Organizing Indoor Recess Toys

Let’s chat about indoor recess–

Who knew that two little words could cause such a stir in teachers!? All teachers know that students NEED to be able to get that energy OUT! But the reality is that there are days when good ole mother nature has other ideas and we are stuck within the four walls of our classroom with lots of energetic bodies needing something to do for fifteen or so solid minutes! It’s a crazy, daunting, and often chaotic mess! With all of the frigid temperatures and snow, we have actually had more indoor recess days than outdoor days this winter.

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Two things have saved my sanity:

(1) having a good supply of indoor recess games

(2) having an organization system for the indoor recess toys!

Having a good supply of indoor recess activities is invaluable! I stocked up at yard sales and Goodwill. I also tried to get a mixture of board games, building blocks, puzzles, and activities. My kids favorite thing to play is the bristle building blocks (you know the ones that we had growing up)–they could play these things for hours!

Can I be honest though–when I first started getting a good supply of indoor recess toys I began to DREAD having my students get them out because they never seemed to be put back away. Pieces would be missing or out of the box and things would be jammed and crammed into the shelves. Drove me batty!! One summer it hit me–everything else that ran smoothly in my room had a system and a routine. For things like supplies and centers the students knew where to get things, how to put them away, and what I expected out of them. Shouldn’t it work the same for indoor recess? After putting a system in place, I found that it does!!

Organizing your indoor recess toys and games is very simple and easy! Get some labels–I just used the Avery mailing labels. Put a label on each box and bin. Everything on shelf 1 is marked with a 1. Everything that is only shelf 2 is marked with a 2. Then designate where each item will go on the shelf by using a shape after the shelf number.

I put a matching label on the actual shelf so that my students know where to put back the toys and games after they get them out!

This has helped indoor recess SOO much!

 I also have a couple of important rules for using the indoor recess toys and games:

1. Only 1 game or toy at a time. If you finish with one you MUST put it back before you get out another one.

2. Toys and games must be shared. No arguing over toys or games. If there is arguing over a toy or game no one gets to play the game or toy during recess. (Trust me-take away a toy once and your students know you mean business!)

3. All games/toys go back with the matching label and the label always faces out.

4. If toys and games are not taken care of they will be retired/removed from the shelves until further notice.

I modeled and explained the rules at the beginning of the year and reset the expectation each time we have indoor recess. I know some of these rules may seem harsh, but I truly believe that it is important for students to learn to be respectful and responsible. I also believe that when you set a high standard students can and will rise to meet the expectation. Of course you have some years where the mixture of students causes a few more issues than others, but I have used this system for the past couple of years and it has eliminated so much of the chaos of indoor recess!

Because I like to keep things tidy and nice, all of my indoor recess games and toys are kept on this shelf behind a curtain. The curtain is only removed and the games/toys are only used for indoor recess–I find that having these toys/games exclusively for indoor recess helps the kids to be excited to use them!