Indoor Games for the Classroom on Rainy Days
Four Corners and Alibi Involve the Entire Class
Feb 22, 2009
Rainy days and bad weather days can keep students cooped up in the classroom with no outdoor recess. This can make it a challenge for the teacher to think of new activities and games to play during the recess periods, or to allow the students to take a quick break. The following two games are fun and work for all ages through middle school.
Four Corners
The object of this game is to be the last person standing.
Name the four corners of the classroom room before beginning the game. Examples of names are computer corner, art corner, door corner, teacher’s desk corner. Pick one student to be “It”.
The person who is “It” goes to the front of the room, and with eyes covered, slowly counts to ten. While the “It” is counting, the rest of the students quietly move to a corner of the room. All students must be in a corner by the time “It” finishes counting. Any students that are halfway between corners are out and must sit down at their desks.
“It” keeps his or her eyes covered, and calls out the name of a corner. All the students that are standing in that corner are out and must sit down at their desks. The game continues until only one student is left standing. That student becomes the new “It”.
Once the game is down to four or less students, make the rule that they must each choose a different corner. That ensures that there will always be one winner.
Alibi
The object of this game is to find the perpetrator of a crime.
Send one person out of the room. This person will be the detective. While the person waits outside the room, think of a simple crime. An example of a crime might be that someone stole the teacher’s lunch. Another example might be that someone broke the classroom CD player. Each of the students in the room must think of an alibi for where they were or what they were doing. It can be silly or serious.
Before the detective comes back into the room, choose a criminal. The criminal must think of another alibi, different from the first one, but similar enough to be confusing. For example, if one alibi is, “I was eating fries at the Burger Barn,” the second alibi might be, “I was eating fries at Burger King.”
Have the detective come into the room. The detective moves around the room, asking each student to state their alibi. The detective can ask students their alibis up to three times. All students except the criminal must repeat their alibis exactly the same every time. The criminal must "lie" and change her alibi each time she is asked.
If the detective suspects someone of committing the crime, he can accuse that student. If he guesses correctly, he wins that round, and he gets to choose the next detective. If he doesn’t win, the criminal confesses, and she becomes the next detective.
Two more excellent indoor games are Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone, and Eraser Racer.
On a rainy day, keeping the students engaged after long hours indoors is imperative. Using these games to break up the monotony will help, without creating chaos in the classroom.
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