10 Indoor Winter Activities

Wondering how you will keep your little ones occupied while they are stuck inside this winter season? We are here to help you with just that!
Here are 10 of our favorite indoor winter activities:
1. Puzzles – These are perfect for all ages because they come in so many varieties. Get one that is perfect for your child’s age or get one that’s a bit more challenging that you can work on together.

2. Movie Marathon – Make some popcorn, grab a blanket and watch some of your favorite movies. Our movie suggestion for the winter time is Frozen, of course!
3. Build A Fort – Grab some blankets, chairs or anything else you may need to build a fort! If you have any spare cardboard boxes around, these are perfect for building indoor forts. You can even have a contest and see who can make the best one.

4. Grab a Book – Snuggle up with a book or two by the fire! This is the perfect time to catch up on your reading, practice reading with little ones, and even reading a story to the family for a bit of family time.

Need a good book selection? Check out our 2nd Look Book Box here!

5. Arts & Crafts – Get crafty! Your little ones will stay occupied for hours when given some craft supplies to work with. You can have them create something specific by looking up templates online or checking out a few craft ideas from our blog, or you can turn them loose for some creative thinking.
6. Get Cooking – Let your little ones help you out with baking a few cookies. Once cooled, let them decorate the cookies as they please. This one is both fun and delicious!

7. Dance Party – Needing to get the wiggles out? Turn on the music and let the dancing begin. This will allow everyone to get in some exercise and release that pent up energy from being stuck indoors.
8. Game Time – Pull out the board games and cards for a family game night! There is nothing better for warming up a cold, winter night than time spent with family.

9. Family Talent Show – Put on a talent show for your family and have each member contribute by sharing their own special talent.
10. Scavenger Hunt – Create a scavenger hunt around the house for the kiddos to complete. You can make this as hard or easy as you would like.

Indoor Games – Balloons

In our last post we looked into different games you could play inside simply using masking tape. To keep things inexpensive and simple for your indoor games this summer, we have created a new indoor games post featuring balloons. Here are a few of our balloon game favorites that your students are guaranteed to enjoy!

VolleyBalloon – Set up your own volleyball game right in your classroom! Start by setting up your net if you have one. If not, just take a piece of string and tie each end onto a chair. Spread the chairs out to stretch the line and you have your very own volleyballoon net ready to go! For this game you can use a variety of balloon sizes. The bigger ones are usually a bit easier for the younger kids to play with. Make the balloon smaller if you need to make the game more challenging for your older students. 

Balloon Stomp – Blow up your balloons and attach a piece of string to the tied end of each balloon. You will need one balloon per student. Next you will tie the other end of the string around the student’s ankle. The goal of the game is to pop everyone else’s balloon while protecting your own. The last one left without a popped balloon wins! You may want to create some boundaries in the room so no one finds a hiding spot.

Balloon Pop – This game is all about surprises! Before inflating your balloons, add a little surprise inside. You will want the prize to be something small and flat such as a sheet of stickers, or even a dollar bill! Items that are not flat may pop the balloon before it is time to be popped or injure little feet that are trying to stomp the balloons. If you can’t find anything flat, write the prizes down on small pieces of paper and put the papers inside the balloon instead. Give each student a certain amount of balloons that they can pop and let the fun begin. They will love finding out which prizes are in each balloon!

Balloon Relay – Create a balloon relay by splitting your students into teams. Next give them different tasks to do for the entire team. For example, pass the balloon over and then under all the way though your team. This means player one passes the balloon over their head to player two. Then player two passes the balloon through their legs to player three. Players will continue to alternate over and under on down the line. The last player to get the balloon sits on it until it pops to complete the round. The first team to make it all the way through and pop their balloon wins! Create your own fun relays and let us know what rules you come up with by commenting below.

Indoor Games – Masking Tape

Need to bring the summer fun indoors? Here are a few ideas using masking tape to give you some quick, easy and inexpensive games to play,

Tracks- Use masking tape to make tracks for students to play with cars on. They can even help you create the track before hand. You can also use this method to create roads and teach students about traffic signals and road safety!

