[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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Tag/Chasing-type Games (11–20)
Hide-and-seek
Hide-and-seek is such a popular and simple game, right? But we tend to think of it as a game for little kids, and once we get a bit older we don’t really play it seriously, do we? Let’s try playing hide-and-seek seriously, for real! Even when you know it’s just a game, hiding makes your heart race, doesn’t it? And when there are more people or you play in a big area, it gets really tough.
Cops and Robbers
Keidoro has long been enjoyed as a variation of tag.
Depending on the region, it’s also called Dorokei or Sukue Oni (Rescue Tag).
The rules are the same: the tagger (oni) confines caught players in a designated spot, and other players can rescue those who’ve been captured.
It’s similar to can-kicking (kankeri).
The name Dorokei comes from calling the tagger the police (kei), the players the thieves (doro), and the confinement spot the jail (rouya).
Jungle gyms are commonly used as the jail.
Tail tag game
One of the best games for training reflexes is said to be “Tail Tag.” In this game, players try to snatch towels that stand in for tails.
Unlike regular tag, the roles of chaser and chased switch rapidly, so you have to assess the situation instantly.
By the way, if you play Tail Tag as a team competition, it also helps build teamwork and strategic thinking.
If you don’t have towels, you can substitute by tucking surveyor’s tape into your pants.
You can even use the tape colors to divide into teams.
Red Light, Green Light
Isn’t “Daruma-san ga koronda” a game that people of all ages in Japan have played at least once? While the “it” player chants “Daruma-san ga koronda,” everyone moves closer to them, and when the “it” player turns around, everyone must freeze.
Anyone seen moving has to hold hands with the “it” player.
When the person who got the closest cuts apart the hands the “it” player is holding, everyone runs away at once.
It’s a game that allows for lots of variations.
Crawling tag
When it comes to playing tag indoors, it’s hard to secure enough space, and running around can be dangerous, so it’s not really an option, right? In that case, how about “crawling tag”? As the name suggests, you can only move by crawling! Since crawling makes it hard to move for both adults and children, you can enjoy tag safely even indoors.
Plus, when playing with kids, adults often have to hold back—but with crawling, differences in size and running speed don’t matter, so you can have a fair, all-out match without holding back!
