Indoor Playground Activities for Preschoolers

Sardines

• To prepare for a game of Sardines, read aloud the book "Where's Brooke?" by Ellen Javernick. Then play the song "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" while all of the students except one hide their eyes and count. The one student hides and waits on her classmates to find her. As students, one by one, find the hidden student, they join her in the hiding spot, too (they are packed like sardines--get it?). The last person to find the students gets to hide next.

Dance Dance Dance

• Dance Dance Dance is a game that really gets preschoolers moving around and having fun. There are several ways to go about this. You can read "I Am: I Am a Dancer," by Eleanor Schick, and the students will have to mimic the movements in the book while you read. Other fun songs, such as "The Chicken Dance" or "Under The Sea" from "The Little Mermaid" also can be played while the children dance.

The Classics

• When all else fails, revert to the classics. Red Light, Green Light, Twister and Telephone are games that students enjoy indoors. For Red Light, Green Light, have the children line up on the opposite side of the room from you and call out "green," "yellow" or "red," instructing them to go, slow down or stop. Twister, which can be found in store toy departments, involves a plastic sheet filled with colored dots. Children are instructed to put a hand or leg on a specific color, and eventually they're all over the board, laughing hilariously. To play Telephone, think of a funny phrase and whisper it to the first child. She whispers the phrase to the second child, who whispers to the next child, and so on. At the end of the line, it's fun to find out what the last child thinks the phrase was.

Races

• If a gym is available, an assortment of races can be fun. Make them silly, like walking quickly with your finger on your nose, or crab walking. If scooters are available, the kids could race them. If there are just a few, have a tournament, with a few students racing at a time, and then the winners racing one another.

Imaginary camping

• For imaginary camping, all you need is a table, a sheet and a flashlight. Everyone can gather in the "tent" to tell stories, take an imaginary swim in the lake or get chased by an imaginary bear (that might be you). This activity can even facilitate conversation about certain plants and other nature topics.