Hopscotch- Hopscotch can easily be brought indoors using masking tape. Just tape the squares down to create your hopscotch course. When you are done using the course, you can easily pull up the tape and throw it away. Try using this method to create a ladder for exercising. Students can then get the exercise they need without even leaving the classroom.

         

Balance Beam- Use the tape to create a couple balance beams around the classroom and watch the gymnastics fun unfold. Try challenging your students to try different tricks such as walking backwards, jumping, or maybe even a cartwheel! Just make sure the surrounding areas are clear so there will be no bumps or bruises if things get a little wobbly.

Check back in with us here for more indoor games! In our next post, we will be featuring balloons and some of our favorite indoor games using them.

Classroom Management – Play Ball!

A great way to keep students in check is to have a tangible scoring system of their behavior. Here is one of our favorites called Classroom Baseball.

Classroom Baseball is a great choice for any classroom. Start by creating a poster that includes a pocket for each student. Each pocket will have three craft sticks in it to represent strikes. Throughout the day, you can give students that are misbehaving a strike. That student will then need to remove one of their sticks from their pocket. Those who strike out get a note or phone call home to Mom or Dad. Students who complete the day, or even the week, without any strikes will get the chance to “play ball’.

 

You will need to reserve just a few minutes at the end of the day, or the end of the week, for this portion. The well behaved students can line up for a chance to toss the ball for a prize. You can simply use a ball or a bean bag and a small trash can or even have four different boxes to represent the bases.

Tip! Try using four different sized boxes or baskets. They will get smaller as the bases go on making first base the largest and home plate the smallest. The prizes will be better when they choose a more challenging base.

Now you have a fun game for students to look forward to. It will give them incentive to be on their best behavior each day and not strike out. Now let’s play ball!

Plastic Easter Eggs Game Ideas

 

Easter is quickly approaching and students are in need of some new learning games and activities as the year draws to an end. We have some quick and easy ideas to share with you that are sure to be “egg-cellent” for your students!

Kids love those colorful, plastic Easter eggs and now teachers will too! They are a fun and inexpensive way to create games and learning activities for the spring season! You will need the eggs that can be opened and split completely in half. Any size, color, and even shape would be great for these activities. You can find the eggs at any local grocery store around Easter time for a low price.

Our first egg activity is perfect for little ones who are learning their colors! Begin by taking as many eggs as you would like and splitting them in two. Eggs can be placed on the floor, on a table or on any flat surface. We suggest placing them on the floor if you are going to have a large group working at the same time and a table for smaller groups or individual work. Mix up the halves until there is a good mix of colors. Now have your students rematch up the eggs to their missing half. You could also have students separate the full eggs by color into baskets or trays or on top of a piece of matching colored construction paper after finding their missing pieces.

Another fun idea for the little ones is an alphabet matching game with upper case and lower case letters. Simply add the uppercase letter on one half of the egg and the lower case on the other half. Students will then need to match up the letters to give each egg one upper case half and one lower case half of each letter. Letters can be added in permanent marker or with alphabet stickers.

Not challenging enough for your class? Here are a few ideas to take it to the next level!

Write different words that can be formed into contractions onto each egg half. For example, “can” on one half and “not” on the other. Place the contraction inside on a piece of paper. When they open their egg they find the answer, “can’t”.

The same concept can be used for math problems as well. Put a number on each egg half and have students add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers. You can match these up ahead of time and provide the answer inside for them or just let students match up the numbers and egg colors to create different problems to solve.

Try out one of these Egg Games and let us know what you think! Your students should be “egg-static” about the new classroom games!

Indoor Kids Fort Idea for Preschools

Need a fun way to turn a bad weather day into a fun filled day of indoor activity? We have a great idea to share with you! Let’s build a classroom fort!

There are several ways to make a fort. Materials such as blankets, tables, cardboard boxes, chairs and other furniture are perfect for fort building. If you need some help with the design plans, just ask your students! They are practically professionals at making forts. Forts can be made large enough to fit the whole class, a small group or each student could create their own.

