Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Never So We Can Always Avoid INDOOR RECESS!

We've had a handful of dreary days here in my neck of the woods and it got me thinking about the dreaded *whispers* indoor recess! *whispers*

Every year during the first week of school, I cross my fingers each day that we avoid the FIRST DAY of indoor recess just for one more day! Eventually that luck runs out though and indoor recess becomes a reality. The day WILL COME when you hear over the announcements "Excuse the interruption. Recess will be indoors today. Thank you." 

Since indoor recess is ultimately unavoidable, it is good to have a plan in place for how you want to manage it. When I was a first year teacher, there were so many parts of teaching that I didn't know I needed to plan for and this was definitely one of them! I can still remember my first day of indoor recess during my first year of teaching---I sat out all the recess choices while the kids were at lunch and when they returned for recess, I let them freely move about and choose what to play with--I gave no introduction, no explanations, no expectations---so to sum this one up I HAD NO CONTROL! 

I can laugh about it now but seriously, what was I thinking?!?!!!!

I definitely had to go back and do damage control the next time we had indoor recess because my kindergarten classroom resembled a zoo with animals gone wild with my what we'll call "laid back" approach of the day prior. LOL!

Now that I've learned my lesson, I always plan for a day when we will "practice" indoor recess. I go over all the choices with the students and explain how to use them. I make the rule that they can freely move about the choices but no more than 5 students can be playing at each choice at a time. We also practice how to clean up indoor recess and what to do when we finish cleaning up. 

Now some of you may be reading this and thinking "Uhhh this is common sense??? Doesn't everyone do this???"  and I agree, it now seems like such an OBVIOUS thing to do. However during the stress of my first year and the MILLION other things racing through my mind, the logistics of indoor recess completely escaped me. 

Another difficult aspect of indoor recess is finding the materials to operate it. Let me tell you, my first few years of teaching left me BROKE AS A JOKE and purchasing materials for indoor recess was at the VERY BOTTOM of my "to-purchase" list.  So my indoor recess choices were less than thrilling to say the least for a very long time. 

I FINALLY have a decent collection of things for the kids to play with. I recommend the following places for building your indoor recess collection:

1. YARD SALES!-- Yard sales are the holy grail for finding cheap toys
2. Buy-Sell-Trade groups on Facebook-Join a local group and search for toys, I found  an ENTIRE rubbermaid of dinosaurs for just $10 last summer
3. Friends/Family--As my niece outgrew her toys, my sister kindly handed them off to me
4. Christmas Sales--During Christmas time, stores like Target and Walmart will have great deals on things like board games--they usually have Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders for $5 at this time
5. THE DOLLAR TREE- Let me tell you, the Dollar Tree is a teacher-on-a-budget's dream come true--I have picked up so many things at a great price from there

Here are some pictures of what I currently have as indoor recess choices

Games

Play-Doh

Baby Dolls and Play Food

Puzzles

Coloring Books

Castle and Barbies (not pictured)

I also rotate the choices of blocks, toy cars, dry-erase boards/markers, dinosaurs and action figures but I forgot to take pictures of those things.  I also do not put out all of these things at once. I usually put out 6 options at a time. 

So there you have it---my run down of how to make lemonade when life gives you lemons (i.e. how to deal with indoor recess). 

How do you organize indoor recess? What choices do you set out for the kids? Any tips on how to build your collection on a budget?