Wet Breaktime Activities

Brrrrr It’s that time of year again! The cold wind blustering and the rain lashing down can stop us from wanting to go outside, especially when the option of a nice cosy classroom is available.

Just looking at the wind and rain through the classroom windows can bring a shiver or two, so why not make your classrooms nice and cosy for wet playtime? You could close the curtains or blinds and put up some lovely fairy lights, to create a warm and Christmassy feeling.

Of course, with the weather worsening, the likelihood of a wet break time or lunchtime increases. To help your learners make the most of this time, why not try some of our wet break time activities?

Wet Break Time Ideas

Hibernating Hedgehogs and Dozing Dormice Games

Split the class into small groups and ask them to build cosy dens with whatever they can find in the classroom and then pretend to be hedgehogs hibernating. Pick the best den and the quietest hedgehogs for house points.

Sleeping lions is a great group game and will work well with a larger group of children. You could make it more seasonally relevant, by changing the name to a hibernating animal, such as Dozing Dormice or Napping Bats.

Memory Games

Memory games are ideal for making sure children stay focused. You could play the ‘I pack my suitcase’ game which requires each child to remember what the person before packed and add their item to it.

Similarly, the ‘I went to the shop and I bought’ game requires the next child to remember what the child before added to the basket. To help younger pupils with their alphabet, or to make the game a little easier, the items added to the shopping basket could start with the next letter of the alphabet. For example, if child one adds an apple to their basket, child two would have to remember this and then add an item beginning with ‘B’ and the third child something beginning with ‘C’.

Have a Sing-Song

Some children love to sing, especially a group. You could use your indoor break time to sing and practice nursery rhymes. You could even sing songs with associated actions or dances; providing children with physical activity even though they’re stuck indoors.

Activity Bank

With a range of abilities in each class, making sure you have a store of break-time activities will keep all of your learners engaged.

Along with colouring sheets, you can bring out word search and crossword sheets to help with literacy. You can even create a wet play book or folder full of activities that they can colour, draw and play, kept neatly in a drawer and brought out on rainy days. For younger children in Key stage 1, colouring-in and dot-to-dot activities can be a break-time staple.

Cosy Corner

Don’t forget to make your reading corner as cosy as possible to encourage pupils who would like to sit quietly and read. You could add some comfy cushions, bean bags and blankets. Alternatively, bring the whole class together by reading and acting out a play. Give your pupils characters to read and act out so the whole class can be involved in a wonderful story. The play version of Roald Dahl’s BFG is a great choice for this activity.