Larger Forts might be created by hanging sheets from the ceiling or draping them over tall cabinets. The same could be done for a fort to fit a smaller group.  Another quick and easy fort is to simply put a sheet over a table and let students crawl in underneath the table.

If large cardboard boxes are available to you, they are a great addition to any fort! The cardboard allows you to construct any shape you would like. It also gives the ability to cut out windows, doors, and the children can color and decorate it. 

If students have individual desks, you can have everyone bring a towel or a blanket to drape over their desk. Now you have mini forts for each student to read or do class work in!

For even more fort fun, plan a Reading Day! Send out a preparation list for parents a few days ahead. You can ask students to bring their favorite books, snacks, a blanket or towel, and even wear some comfy pajamas. Students will enjoy having a relaxing day of reading and won’t think twice about playground time or the weather!

Share your fort ideas with us by commenting below, on Facebook, or even by sending us a tweet. We would love to hear your ideas!

Daycare Classroom Bowling Alley

Turn your classroom into a Bowling Alley! Here’s what you will need: 10 water bottles, a ball, enough space for a “lane”, and some team spirit!

Start by clearing enough space in your classroom to make the lane in. Next, you will need to set up the water bottles in a triangular pyramid shape to look like bowling pins. The pins will be on one end of your lane. On the other end, you will need some sort of marker to make the starting line. This could be something simple like a strip of masking tape, a yard stick or even just a piece of string. Students will roll the ball from behind this line. This is our “do not cross” line.

The rules are the same as regular bowling. They can easily be modified to best fit your students. This could mean they get three turns every time instead of two or they can continue to bowl until they knock down all the pins. You can keep score and have a class bowling tournament or just play for fun. You could even set up more than one lane so students can bowl at the same time!

If empty water bottles are too easy for your students, try putting a little water or sand in the bottom of each bottle. The added weight will make it a bit more challenging for the kids to knock the bottles over.

Feel free to take your bowling lane to the next level by adding bumpers and other fun features! You could do this by placing two 2x4s, or a pool noodle cut in half, on each side of the lane to help little ones direct the ball.

For an even bigger surprise make your bowling alley into a cosmic one! Grab a few glow in the dark sticks and drop them in your bottles. Now all you have to do is turn off the lights and watch the fun!

Keep a lookout for more Rainy Day and Indoor Activities in March! You can also follow us on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for all PureFUN! news and updates.

Share your rainy day activity ideas with us by commenting below! We love to hear from you!

Indoor Scavenger hunt for preschoolers!

Need a fun project for your little ones on those rainy days when you’re stuck inside? We have some great ideas to share with you!

An easy option is to create an Indoor Scavenger Hunt. You can choose any items you would like to hide around the room. Students could work as a class, individually, or in teams. You will need to set up the hunt while students are out of the room. Before school or even during lunch or music would be a great time to do this! You can place items anywhere in the room or restrict it to a smaller area. Remember that your students are shorter than you. You will want to keep their height’s perspective in mind when placing your items. Under tables, on top of cabinets, or just in plain sight, there are lots of fun places in the classroom to hide things!

Now you will need a list of the items that the students will be searching for. You could provide them with a check list or write the items on the board. Items can either be collected or simply located. If students are locating the item, have them write down where they found it. This will allow you to check their page to see if they’re right. If you have enough items for everyone to collect, then we suggest taking that route. Students will love collecting the items as they go!

Items can be just about anything you want. You could use more generic items that could easily be found around the room, like a paper clip or a pencil, or something a bit more advanced and specific, like a crayon in the color sky blue or a yellow sports ball. It will all depend on how challenging you want the hunt to be.

You can even take your Indoor Scavenger Hunt to the next level by adding in some curriculum. For example, you could focus on letter or number recognition and have them find different letters or numbers. If you wanted to take it even further you could have them spell out words with the letters they find or calculate a math problem with their numbers.

