• 25 games
  • Checked October 2026

Fun Games to Play at Recess

Schoolyard games sorted by what the yard has: a ball, a rope, chalk or nothing at all.

Fun Games to Play at Recess

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  1. Four Square Rally: The Court Against Its Record1. Four players take the squares, and nobody is out in this game.2. The ball goes around by the usual four square hit, one bounce in a square and then on to another, while the line counts the hits out loud.3. A miss ends the rally. The player who missed swaps with the first in line, and the count starts again.4. Write the day's record in chalk beside the court for every new four to beat.Agree first: the ball must visit all four squares before any square gets it twice. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 4 to 15. You need: a playground ball, chalk and a four square court.
  2. Double Dutch: Ten Jumps and Out1. Double Dutch has two long ropes, turned in opposite directions by two players, and a jumper between them.2. The turners start slowly and call "ready" when the rhythm is even.3. The jumper runs in, jumps ten times and runs out. A miss ends the turn.4. Rotate: the jumper takes one turner's place, and that turner goes to the back of the line. When everyone has made ten, try for fifteen.Agree first: a miss that the turners caused is taken again, and the line decides whose miss it was. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 3 to 10. You need: two long jump ropes.
  3. Helicopter: Jump the Low Rope1. One player is the pilot and kneels in the middle of a ring of jumpers, holding one end of a long rope.2. The pilot swings the rope in a slow circle along the ground, never higher than an ankle, so that it passes under every jumper's feet.3. A jumper whom the rope touches steps out and counts the turns for the others.4. When three jumpers are left they win, and one of them is the next pilot.Agree first: the rope stays on the ground, and a pilot who lifts it changes places with the last jumper who went out. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 5 to 12. You need: a long jump rope.

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With one ball: four square, wall ball and tetherball 5

  • Doubles Four Square: Two to a Square 1. One way to fit eight players on a four square court. Two partners share each square, and one of them stands just outside its back corner. 2. Play as in four square, except that partners take turns: whoever did not hit last time steps in for the next ball that lands in their square. 3. A pair is out when either partner misses, hits a line or takes two hits in a row. 4. The pair that is out goes to the back of the line together, the pairs below move up a square, and a new pair comes in at square 1. Agree first: whether partners may call "yours" to change the order. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 8 to 16. You need: a playground ball and a four square court.
  • Four Square With a Waiting Line 1. Four square, the way a line of players shares it. One player stands in each of four squares, numbered 1 to 4, and everyone else lines up beside square 1. 2. The player in square 4 serves by bouncing the ball into another square. Whoever owns that square lets it bounce once and hits it with the hands into any other square. 3. You are out if the ball bounces twice in your square, if you hit it out of the court or onto a line, if you catch or carry it, or if you hit it out of turn. 4. The player who is out goes to the back of the line, everyone below moves up a square, and the next in line steps into square 1. Agree first: whether a one-handed hit is allowed. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 5 to 15. You need: a playground ball and a four square court.
  • One Touch Off the Wall, in Order 1. A kicking game for a wall with no windows, played in a set order. The first player kicks a soccer ball against the wall from behind a chalk line. 2. The next player must send it back to the wall with one touch, wherever it has rolled to. 3. Miss the wall, take two touches or kick out of turn, and you take a letter: W, then A, then L, then L. A ball that strikes the wall above head height earns a letter too. 4. Four letters and you are out of the round. The last player in serves the next one. This is one way to play. Agree first: where the side edges of the wall are. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a soccer ball, chalk and a wall.
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With one ball: four square, wall ball and tetherball, continued

  • Tetherball, Wind It to the Pole 1. Two players face each other across the pole, each in their own half. 2. To serve, a player holds the ball and hits it with the free hand. The server sends it one way around the pole, and the other player tries to send it back the other way. 3. Hit with a fist or an open hand. It is a foul to touch the rope, to step into the other player's half, or to hit the ball again before it has circled the pole or been hit back. 4. You win when the rope is wound all the way around the pole in your direction. The winner stays, and the next player in line comes in. Agree first: after a foul, does the other player get a free wrap or only the serve? Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 2 to 8. You need: a tetherball pole.
  • Wall Ball, Bounce Before the Wall 1. A wall game for any number, played in a set order. Chalk a court on the ground in front of a wall that has no windows. 2. The first player serves: one hit with the hand, so that the ball bounces once on the ground and then strikes the wall. 3. The next player in the order hits it back the same way, ground before wall, with a single hit and no catching. Off the wall, the ball's first bounce must land inside the court. 4. A player who misses, catches the ball, hits the wall before the ground or sends the ball out of the court sits out until the next round. The last one in wins. Agree first: a ball that hits a crack and skips sideways is played again, and when a call is argued, the players who were not part of it decide. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 2 to 10. You need: a small bouncy ball or a tennis ball, chalk and a wall.

