30+ Games to Play Inside with Kindergarteners and Older Kids
Let’s play some indoor games! Fight the boredom of staying inside with these fun and entertaining games and activities for kids of all ages. There are always days when kids are stuck inside to play. Often it is due to weather, but there are tons of other reasons why outdoor play may not be an option! That is why we have collected more than 30 Stuck Inside Games to play.
FUN THINGS TO DO INDOORS WITH KIDS
Check out these fun active indoor activities for kids that make a good list of indoor games to play! Whether it is a rainy or snowy day that keeps you stuck inside or you are looking for an indoor game for a party, we have all the fun ideas…
KIDS’ GAMES TO PLAY INSIDE
1. Cardboard Ski Competition
Cross-Country Skiing – This is one of the most genius ways of upcycling I have seen in a long time! Playtivities created an entire ski set out of cardboard and…well, I am not going to ruin it. Go see for yourself! Oh, and no snow is needed to play this ski game!
2. Target Practice
Paper Airplane Rings – I adore this from All for the boys! Add “targets” themed for something your child is currently learning or you could make targets to get kids throwing and fetching. This is such a fun game to play indoors.
3. Building Games for Kids
Cardboard Tube Construction – Use empty cardboard rolls to build a unique structure. Picklebums painted theirs in bright colors, but this idea works just as well without the paint!
4. Math Games that are Fun
Math Pattern Hop – Learning to skip count can be a very interactive experience! This could easily be done in doors with painters’ tape instead of chalk.
5. Toddler Tennis
Balloon Tennis – Toddler Approved has a fun idea to allow her kids to play tennis indoors! Kristina replaced a tennis ball with a balloon. I think their racquets are very creative!
6. DIY Bowling
Recycled Bottle Indoor Bowling – Learn with Play at Home has a fun and simple craft that turns bottles into a bowling game perfect for indoor energy expenditure.
7. After-Dark Games for Kids
Flashlight Games – The fun doesn’t have to stop when night falls! There are all sorts of fun games to play after dark.
8. Marble Competition
DIY Marble Run – Buggy and Buddy’s kids created a fun marble run from things they had around the house. My kids would love, love, love this!
9. Indoor Playground
Cardboard Stair Slide – Everyday Best has perfected the absolute gold standard of outdoor kids activities moved indoors, a slide!
10. Obstacle Course Run
Super Mario Obstacles – Inspired by the favorite video game, you can create an obstacle course that would stump kids to get to the next level.
11. Kinetic Sand Play
How to make kinetic sand – A fun science project that doesn’t feel school-like.
INDOOR Games for Kids at Home
12. Let’s Play a Game of Croquet!
Homemade Indoor Croquet – Toddler Approved has a fun indoor game for kids of all ages {my husband would adore this}. She and her kids created a indoor croquet game with all sorts of upcycled household items.
13. DIY Mini Golf Game
Mini Golf – Create a tin can mini golf course just like The Craft Train!
14. Simple Toss Game
DIY Ball and Cup Game – We adore this simple upcycle to create a game that can be played by two or even alone. There is no reason to leave your recycling bin untouched!
15. Pranks
Prank Ideas – Funny pranks for all ages that can be played on kids, and that kids can do to anyone.
16. Let’s Play Store
Play Store – This fun idea from Kids Play Space is a shoe store! At first this doesn’t sound very active until you see the pictures of her kid playing! What fun.
17. Juggling Game
Learn to Juggle – Use these super fun-to-make juggling balls to inspire a bit of coordination practice. Is the circus in your child’s future?
18. Sticky Math Toss Game
Sticky Toss Game – Kids will love this game from Mess for Less. She and her kids have all sorts of fun with a simple to make math target game.
19. DIY Playdough
How to Make Playdough – Super easy activity to engage the kiddos and give spark their creativity.
20. Host an Indoor Snowball Fight
Indoor Snowball Fight – Coffee Cups and Crayons will have the “snow” flying around your living room in no time. This activity can have a fun learning component too!
FUN INDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
21. Host Carnival Games
Cardboard Box Carnival Games – Oh! I can’t wait to do this fun project from What Do We Do All Day?! Your recycling bin can be emptied and transformed into a carnival.
22. Catapult Distance Competition
Catapult Competition – Everyone builds in this game and then let the contest begin!
23. DIY Sumo Wrestling Competition
Sumo Wrestling – Get Dad’s shirt out and a set of pillows, this is a BLAST!
