Have students sort what animals do during the winter.

• Animals that Hibernate Fill In the Blank: Learn about animals that hibernate by matching the animal to its name.

• Winter Roll and Write: Have students roll a dice and share what the animal does during the winter months.

💭 Reflect with Snorkl

Try Snorkl’s Fly South or Hibernate or Animal Prep for Winter activities to give your students instant feedback on their thinking and get valuable insight into what they’ve learned. All your students need to do is speak their words and AI does the rest. Best of all? Snorkl is free!

Note: Sign up for a free Snorkl account to view and use these activities.

• Animal Prep for Winter: Explain how animals prepare for winter by choosing one animal, drawing its winter adaptation, and completing the sentence about how it stays safe. Key concepts include hibernation and growing thicker fur.

• Fly South or Hibernate: Explain whether you would rather fly south like a bird or hibernate all winter like a bear and state your reason. Key concepts include expressing a personal preference and giving a supporting reason.

🎮 Play a Kahoot!

Want a fun and engaging review activity? Try Animals in Winter Kahoot.

• Play Animals in Winter with your class.

❤️ Share your ideas with us! 

Click the button to submit an idea for a future edition of the newsletter.