If you think about kids stuck indoors, you might wonder how to keep them entertained, but don’t fret; there are plenty of games to keep the little ones occupied. Ranging from classic games and board games to card games and more unique games that the kids will love, here are the best indoor games for kids you’ve got to know! These games are a must for any teacher, parent, or party host. Let’s get into them!
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CLASSIC INDOOR GAMES FOR KIDS
These games are classics for a reason. These classic indoor games for kids are a hit for any situation: at a classroom, party, or even if you want to play a game with just you and your child.
1. HIDE AND SEEK
Hide and Seek is great because you can play this simple game with as few or as many people as you want! One player is “it”. “It” must count to a predetermined number, generally ranging from 20 to 100, depending on how big the space is. While “it” counts, every other player must hide as best as they can. When “it” is done counting, they must look for the other players. The last person to be found is the winner!
This is one of our favorite games to play when the weather is not cooperating. Here are more rainy day games for more like this!
2. TWISTER
- WHO’S GOT THE MOVES: Classic Twister gameplay challenges players to place...
- GIVE THE SPINNER A WHIRL: See where it lands and make a move. Right foot red,...
- INDOOR ACTIVITY FOR KIDS: Stuck inside. The Classic Twister game is an...
Twister is a super fun game you can play both indoors and outdoors. With this physical game, you can easily tire out the kids without too much effort. This game comes with with game mat and a spinner. The moderator spins the spinner and calls out what it lands on, which will be a color and a body part. The players must place the given body part on a circle of that color. Whoever loses their balance at any point in their game is out!
There will be a lot of twisting involved in this game, so make sure you stretch out beforehand to avoid any injuries.
3. CHARADES
One of our favorite indoor games for kids is Charades. The great thing about this game is that you do not need to prepare anything beforehand – absolutely no materials required. To play, one player must stand up and act out a given word, such as an animal or object. Every other player must try to guess what that word is! The first person to guess is the next person to act out a word for the rest of the players.
4. DOMINOES
- CLASSIC GAME FOR EVERYONE: This set comes with bright color-dot dominoes,...
- EDUCATIONAL AND FUN: This set of Double-Nine Dominoes teaches kids simple...
- DURABLE STORAGE TIN: Includes convenient sturdy storage tin to keep all of your...
There are many different dominoes games to play, the most common being Straight Dominoes. In this super easy game, players start with a set number of dominoes, usually seven. Then, the first player lays down a random tile from their hand. Every other player must try to match one end of their domino to a domino already on the table. The first player to run out of dominoes wins! If you cannot play one round, you must draw a domino and add it to your hand.
If you want, you can also simply set up the dominoes tall in a shape of your choice to knock them all down by tapping down the first domino in a sequence.
5. JENGA
- Pull out a block without crashing the stack to win at Jenga
- Includes 54 Jenga hardwood blocks, stacking sleeve with instructions
- Simple, solid, and timeless. Each block is three times as long as its width, and...
Almost any family home will have a Jenga tower somewhere in their board game closet. This is a great indoor game for kids that everyone will know how to play. If you need a refresher, just set up the tower first so that three Jenga blocks are set on top of another three perpendicularly until you use up all the blocks. Then, players simply take turns removing a block from the tower and placing the block on top of the tower continuing the pattern. The player that causes the Jenga tower to topple loses the game.
6. PICTIONARY
- Celebrate 40 years of the original classic family drawing game Pictionary!
- Sketch and guess your way to the finish line with this board game for family...
- Features 3 levels of clues, including Learn to Draw clues for younger players...
If you have some kids that would like to express themselves artistically, there’s no better game to play than Pictionary. In this game, you divide the group into teams of 2 to 4. The teams take turns drawing something that their teammates must guess before the time runs out. If their teammates manage to guess their drawing, the team may move their game piece on the board. If they don’t, it’s the next team’s turn! Keep taking turns drawing and guessing until a team gets to the end of the board and correctly guesses the final drawing.
7. I SPY
One of our favorite road trip games is I Spy, a very simple but perfect game for kids to play indoors. In this game, players simply take turns spying something in the room or vicinity. Players must say, “I spy…” and then something about the object without giving it away. Examples include:
- I spy something blue.
- I spy something starting with the letter J.
- I spy something round.
All other players must try their best to guess this object. The first player to guess goes next!
