we too have indoor recess, but only for inclement weather. The children are monitored in their classrooms by an aide who walks in and out of the rooms (sometimes 4 classrooms during one recess break time) They have board games, books, homework and their imagination to keep busy. Recently, we parents have requested that classrooms get rotated into the empty gym during the lunch room hours-just to let the kids get a chance to run around a bit. If you have 2-3 aides watching 2-3 classrooms I consider you lucky as you have a much lower ratio of grown-up to student than us.
If you need to keep them in the stadium, why not try reading a book to them( Harry Potter or Captain Underpants), poetry reading by the students, stand up comedy, divide the stadium into different sections and have a contest, do a "your the next contestant" Pick a current event, history topic, spelling chapter, post the impending contest and have the students do a battle of the minds-it could be lots of fun, offer a few mystery bags with varying prizes from duds-a pencil,up to a calculator, free homework pass, extra recess to the winning class monitored by a PTO rep.(to give the teacher a break) You didn't say what age group this was for , I hope this helps, I could have a lot of fun with something like this
Our PTA donated board games and knock hockey. The first year it was the games (many of them!). The second year we donated a rolling cart to house them in. The kids love it. Surprisingly, the kids take good care of everything. Virtually no missing pieces. We replenish around Dec. when Toys R Us has the "buy 1 get 1 board games" sale.
We have inside recess only if the weather isn't cooperative. The kids have inside recess in their classrooms. They can play with whats already in the classroom, read, etc. The teachers and/or aides stay in with them. They also offer Library passes. These can be used if you don't want to go out to recess. Some kids like to go explore the library, sometimes they even help out the librarian if they want.
our school has limited places for inside recess. Currently we use what we call the pit...it's a staduim style seating that the kids sit and watch dvds or movies that are educational. occasionaly they will divide the group up and try to play bingo. the problem is that the kids don't really like either. There are only 2 people 3 at the most that are watching 2 or 3 classes at a time. Does any one have ideas on what the PTO can do to help with this? We are willing to spend some money, but we don't have a clue as to what to do for them
