15 Fun and Simple Games to Start Your School Day

When this whole crisis home school fiasco started, John David, our resident first grader, sat down beside me and laid out exactly how his school day usually goes. He fully expected our distance learning day to mirror the way things run at regular school. Oh, boy, was he set up for disappointment or what? However, this did give me good ideas. This year John David has a teacher who makes school very fun, so she is someone I should be copying.

J.D. explained that every single day they start school with a fun game and going around and sharing about their lives in general. This teacher created such a friendly environment. No wonder he loved school so much. We all live together, so the sharing thing did not work out as well. They get all silly and giggly and really manage to say nothing at all, but the game thing has stuck– like glue. You won’t catch our younger two boys picking up a pencil until they have had their mandatory morning game session.

Game time in the morning is a great idea, and this is why:

1. It promotes a fun, happy atmosphere right off the bat.
2. Kids are actively learning when they play games. They learn skills as well as sportsmanship.
3. What else do they have to look forward to with everything closed? This gives them something.
4. Love grows when you are having fun together.

The boys have several official rules about game time too that I, sometimes begrudgingly, have to stick to:

1. No board games
2. No video games
3. No Go Noodle– That’s supposed to be popular with kids, but my boys hate it.
4. Absolutely NO educational games. No adding sight words, study questions, or math problems to the game. (You know I’ve had to be reminded of that one several times.)

So without further ado, here are a few games we have enjoyed. These are good for all ages, I think, but the ages at play in this house usually range from first through sixth grade.

#1. The floor is lava!

I set up old papers and chairs across the floor. Each player rolls the dice to see how far they get to advance forward to get from start to finish. This was such a big hit that we played about five rounds.

#2. Human board game

We have a ceramic tile kitchen, so we use the tiles as you would the tiles on a traditional game board, like Sorry or Candy Land, only we are the game pieces. I cut out squares of paper and wrote game play instructions on each one like, “Move forward 2, Move backward 2, Move forward 5, Switch places with another player,” etc. Then I shuffled the cards, and on each turn the boys would take the top card and follow the directions. I shuffled the deck each time we finished all 10 so each person didn’t always end up with the same cards.

#3. Hangman

This is one we do most often because it is easy to do. I think of a name of a book, character, or movie, and just play the regular old version of Hangman with a wipe-off board.

#4. Hide and go Seek

….when my feet aren’t hurting too badly

#5. Making Cards

They don’t love it, but sometimes we make birthday/graduation/thank you cards instead of a game. I haven’t paid money for a card in ages. I feel like this should be a natural benefit of having young children.

#6. Hot/Cold

They love this one, and I do not because, well I don’t know why because, but it isn’t my fave. We hide an item. Then they have to come in and find it, using our hot/cold instructions. They will play it over and over again, and I have no idea why they like it so much.

#7. Mad Libs

I love mad libs, but only one of my boys loves them. We’ve only done this one once.

#8. Charades

Well, you all know how charades works. The boys like this one, but I have to be careful to come up with very easy ones for our six-year-old, or he gets upset and gives up. This one can be super fun if you include people that everyone in the game knows and you have to try to act like them. Hilarious!

#9. Pictionary

I haven’t actually done this one yet, but we are planning to try it.

#10. Simon Says — or “Mom says”

Everyone knows how to play this one.

#11. Bingo

We only do this every once in a while because they have this firm belief that the winner should get a prize, and I find that annoying, but I do enjoy Bingo. Maybe just say up front that the prize is a bag of cereal. Haaa!

Free Printable Bingo Cards Here

#12. Twenty Objects

The boys like this much more than I thought they would, probably because it was new and challenging. You put twenty random items on a tray or large plate. Cover it with a dish towel. Start a timer for one minute, and take off the towel. Tell everyone to memorize what is on the tray. When the timer goes off, put the towel back over the tray, and put the tray away. They have to list as quickly as they can everything they can remember that was on the tray. It’s surprisingly challenging!

#13. Four Corners

Another popular one. They love this. One person, “it”, closes their eyes and counts to 10 while everyone scrambles for a corner of the room. Then “it” calls out a corner number. Whoever is in that corner becomes “it.”

This is an easy game to turn into an educational game because whoever is in the corner you call out can answer a question, but in the mornings I am forbidden to do this…

#14. Balloon toss

This is literally just bouncing a balloon around the room.

#15. Monkey in the Middle

You play catch with a third person in the middle who tries to snatch the ball as you toss it. This can get messy in our house, so we really need to do it outside.

or Bonus #16…Trampoline WITH Mom.

If I jump on the trampoline with them, they will count that as a game, but of course, not everyone has the benefit of a trampoline in their backyard, so I didn’t include this one in the fifteen list.

I hope at least one of these ideas will help you bring more joy to your children and your day as a whole. We all need all the joy we can get, right? I am always on the hunt for new game ideas, so please share your own favorites in the comment section below!