24. Let it Snow Game
Fake Snowstorm – This is crazy messy which means it probably is crazy fun! The Playtivities kids created an indoor snowstorm!
25. Guess the Animal Game
Animal Charades – These printables from Buggy and Buddy will have kids acting like a zoo! What a fun way to shake out the wiggles.
26. Indoor Rocket Fly
Balloon Rocket – This is such a fun science activity and if you string up the clothes line indoors, it would be easy indoor fun!
27. Pillow Case Sack Races
Pillow Case Races – The Meaningful Mama kids had a ton of fun with their modified gunny sack race!
28. Indoor Hopscotch
Hopscotch – The Happy Hooligans made a indoor hopscotch track. What I love is that it could be modified for all sorts of jumping and hopping fun.
29. Craft Stick Games for Kids
Grab a Handful of Craft Sticks – A few craft sticks and a kid or two can be the perfect combination for any of these 15+ active ways to play indoors.
30. Lego Table DIY
Lego Table for Kids – A DIY lego table is easy to do and the best part is that you can customize it to your space!
31. Olympic Yoga for Kids
Winter Olympics-inspired Yoga – These fun poses from Kids Yoga Stories will get even the most reluctant yoga participant stretching and holding with enthusiasm.
32. Paper Airplane Competition
Paper Airplane Designs – See who can catch the most air with these simple paper airplane designs.
33. Homemade Racquet Game
Racquet Game – Even if there is no one to play with, this simple activity from Frugal Fun 4 Boys will keep kids bouncing and running in circles to keep playing.
34. Road Building Game
Build a Road – A roll of masking tape is the perfect way to create highways and streets all over your home. Watch out for traffic!
PLAY INDOOR FOR TODDLERS
35. Indoor Climbing Game
Climb a Beanstalk – Inspired by the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, 3 Dinosaurs and her kids created a painted beanstalk and then worked on several creative ways for Jack to climb it!
36. Castle Building Game
Build a Castle – This cardboard box was transformed into a dwelling fit for a queen or king. I love how KC Edventures’s kids created something really special.
37. Milk Jug Toss Game
Milk Jug Toss – Creative Connections for Kids has a upcycling project that will give hours of play. A pom pom, a string and a milk jug becomes an active toy.
38. Draw a Car
How to Draw a Car – This simple guide shows how to draw cars for even the smallest beginner.
39. Spider Web Toss Game
Avoid the Web – Create a spider web for kids to negotiate just like Hands On As We Grow.
Games to play with Kindergarteners
Kindergarteners have a lot of energy, but they don’t have many places to expend it especially inside. Here are some games that will help get out those wiggles!
40. Games for Kindergarteners that are Hands On
- Kindergarten Science Game – Let’s play a paper airplane game together. You build one and I will build one and then we are going to watch what happens when we change the airplane design.
- Learning to Tell Time through Games – There are a bunch of fun telling time games if your Kindergartener is learning how to read a clock or watch – playful and educational fun for kids.
- Hands On Memory Challenge – This simple to set up what’s missing game will have Kindergarten age kids in stitches within minutes! Can you fool them and remove something they won’t remember?
- Gross Motor Game for Kindergartners – Make and play this simple homemade bowling game with things you can find in your recycling bin. Kids can practice their aim and coordination while bowling inside.
- Taking Turns Game – One of my favorite games here at Kids Activities Blog is our printable board game for kids that is themed outer space. Kindergarteners can learn sequencing and taking turns while playing this simple and fun activity.
- Kindergarten Reading Skills Game – Let’s make sight word games! Grab a big beach ball and add your child’s reading and sight words to it and create one of the easiest learning games that actually work!
- Seek and Find Games – Our easy hidden pictures printable game will have kids looking for what is beyond the image and find the hidden pictures.
- Classic Games Kindergarteners Need to Know – If your child hasn’t played tic tac toe yet, we have a really fun way you can make and play your own tic tac toe board for a competitive game that every kids needs to know how to play.
- Kids Anatomy Game – Learning about anatomy will come naturally to kids this age. Play our skeleton game to learn the names of the bones.
- Listening Games for Kids – Remember the telephone game? We have a slightly updated version that includes creating one of those string and can telephones that can help kids with listening skills.
- Follow Directions Game – OK, most games will have some level of direction following skill building. I absolutely love this easy to create following directions game that will have kids listening and then acting carefully!
INDOOR Games for Kids by Age Group
Age 5 is the perfect age to play games. 5 year olds are curious, have a longer attention span than younger kids, are developing competitive motivation and are innately curious. Any of the games on this list can be modified for a 5 year old and the Kindergarten level games listed are picked out especially for them!