Easter is on its way! Change this up to make an Easter Egg Hunt by hiding eggs instead of just random items. You can fill the eggs with fun little things to give your students a surprise with each find.

Got a fun idea for your scavenger hunt? We want to hear from you! Be sure to share with us by leaving a comment down below.

We have more Rainy Day Activities coming your way! Keep an eye out for more great ideas throughout the month of March.

Indoor activities for Preschoolers

Little ones can get antsy quickly when they are kept inside all day. They need a good activity to help them get their wiggles out and to keep you, teacher or parent, from going a little crazy too. Here’s a fun one that students are guaranteed to enjoy!

Create an indoor obstacle course!

You can even let your students help you create it. All you need is a room with enough space to play, a few obstacles for students to pass through, and a lot of team spirit to cheer on your class as they make their way through the course.

Start by making sure that the area you are placing your obstacle course in is clear and safe for the students. This might mean moving a table or two or making sure items are picked up off the floor. Next you can begin to construct your course.

Obstacles can be created from anything you want. You can easily use items around your classroom or in the toy chest. You could even incorporate some class material. For example, they could write their name in cursive or complete a math problem on a sketch pad as one of the obstacles. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the obstacles you choose! This also allows you to create a new course every time. Students will be excited to see what you’ve come up with on rainy days. Plus, it’s a great way to make sure they are getting their daily exercise.

Here’s an example course:

 Hula hoop 5 times, crawl underneath the table, circle a chair 3 times, correctly answer the math problem, do 10 jumping jacks, go down the slide, make a basket in the basketball goal and sit down. The first team to have everyone through the obstacle course and seated quietly wins!

Foamnasium products are great for indoor play and obstacle courses!

Be sure to check those out HERE!

If you need to keep the noise level to a minimum, have your students cheer silently. The faces and expressions are sure to make you giggle as they cheer on their team without making any sounds! This will allow them to show their team spirit, maintain good sportsmanship and not disturb nearby classes at the same time.

Planning on trying out an indoor obstacle course? We want to see what you come up with! Send us pictures of your course and you may see yours featured in a future post! Stay tuned for more indoor activities and ideas for those yucky weather days.

Fun Floor Games for your classroom

Finding fun, new teaching methods is one of the best ways to help your students learn. Using games that allow them to interact with the material and visualize concepts is a great way to bring a little fun to any lesson. Some of the best resources for games are Daycare Floor Carpets.

Here are some great games to use with some of our carpets!

The Fishing for Literacy floor carpet can be used to help teach your students counting and the alphabet.

Teach your children to count by having them feed the fish! Simply place a bowl next to each and have your students take turns feeding each fish the proper number of worms. You can use our Wiggly Jiggley Worm Counters or even gummy worms for a tasty treat when the game is completed. If your students are already masters of counting, have them solve math problems instead. Begin by giving a student a math problem. For example, what is 3+4. Then let the student feed 7 worms to the number 7 Fish. This is a great method for keeping your students engaged and making math fun!

If your students need a little help learning their letters, then this product is perfect. The ring of bubbles containing letters is just right for an alphabet song sing-a-long. Have a student lead the class in practicing the alphabet by standing on the A bubble. As the song continues, they will follow each letter as they go by stepping or hopping in turn while the rest of the class sings the alphabet song.

The Blocks of Fun Rectangle is another great teaching resource. With its brightly colored squares, each labeled with shapes, numbers, and letters, it pairs perfectly with the Fun with Phonics Kit Squares and the Shapes and Numbers Squares. Your students will have a blast playing their very own giant matching game! They will become experts in their letters, shapes, and numbers all while having fun.

Let’s not forget about colors! Help your youngsters learn their colors with the Rainbow Rows Seating Rug. Use this great piece to play fun color matching games with the younger students or use it to help your older students learn to read. For the youngsters, hold up colored paper and have your students run to the right color on the rug. For reading practice with the older students write a color up on the board and have them find the color on the rug.

Be sure to take pictures of your children playing games on our rugs and share them with us on our Facebook. While you’re there, like us to get updates and even more games and craft ideas!