Jump rope games 6

  • Copy the Leader in the Long Rope 1. Two turners swing a long rope. The first jumper in line is the leader. 2. The leader runs in and does one thing in the rope before running out: a half turn, a touch of the ground, three hops on one foot. 3. Everyone in line copies it, one after another. A jumper who misses or forgets the move takes over from a turner. 4. When the leader comes around again, they keep the first move and add a second. After three moves, the next player in line leads. Agree first: whether brushing the rope without stopping it counts as a miss. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 4 to 10. You need: a long jump rope.
  • Double Dutch: Ten Jumps and Out 1. Double Dutch has two long ropes, turned in opposite directions by two players, and a jumper between them. 2. The turners start slowly and call "ready" when the rhythm is even. 3. The jumper runs in, jumps ten times and runs out. A miss ends the turn. 4. Rotate: the jumper takes one turner's place, and that turner goes to the back of the line. When everyone has made ten, try for fifteen. Agree first: a miss that the turners caused is taken again, and the line decides whose miss it was. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 3 to 10. You need: two long jump ropes.
  • Elastics: Ankles, Then Knees 1. Elastics, which some schoolyards call Chinese jump rope. Tie a long piece of elastic into a loop. Two holders face each other with the loop around their ankles, far enough apart to keep it tight. 2. The jumper stands between the two sides and jumps a pattern while the holders chant the moves: in (both feet inside), out (one foot outside each side), side (one foot inside and one outside), on (both feet on the elastic). 3. A wrong move or a missed landing ends the turn, and the players rotate. 4. A jumper who finishes the pattern does it again with the elastic at the holders' knees. Agree first: today's pattern, and that knees are as high as it goes at recess. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 3 to 6. You need: a loop of elastic, or rubber bands knotted into a chain.
  • Helicopter: Jump the Low Rope 1. One player is the pilot and kneels in the middle of a ring of jumpers, holding one end of a long rope. 2. The pilot swings the rope in a slow circle along the ground, never higher than an ankle, so that it passes under every jumper's feet. 3. A jumper whom the rope touches steps out and counts the turns for the others. 4. When three jumpers are left they win, and one of them is the next pilot. Agree first: the rope stays on the ground, and a pilot who lifts it changes places with the last jumper who went out. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 5 to 12. You need: a long jump rope.
  • High Water, Low Water 1. Two holders stretch a long rope between them at ankle height. They hold it in open hands, so that it drops if a foot catches it. 2. The line of jumpers goes over, one at a time. 3. When everyone has had a turn, the holders raise the rope by the width of a hand. A jumper who touches it changes places with a holder. 4. Stop raising it at knee height. From there the rope comes back down, and each jumper must cross in a new way at every level: sideways, on one foot, with a clap in the air. Agree first: the rope is never pulled tight, and nobody goes under it. Grades: 1 to 4. Players: 4 to 12. You need: a long jump rope.
  • Rope Ladder: One Jump, Then Two, Then Three 1. Two turners swing one long rope at a steady pace, and everyone else lines up. 2. The first time through, each player runs in, jumps once and runs out the other side, and the next player follows. 3. The second time through, everyone jumps twice, then three times, and so on up the ladder. 4. A miss sends the jumper to take a turner's place, and the ladder carries on from the same rung. The line is trying to reach five. Agree first: whether an empty turn of the rope between two jumpers counts as a miss. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 5 to 15. You need: a long jump rope.