8. 20 QUESTIONS
20 Questions is another game that doesn’t require any preparation beforehand but will still entertain the kids to no end. In this game, one player picks a random object, place, or person. All other players must then ask questions to guess what they are thinking of. But these questions can only be “yes or no” questions, and there’s a hard limit of 20 questions. In other words, the other players only get 20 chances to guess the object, place, or person. The first person to guess goes next!
9. SCRABBLE
- CLASSIC CROSSWORD GAME: Get family and friends together for a fun game night...
- WOODEN TILES AND RACKS: This edition of the Scrabble game features 100 wooden...
- RACK UP THE POINTS: Scrabble letters are worth points, and premium squares on...
Scrabble is probably one of the most popular board games in history, and for good reason. In this classic board game, each of the players has a set of tiles they must use to create words to put onto the game board. Each of the words must be connected in a way that makes sense and is worth a certain number of points. The player with the highest point total by the end of the game wins!
10. CARD GAMES
There are so many great card games for kids out there that it’s difficult to narrow down the best ones to play indoors, but here are just some of our favorites:
INDOOR GAMES FOR KIDS PARTY
Are you hosting a kids birthday party? Whether you are hosting a kids party indoors due to the weather or the chosen venue, here are best indoor games for a kids party that’ll keep all the young ones occupied for hours!
If you’re looking specifically for fast games to play to pass the time, check out the best minute to win it games for kids.
11. INDOOR OBSTACLE COURSE
Let’s start off with an obstacle course. An obstacle course does not have to be played outdoors. It can be played in an indoor area as well. In fact, there may be even more places to hide the items and clues thanks to all the nooks and crannies of an indoor space. Give each player or team a sheet of paper with items they must find around a designated area. The first team or player to tick everything off wins!
12. THE FLOOR IS LAVA
- ENDLESS GAMES PRESENTS: The Floor is Lava! is a family board game that promotes...
- ACTIVE FUN: Turn every floor into an exciting “lava jumping” adventure with...
- EVERYONE LEAP: Real entertainment and laugh out loud fun challenges the whole...
One of the best games for kids aged 5 and up, The Floor is Lava is played exactly how you think it’s played. Set up the game by placing colored “safety stones” around the designated playing area. Then, just like Twister, spin a spinner that dictates which colored stones all the players must go to! But each round, one stone is removed, making it more challenging for everyone to get to the safe stones! The last player remaining is the winner.
13. HUMAN KNOT
In this team-building game, all the players must stand in a big circle. Then, every player must hold two random hands of two different players within the circle. Once this is set up, everyone must work together to untie themselves from one another without letting any hands go.
Human Knot is one of our picks as a great game for church. Here are more church youth group games.
14. PAPER AIRPLANE CONTEST
To play this game, you’ll need a small stack of printer paper. Have all the kids make their best paper airplane. Then, all the kids must stand behind the starting line and throw their airplanes one by one. The player who manages to get their airplane fly the furthest wins!
15. MUSICAL CHAIRS
Musical Chairs is a great birthday party classic that everyone loves to play. In this indoor game for kids, you’ll need to set up a bunch of chairs (one less than the number of children playing) in the middle of a room in a circle, facing outward. Then, start some music. The players must walk around the circle until the music stops. When the music stops, everyone must rush to sit on one of the chairs. Whoever doesn’t manage to find a seat is out! Then, a chair is removed, and another round begins. The last player standing wins the game!
16. FREEZE DANCE
Freeze dance is a super easy indoor game to play that will get all the kids hyped up for the party. Turn on some music and have everybody start dancing. However, whenever you pause the music, everyone must freeze! Whoever caught moving when the music is off is out of the game. Keep playing until only one player is left standing—the winner!
17. SARDINES
You should already be familiar with Hide and Seek, but if you’d like to play a variation of this classic children’s game, play Sardines. In Sardines, only one player hides while everybody else hunts for this person. Anybody who finds the hider must hide with them until only one person is left looking for the hiding place. The last person to find the hider is the hider for the next round.
18. BUILD A FORT
A classic indoor activity that everyone will love participating in is building a fort. Lay out a bunch of chairs and blankets and let the kids at the party build their own fort to hang out in. Provide some snacks and perhaps a laptop for the kids to watch a movie inside the fort once it’s built.
19. RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT
This is a great indoor game that will get the kids moving around. One player acts as the stoplight. The stoplight stands at one side of the room, and everyone else is at the opposite end. The stoplight turns away from the other players and says, “Green light.” When it’s a green light, all players can move towards the stoplight. But at any point, the stoplight may turn around and say, “Red light!” And when it’s a red light, you must freeze in place. Whoever the stoplight catches moving during a red light must return to the starting line. And whoever manages to tag the stoplight first gets to be the stoplight for the next round.
