Fun warm-up activity and game ideas

Name Pictionary
First, students write their names by drawing a picture of something
that correlates to each letter of their name. Then, have the group
spell out the name and guess the child’s name.

For example:

A child named Alex might draw an apple, lightbulb, elephant, and

xylophone.

Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

Sing the classic song to learn everyone’s names!

Have kids sing “Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?” Then,
they chant as you sing “_____ (name) stole the cookies from the
cookie jar. The child says “who me?” “Yes you!”

Then everyone sings, _______ (name) stole the cookie from the
cookie jar. Continue until you’ve done everyone in the room.

Show and Tell

First, have each child bring something from home to tell the group
about.

Then, sit in a circle and share. Let other children ask one or two
questions about the special possession as well.

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Telephone
Telephone is another great ice breaker for kids and it’s suitable for all

ages and stages. To play, one person comes up with a phrase or saying

(the sillier the better!) and whispers it into the ear of the person next to

them. That person then whispers it to the next person, and once it has

been whispered to the final person in the group, he or she must say the

phrase out loud. The words almost always get mixed up, resulting in

something completely different than what was originally said!

Mystery Socks
Choose five or ten socks. Hide one object from around the house in
each sock.

Let each person feel the socks, but no peeking!

Assign each sock a number and have the kids number a piece of
paper.

Have them write down their guesses on the paper, and then slowly
reveal the hidden objects and see who guessed correctly!

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Quiet Flower Petals
Choose a flower with many petals, like a daisy or a rose.

Place the flower in front of the children and ask them to study it for
a few minutes.

Then ask them to guess how many petals it has and write down the
number.

Now pull off the petals carefully and, together, count the number of
petals.

Whoever had the most accurate guess, wins.

Team Scavenger Hunt

This will require a bit of upfront work on your part, but it’s a great way
to get your students to work collaboratively and it can be extremely fun
and engaging! Divide your class into teams of 4 or 5 and provide them
with a set of clues to see who can work together to find all of the items
the fastest. What I love most about scavenger hunts is that you can
create subject-specific scavenger hunts to compliment your lesson
plans.

What's missing?
Place 10 items from your bag on the table in front of you. Have kids try
to memorize items for 10 seconds. While their eyes are closed remove 1-
3 items. After opening their eyes, kids try to remember what is missing.

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Mirror mirror
Kid and teacher face each other. The child starts moving very slowly and
the teacher tries to mirror the movements as closely as possible. Or, two
children can mirror each other and the class tries to guess who is
leading the movement.

Make me laugh
Without touching the other person, make them laugh. Optional: make
this a silent game.

Story Time Clap

Another great quiet game to play with your preschoolers includes
some clapping. Choose to either tell a story or read a book. Then,
whenever you say a particular word or phrase throughout the
story, the children must clap each time they hear it.

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Touch and Feel Box
A touch-and-feel box is another fun activity for your kids. First,
collect some items that have unique textures. Then, put them in a
box or a bag you can’t see through.

Go around the room and have everyone quietly touch and feel one
of the items. Once everyone has had a turn, have them share what
they think is in the bag.

See how many children guessed an item correctly.

I Spy
I Spy can be played both indoors and outdoors. The rules go as
follows:

• One person picks an object in the room.

• Then, they say, “I spy with my little eyes, something …”
followed by the colour of their object.
• The rest of the group takes turns guessing what that
object could be.
• The person can only answer yes or no.

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Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button
Button, Button, Who’s got theButton is another quiet game to
play indoors with a group of children. Everyone sits in a circle with
their hands out, and their eyes closed.

One person takes a button and goes around the circle pretending
to put the button in everyone’s hands. The person will put the
button in one person’s hands.

Once they finish with the circle, everyone opens their eyes and
tries to guess who has the button. Once the group finally guesses
who has the button, they get to go around the circle to give it to
someone else.

Scavenger Hunt
Before you take your children outside, prepare a list of things you
want them to look for. You can print off a picture of each item for
them to identify outside.

You can then let them go together in small groups or all at once,
trying to find each item on the list.

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Simon Says
Kids love this game, and it’s a great way to help kids shed excess energy
when you’re in need of indoor recess activities on bad weather days!
Have each student stand at their desks or ask them to gather in an area
where there is more room for them to move around, and then lead
them through different gross motor movements: ‘Simon says stand on
one leg’, ‘Simon says do 3 jumping jacks’, ‘Simon says hop like a bunny’,
etc. At some point throughout the game, provide a command without
saying ‘Simon says’ first, and whomever completes the movement is
out. Continue playing until you have a winner, and then appoint that
person to become ‘Simon’.

Heads Up, 7-Up

Choose 7 students to come to the front of the room, and have the rest
of the students sit at their desks with their heads down and one thumb
raised in the air. Next, ask each of the 7 students to tap one student on
the back (or thumb) before returning to the front of the room and then
say, ‘HEADS UP, 7-UP!’. Each student who was tapped must stand up
and has one chance to guess who tapped them. If they guess correctly,
they swap places. If they don’t, they sit down.

Listen closely
Determine a word or phrase to listen for. Everyone stays quiet until they
hear someone else in the waiting area say that word or phrase.

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Imaginary Traveler
Taking turns, and continuing with consecutive letters of the alphabet,
kids imagine where they might go and what object they want to take
along on their trip. For example, "I'm going to Aunt Amanda's and I'm
taking my Aardvark." "I'm going to Bermuda and I'm taking my Blue
Balloon." Encourage participants to be as silly as possible.

Class Pet
Pretend that you have a new class pet. Explain to students that they will
need to guess the type of animal. Students will need to ask questions and
write their guesses on a piece of paper when they think they have figured
out the new class pet.

Strike a pose
Explain to students that they are going to pretend that they are in a
photograph. They will need to imagine that the photo was taken at the
height of the event. All they have to do is strike a pose after you give
them a situation. For instance, you might say, "haunted house," and then
students would freeze in a pose that shows them frightened or terrified.

And then……..
This is a listening game for the entire class. Students will need to listen
to and add to a growing story. You'll start the story with an opener like,
"At the zoo, I decided to open the lion's cage, and then..." Next, you'll
call on a student to explain what happened next. That student will add
one line and the phrase "and then" before selecting another student to
add to the story.

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Pass the Expression
This circle time game is great for practicing eye contact and learning emotions.

• The adult can choose which emotion to pass (a wink, smile, frown,
etc.) and begins by expressing that emotion to one child.
• That child must then repeat the emotion to the child next to them
until the expression has gone all the way around the circle.