5 year olds can make almost any activity into a game or play! Use any of these listed games as a play prompt for continued activity. What that means is you might get started playing a game, but your Kindergartener gets distracted or wants to explore something beyond the rules of the game…that is good! Right now it is all about learning and exploring and not necessarily just rigidly following game rules.
6 year olds are starting to explore what true game play is all about. They will be more concentrated on rules and fairness and how to beat the game. As kids mature, games can get more complicated and longer. Exploring board games, sports and other ways kids can get involved with competition can foster these skills.
Starting around the age of 8, many kids will have the desire to participate in the strategy family board games that we all love. 10 year olds often not only have the desire, but the ability to be competitive in family games. Our favorite list of strategy board games for kids has some of the best bets for fun games with simple instructions that the entire family will love to play.
11 year olds and up are the perfect age for family board games, sports and almost anything you can think up that is competitive. They can play any of the games on our list of games for kids and in many situations, not only set the game up but be the referee as well!
Whew! All those should be helpful in burning a few calories!
I have set up a Pinterest Board specifically to collect active kid activities and healthy kid food ideas called Healthy Living for Kids. <–Click here to see it!
Please stop by and follow for more fun and games to play…
Games to Play for Kids – More Ideas
- Celebrate the 100th day of school with these 100 day shirt ideas.
- Painted Rock Ideas for Kids
- Tasty ways for how to eat Irish soda bread
- Preschool activities for 3 year olds
- A homemade blueberry muffin recipe the whole house will love!
- Have you ever wondered how do you get hiccups?
- You have to try this easy crockpot chili
- Easy crazy hair day ideas
- Check out these cool Loom bracelet ideas
- Pokemon Printables
- 21 easy Make Ahead Recipes
- Tons of fun science experiments to do at home
- Feed your fluttery friends with this butterfly food recipe.
- Cute Fall Coloring Pages
- Easy Solar System Model for Kids project.
- More than one recipe for puppy chow
- Printable Christmas coloring pages
- Sweet, funny jokes for kids
- It’s a big trend to dig a little deeper on: Melatonin for 1 year olds
What was your kids favorite game? Did we miss something that your kids love to play indoors?
Looks like a lot of fun. can’t wait to try these indoor games with my kids! Thanks!
Thanks Amber for catching that! I just corrected it.
Thanks so much for including me in this fabulous round-up. I need to use some of these ideas today with my kids. I’ll be sharing.
Thanks for featuring our pyramid crash! We had so much fun using something we always have plenty of!
These stuck inside games are super. Love that you guys are spreading the word about the childhood obesity by giving the ideas how to get kids moving. And of course thank you so much for including 2 of Playtivities activities.
What an awesome round up! (and thanks so much for including Kids Play Space’s Shoe Shop!) I’ve just shared on fb – but honestly, I am in love with all of your ideas and round ups – my head is hurting from inspiration!!
Look at the children play, I am very happy
haha Fake Snowstorm – This is crazy messy which means it probably is crazy fun! The Playtivities kids created an indoor snowstorm!
Awesome creatives for my kids.
This is an awesome list!
Love these indoor games for kids — so many things! So much fun.
Nice Article…Great game ideas for kids.
This is largely due in part to the number of videos that they have available online giving kids all sorts of fun things to do inside.
I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable about fun and games. therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
Great game ideas for the kids, you guys are great, thank you.
Love it, it’s definitely important to know how to do this properly and efficiently, clients LOVE these games.
KK, I love these games for sure, I am looking for more.
Let children play and be creative.
That was a really interesting list of games and I am sure kids will have a great time playing these games. Some of activities would even help to bring out the creative side of kids and even encourage them for awesome imaginative play, which is also very important to learn as they grow. Thanks for sharing these ideas with us. Must say, enjoyed reading this blog a lot.
Thank you for sharing this useful article information. I am really impressed with the article you provided.
The games you share are very interesting and interesting. I really like these games.
Just started to learn coding and it both hard and interesting, I enjoy it.
Superb Blog! Thanks for sharing valuable information.
Thanks Richard! I am glad you enjoyed the games for kids.
Great post, There are excellent details you posted here.
We had so much fun using something we always have plenty of!
KK, I love these games for sure, I am looking for more. Thanks
I hope you enjoy them!
The games you share are very interesting and interesting. I really like these games.
We are so glad that you are enjoying them! 🙂