[Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
Lively, fun recreation games that get elementary school kids excited! Whether in the classroom or the gym, there are plenty of activities that bring smiles to everyone’s faces.
Here, we’ll introduce fun ideas ranging from team-versus-team cooperative games and brain-teasing hiragana quizzes to active ball tag—everything from no-equipment options to games you can enjoy with simple prep.
These games help deepen friendships and reveal new sides of each other, so be sure to enjoy your time with friends through play!
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Brainy, Quiz & Deduction, and Educational Games (11–20)
A game that builds arithmetic skills
@take_homestudy A game with simple setup and rules that builds math skillsTranslationEducationalParenting
♫ Otonoke – Creepy Nuts
You only need three things! Here are some game ideas that build math skills.
Strengthening math skills fosters calculation ability and logical thinking, which are useful in many situations.
This time, let’s try some games using paper, a pen, and dice.
If you don’t have dice, you can write the numbers 1–6 on paper cards and draw from them instead.
Take turns writing the numbers rolled on the dice into the squares, and the person who makes a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line that sums to 10 wins.
It’s a simple game!
Memory Shiritori
Speaking of shiritori, it’s a game where you link words by using the last syllable of the previous person’s word, right? But in this “Memory Shiritori,” not only do you keep linking words, you also have to remember every word that’s been said since the game started as you continue.
It gets tough as the chain grows longer, but it trains your memory while you play and is quite rewarding.
The key to remembering is to think of words that are highly related to the previous one and connect them.
Give it a try!
Photo guessing quiz
How about asking everyone to bring a childhood photo and enjoying a “Guess Who?” photo quiz? Some people may look exactly the same, while others might look completely different from when they were little.
If childhood feels a bit embarrassing, baby photos are fine too.
It’ll be harder, but that might make it even more fun.
You could also create multiple-choice options.
If you can identify someone from their baby photo, that’s impressive! Try guessing from the eyes or the feel of their smile.
A game about finding the correct moves
Act out the prompt’s movement and have others guess it.
For example, if the prompt is “forward roll,” the guesser should try various movements that come to mind.
The children around, who know the prompt, should react to each movement.
Decide in advance how to react when the movement is close to the prompt—for example, by cheering.
Using those reactions, the guesser narrows down the correct answer.
It’s also fun to have multiple guessers or to play team versus team.
You don’t need any materials, it’s a simple game, and it’s sure to get everyone excited.
Hasami Shogi
Serious shogi is great, but if you have a shogi board and pieces, you can enjoy a casual game like this.
All you need are the board and eighteen pawn pieces.
Players capture each other’s pieces by sandwiching the opponent’s piece between their own.
Pieces move only vertically and horizontally, like the rook, so it’s easy to learn, yet there are many techniques—making it perfect for a mental workout.
Hiragana Rearrangement Quiz
It’s a game where you rearrange scrambled hiragana to form words.
Is this a game that every elementary school student has played at least once? It’s easy with about three letters, but as the number of characters increases, the difficulty goes up and it gets pretty tough.
Various levels of quiz videos are featured on free video-sharing sites, so give them a try.
If you’re doing this as a school recreation activity, I think it’ll be exciting to show a bunch at once on the blackboard or on paper and have students buzz in to answer quickly.
stereo game
This game is called a “stereo game.” A word is divided into groups according to the number of characters, and each group is spoken simultaneously; the person who is “it” tries to guess the word.
In particular, words that share the same vowel sounds are much harder to distinguish when spoken at the same time than words composed of different vowels, so it might help to keep that in mind when choosing words.
Focusing intently on listening is really fun—you’ll want to play over and over.
It goes more smoothly if you decide on the target word in advance.