20. LIMBO
Limbo is another classic birthday party game for kids that you can easily play indoors. To get everybody in the mood for some shimmying, turn on some music. Then, two adults must hold a stick or rope that every player must try to go under by bending over backward. If anybody falls or touches the stick or rope during their attempt, they are out! Keep lowering the stick or rope each round until only one player remains—the winner!
INDOOR GAMES FOR KIDS IN THE CLASSROOM
If you want to play some games with your students in the classroom but you’re not sure what to play, we’ve got you covered with these perfect indoor games for kids in the classroom.
21. TELEPHONE
Want to teach your students how rumors can get warped over time? Play Telephone! In this game, everyone lines up in a circle or a long line. Then, you give a sentence to the first person in the line. This person must whisper the chosen sentence to the person next to them. Keep passing on this sentence as quietly as possible. The last player then says the sentence out loud! You might be surprised by how much this sentence changes over the course of the game.
22. HEADS DOWN THUMBS UP
One of our favorite back to school games is Heads Down Thumbs Up. In this indoor kids classroom game, pick 7 students to stand in front of the class. Everyone else must but their heads down and thumbs up. Then, the 7 students go around the classroom and pick a thumb to push down. The 7 students whose thumb was pushed down get to then guess who put down their thumb!
23. BINGO
Bingo is a relatively easy game that anyone can play! Give each player a unique bingo card filled with words or pictures and a free space in the middle square. The goal of the game? Cross out five squares in a row, column, or diagonal. You can cross out the squares as they are called out one by one. The first person to get “bingo” wins.
24. HOT POTATO
Have every student sit down on the floor in a circle. Then, play some music while the students pass the hot potato around the circle. This “hot potato” can be a beanbag or a ball. Whoever is holding the hot potato when the music is paused is out! Keep playing until there is a winner.
25. SIMON SAYS
Simon Says is another classic everyone in the classroom will enjoy playing. In this game, one player is Simon. Simon must give out commands for everybody else to follow. However, the caveat is that Simon must say, “Simon says” before every command. If Simon doesn’t say “Simon says,” the other players must not follow the command and instead continue doing the previous command. If they do, they are out of the game.
26. DUCK DUCK GOOSE
You can easily play Duck Duck Goose both indoors and outdoors. Have all the players sit in a circle, with one player standing up. This player goes around the circle, tapping everyone’s heads and saying either “duck” or “goose.” However, if they tap someone’s head and say, “Goose,” that player must quickly stand up and chase the tapper around the circle, trying to tag them before they steal their seat. If they manage to steal their seat, they must now tap and say “duck” or “goose.” If they tag the tapper, the tapper is “it” once again.
27. HANGMAN
Play a few rounds of hangman with the classroom if you’ve got some spare time. Think of a word and draw lines to represent each letter of the word. Have the students work together to figure out the word before you finish drawing the hangman!
28. BOGGLE
- FAVORITE WORD SEARCH GAME: Shake up Family Game Night with the Boggle game! It's...
- SPOT THE MOST WORDS: To play, shake up the letters in the grid, flip the timer,...
- Shake up the letters, flip the timer and spot the words fast
Boggle is one of the best word games to play if you have slightly older kids in the classroom who like to spell. While the Boggle word game is too small to play with a whole classroom, you can simply shake the lettered dice and then write them down on a grid on your whiteboard. Then, set a timer and have all the students create as many words as they can using the letters. But all the letters must touch! Words must be at least three letters long. Any words found by other players don’t count. After the round, everyone tallies their scores and the player with the highest total wins!
29. ROCK PAPER SCISSORS TOURNAMENT
Everyone can play rock paper scissors, so why not turn it into a tournament? In this tournament, all the students go up to other students in the classroom to play rock paper scissors. Whoever loses must tag along behind the winner. Keep playing in this manner until there are two finalists who must play rock paper scissors! The winner of this round is the ultimate winner.
30. WHO AM I?
Everyone loves a guessing game. You must prep for this game beforehand by writing down some famous people and characters on some Post-it notes. Make sure these are all names the students are likely to know. Then, stick a Post-it note on the forehead of each student. The students must now go around the classroom, asking their classmates “yes or no” questions in order to guess who is on their forehead.
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