With chalk, a stone or jacks 4

  • Hopscotch With No Stone: Name One on Every Square 1. Chalk a ladder of ten squares. No stone is thrown in this game. 2. The first player picks a class of things, such as colors or flowers. 3. Hop up the ladder on one foot, calling out a different thing of that class as you land in each square. 4. A repeat, a silence or a foot on a line ends the turn, and the next player starts again on the same class. Whoever reaches the tenth square picks a harder class for the next round. Agree first: who judges whether a name belongs to the class. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 2 to 6. You need: chalk.
  • Jacks: Ones, Then Twos 1. Sit on smooth ground and scatter five jacks with one hand. 2. Bounce the ball, pick up one jack with the same hand and catch the ball before it bounces again. Move that jack to your other hand, and go on until all five are up. 3. Scatter them again and pick them up two at a time, with the odd one last. Then three and two, then four and one, then all five in one sweep. 4. A dropped jack or a second bounce ends your turn, and you begin that round again next time. This is one way to run the series, and the first player through it wins. Agree first: whether a jack you nudge by accident ends your turn. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 2 to 4. You need: five jacks and a small bouncy ball.
  • Kick-the-Stone Hopscotch 1. One way to lay it out: chalk two columns of squares side by side, three or four in each, and number them up one column and down the other. 2. Lay a flat stone in square 1. Hopping on one foot, kick the stone into square 2 with the hopping foot, hop after it, and go on around the court. 3. If the stone or your foot stops on a line, your turn ends, and you start again from square 1 next time. 4. The first player to bring the stone all the way around and out wins. Agree first: whether one extra tap of the stone is allowed in each square. Grades: 2 to 5. Players: 2 to 6. You need: chalk and a flat stone.
  • Snail Hopscotch: Hop the Spiral, Claim a Square 1. Chalk a spiral like a snail shell, wide enough to hop along, and divide it into squares with a round space in the middle. 2. Hop on one foot from the outside square to the middle without touching a line, turn around there and hop back out. 3. A player who reaches the middle cleanly writes their initials in any one square. From then on they may land there on two feet, and everyone else must hop over it. 4. Step on a line or put the other foot down, and the turn passes on. The game ends when every square is claimed or nobody can reach the middle, and the most squares win. Agree first: whether a hopper may change feet in the middle. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 2 to 6. You need: chalk.

Tag and hiding games with no kit 5

  • Crocodile in the River 1. Chalk three or four islands, a few running steps apart. Everything between them is water. 2. One player is the crocodile and stays in the water. The crocodile may never set foot on land. 3. Everyone else starts on land. They may dash across the water whenever they like, and they must all change islands when the crocodile calls "swim". 4. A runner tagged in the water, with a light touch on the arm or back, becomes the next crocodile. Agree first: how many runners one island may hold. Grades: K to 4. Players: 5 to 20. You need: chalk.
  • Home Base Hide-and-Seek: Forty, Forty, I See You 1. Choose a home base, such as a tree or a painted circle. The seeker counts to forty there with eyes closed while everyone hides inside the agreed edges. 2. When the seeker spots a hider, the seeker calls "forty, forty, I see" and the hider's name, and the two race for home base. 3. A hider who touches base before being tagged, lightly, on the arm or back, is safe. Hiders may also break cover and run for base at any time. 4. The first hider tagged is the next seeker. If nobody is tagged, the same seeker counts again. Agree first: where the edges are, and that nobody hides inside a building. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 4 to 15. You need: nothing.
  • Off-Ground Tag 1. One player is it. A runner is safe while both feet are off the ground: on a bench, a curb, a tree stump or a bottom step. Nothing higher than one step counts. 2. A safe player counts to five out loud and must then come down. 3. It may not stand guard within three steps of anyone who is counting. 4. A tagged runner, touched lightly on the arm or back, becomes it. Agree first: which things count as off the ground today, and that the climbing frame is not one of them. Grades: 1 to 5. Players: 4 to 20. You need: nothing.
  • River or Mountain 1. Chalk two big areas a few running steps apart, and name one the river and the other the mountain. 2. It stands between them and shouts one of the two names. 3. Everyone must get to that area, and a runner tagged outside it, with a light touch on the arm or back, is caught. 4. Caught runners stand along the edge and shout the next name together with it. The last runner free is the next it. Agree first: whether it may call the same name twice running, to catch those who leave early. Grades: K to 4. Players: 5 to 20. You need: chalk.
  • Touch-Wood Tag 1. One player is it, and everyone agrees where the edges of the game are. A tag is a light touch on the arm or back. 2. Before each round, it names a safe material: wood, metal or stone. A runner who is touching something made of it cannot be tagged. 3. Nobody stays safe for longer than a count of five, and two runners may not share one safe thing. 4. A tagged runner becomes it and names the next material. Agree first: no tag-backs, so the new it may not tag the player who just tagged them. Grades: K to 5. Players: 4 to 20. You need: nothing.

