Wet Playtime Games: 24 For A Classroom On A Rainy Day

Wet playtime is thirty children, one adult, one classroom and forty minutes. It is the hardest room in the school.

These are sorted by how loud they are, because that's the only sorting that matters on a Tuesday in November.

Silent games

• Sleeping lions: everyone lies still. Anyone who moves or laughs becomes a spotter. Buys ten minutes and no teacher will apologise for it.
• The silent line-up: order yourselves by birthday, height or house number without speaking.
• Keeper of the keys: one child sits blindfolded with keys underneath their chair, another tries to take them in silence.
• Wink murder, played silently at tables.
• Splat or the pointing game, played with no sound.
• Dead lions with a timer, and one child as the judge.

Quiet table games

• Boxes, battleships, hangman alternatives and consequences on scrap paper.
• Categories: a letter, then a country, a food, an animal, a name, a film.
• Pictionary in pairs at tables.
• Word ladders and anagram races on the board.
• Guess who I'm thinking of - twenty questions with a class member as the answer.
• Drawing challenges: draw with your eyes shut, draw without lifting the pen, squiggle swap.

Whole-class games with no equipment

• Heads down thumbs up. The undisputed king of wet playtime.
• Simon says, with the teacher trying and failing to catch the last three out.
• The chocolate game, without the chocolate - a dice, a hat and a scarf.
• Zip zap boing, passed round a circle.
• Fizz buzz, counting round the class.
• The name chain: each child repeats every name before theirs.
• Would you rather, read from the board, with hands up for each side.

Games with a bit more noise

• Charades in teams, one team at a time.
• Pass the clap round the circle, speeding up.
• The story chain, one sentence each round the room.
• Guess the sound, played from the whiteboard.
• A quiz in table teams with answers written down, not shouted.
• Musical statues in the space between the tables, if the furniture allows.

Making it work

• One game, properly explained, beats three half-started.
• Start with the loudest game and finish with the quietest. Coming back down is easier than going up.
• Have a five-minute warning before the bell and a tidy-up job for everyone.
• Keep a wet play box: cards, dice, paper, a few board games, a bag of small prizes.
• Nominate two children as game leaders each week. They'll run it better than you will.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Start loud, finish quiet.
• One game explained properly beats three half-started.
• Two children as game leaders each week.

Where to shop next

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• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What games can you play at wet playtime?

Heads down thumbs up, sleeping lions, keeper of the keys, wink murder, categories, boxes and battleships on paper, charades in teams and the silent line-up. Sort them by noise level and finish with the quietest.

What are good quiet classroom games?

Sleeping lions, keeper of the keys, the silent line-up, wink murder and paper games like boxes, consequences and categories. All need nothing but scrap paper and a bit of space.

How do you keep thirty children occupied indoors?

One well-explained game rather than three half-started ones, starting loud and finishing quiet, with a five-minute warning before the bell and a tidy-up job for everyone.

What's the best wet playtime game?

Heads down thumbs up. It's quiet, it involves the whole class, it needs nothing at all, and it has held up for fifty years.

Do you sell games or play equipment?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. Every game here needs a wall, a ball, a piece of chalk or nothing at all, and the only products on this page are our own cards.