Cooperative games for grades 3 to 5 5

  • Elastics Add-On: The Group Builds One Pattern 1. Two holders stand with the elastic around their ankles. 2. The first jumper does one move: in, out, side or on. The second jumper repeats it and adds a move of their own, and so on, each jumper doing the whole pattern so far and then one more. 3. Holders and jumpers swap after every two turns, so everyone holds and everyone jumps. 4. When a jumper slips, the group chants the pattern and that jumper tries once more. The length of the pattern when the bell rings is the group's score. Agree first: whether a second miss ends the pattern or only that jumper's turn. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a loop of elastic, or rubber bands knotted into a chain.
  • Four Square Rally: The Court Against Its Record 1. Four players take the squares, and nobody is out in this game. 2. The ball goes around by the usual four square hit, one bounce in a square and then on to another, while the line counts the hits out loud. 3. A miss ends the rally. The player who missed swaps with the first in line, and the count starts again. 4. Write the day's record in chalk beside the court for every new four to beat. Agree first: the ball must visit all four squares before any square gets it twice. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 4 to 15. You need: a playground ball, chalk and a four square court.
  • Hopscotch, Everybody Home 1. Chalk one hopscotch court of ten squares and give the whole group a single stone. 2. The first player throws the stone into square 1, hops the court, picks the stone up on the way back and hands it to the next player, who throws for square 2. 3. A miss does not end anyone's game: the next player tries for the same square. 4. The group wins when the stone has been to every square in order. Count how many turns it took, and play again to use fewer. Agree first: a line is out, for the stone and for feet. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 3 to 10. You need: chalk and a stone.
  • Tetherball There and Back 1. Two partners take either side of the pole and work together. 2. Hitting in turn, they wind the ball right round the pole one way, then unwind it and wind it right round the other way. 3. The pair counts every hit. A touch of the rope, or two hits in a row by one partner, adds five to the count. 4. The fewest hits there and back is the record for the next pair in line to beat. Agree first: the ball must touch the pole at each end to count as wound. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 2 to 8. You need: a tetherball pole.
  • Wall Ball Chain: One Hit Each, All the Way Down the Line 1. Line up facing a wall that has no windows. 2. The first player hits the ball so that it bounces once on the ground and then off the wall, and runs to the back of the line. 3. The next player hits it the same way, and so on, with the line shuffling forward. 4. The chain is the number of hits in a row before a miss. Chalk the best chain on the ground. Nobody is out: the player who missed serves the new chain. Agree first: how many bounces a player may let the ball take before hitting it. Grades: 3 to 5. Players: 4 to 12. You need: a small bouncy ball or a tennis ball, chalk and a wall.

How this list was compiled: A list for an elementary school yard, sorted by the kit a game needs. The wording, the grades and the player counts are ours, and each line that begins Agree first is our suggestion, not an official rule. Every tag is a light touch on the arm or back. Four square, wall ball, tetherball, the hopscotch games, double Dutch, elastics, jacks, the tags and hide-and-seek follow these Wikipedia articles, read on 13 October 2026 and listed after the stem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/: Four square; Chinese handball; Tetherball; Hopscotch; Double Dutch (jump rope); Chinese jump rope; Knucklebones; Tag (game); Hide-and-seek. The other rope games, the kicking game and the cooperative games are told one way. Licence: own work

How it works

These fun games to play at recess are told the way a yard needs them: who waits in line, who is out, who comes in next. Each one gives its grades and its players.

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The rules children argue about

Every entry ends with a line that begins Agree first: the one call to settle before the first serve, such as whether a one-handed hit counts in four square, or whether the new it may tag straight back.

Cooperative games to play at recess, grades 3-5

Cooperative games for grades 3 to 5 turns the yard's own kit into records for the group. Four Square Rally: The Court Against Its Record counts hits with nobody out, and in Tetherball There and Back two partners wind the rope together.

Questions and answers

What are fun games to play during recess?

With one ball, Four Square With a Waiting Line keeps fifteen players busy. With a rope, try Helicopter: Jump the Low Rope. With nothing at all, Off-Ground Tag and Touch-Wood Tag start as soon as somebody is it.

What recess games did you play in elementary school?

The old ones are here with their rules: jacks, hopscotch, tetherball, double Dutch and elastics. Four square goes back at least to the 1950s; Wikipedia cites a 1953 teacher's manual that describes it with the rules used today.

What are good playground games for kindergarten?

Three start in kindergarten: River or Mountain and Crocodile in the River need only chalk, and Touch-Wood Tag needs nothing. Seven more start in first grade. Works for K to 2, under More filters, shows all ten.

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