Easy Elementary School Indoor Party Games for Kids

Elementary school parties can be so much fun to host if you have the right indoor party games for kids. You get to see your child in the classroom & put a face to all the names you hear at home.

What I am not such a big fan of is coming up with easy party games that all the kids will enjoy and are quick to make.

So, I have created a list of easy kids' party games that any room parent or Teacher can put together quickly. These fun indoor party games can be used for events any time of year from Halloween to Thanksgiving, Christmas (Winter), Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and End of the Year Parties.

I'll also show you how to adjust each game for different seasons. Take a look at this list and find the perfect party games for kids at your next school party.

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Easy Elementary School Indoor Party Games for Kids

Indoor Party Games for Kids

While reading, you'll learn how to change a game into holiday-themed games for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, End of Year parties, and more.

Make sure to scroll to the end for some hilarious Minute to Win It Games, especially my 25 Classroom Minute to Win It Games and Winter Minute to Win It Games.

For more Holiday ideas, visit my Holiday Ideas page.

Freeze Dance

All you need is your phone with music and maybe a speaker. The kids have tons of energy at school parties and are always ready to dance around. This is a great way to get their wiggles out!

Limbo Game

N/A

What You Need -  a long stick like this inflatable limbo stick, and some music 

Super easy and fun game. Download some kid's music on your phone to play. Have two people hold a long stick, and the kids line up behind it. The kids then try to go under the stick without falling or touching it.

Each time the kids come around, lower the stick a little until there is one child left. They are the winner.

Here's a blow-up limbo stick that would be easy to bring to the school. 

Would You Rather Game

What You Need - Would You Rather Printable Questions

Kids love playing the Funny Would You Rather Game for Kids. Ask the kids silly questions like Would You Rather have bad breath or stinky feet or Would You Rather eat worms or beetles?

Kids can raise their hands to vote or yell out their answers. Then find out why they’d eat a worm instead of a beetle. The answers are the funniest part!

Grab your free printable list of Would You Rather Questions for Kids

Older kids will enjoy the tween & teen version of Would You Rather.

Try these holiday-themed Free Printables Would You Rather Games too - 

Halloween Would You Rather Game

Thanksgiving Would You Rather Game

Christmas Would You Rather Game

Valentine's Day Would You Rather Game

St. Patrick's Day Would You Rather Game

Bozo Buckets

What You Need – 4-5 buckets (sand buckets work) and items to throw like ping pong balls.

This is another game easily customizable to the time of year your party is held. If you have a Halloween party, get some plastic pumpkin buckets the kids can trick or treat with and some fake eyeball ping pong balls. (I get these at the dollar store)

Then have the kids throw and try to get the ping pong balls into the pumpkin buckets.

Get More Halloween ideas in our Spooktacular 50 Halloween Activities for Kids it has a few more fun Halloween party ideas too.

For a Winter or Holiday party, use red or blue buckets and white fake snowballs. Line up 4 or 5 buckets and have the kids try to toss the balls into each bucket.  

For Valentine's Day, use heart-shaped buckets and bean bags.

For St. Patrick's Day, use black buckets and toss gold coins.

For End of year parties, use colorful buckets and bean bags. 

Printable Games to Play

Grab this Printable Halloween Game Bundle with 18 games you can use to make planning the party easy. Or break the games up and use them all month long.

Every game is Halloween-themed, like Halloween Trivia, Word Scrambles, Scavenger Hunts, Bingo, Riddle Me This, Charades & Pictionary Words, Candy Dice game, and more. Just print it out and start playing!

Get the conversation going in the classroom with funny Halloween This or That Questions.

Halloween word search puzzle for younger Elementary age kids.

For Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving Printable Games - Fun games to print and play at parties.

At Christmas or Winter parties, grab our favorite Free Printable Christmas Games.

For Valentine's Day, try this free printable Valentine's Day Word Scramble with Answers.

For Valentine's Day - Free Printable Valentine's Candy Match Up

Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt with printable images to hide around the classroom.

For St. Patrick's Day, try these two fun printable games.

For Easter, try this fun Easter Game Bundle with 17 Party games or an Easter Coloring & Activity Packet.

Printable Trivia Games

For older Elementary age kids or tweens, play some Trivia games with holiday-themed trivia questions. Fun printable party games to play when you need an activity at their desks.

Halloween Trivia Questions

Thanksgiving Trivia Gobble Off

Winter Trivia Questions

Christmas Trivia Questions

Christmas Movie Trivia Questions

St. Patrick's Day Trivia

Match the Green Game Trivia

Halloween Games

Another fun Halloween game is to create DIY Halloween Mystery Boxes. It's a spooky sensory game with kids reaching into the box to see if they feel witches' eyes or grapes, Warlocks' brains, or spaghetti.

I've used this game a couple of times at school parties and just leave it out on a table for kids to try while they are waiting their turn at a game. A great idea when you have a transition time too.

Tip: Make sure to check with the teacher beforehand if the kids in the class have any allergies. They will not be able to see what is inside, and you don't want an allergic reaction.

Halloween Witches Hat Toss

Halloween Witches Hat Toss is a fun and easy game to make with paper plates and poster board. Create a witch’s hat from a black poster board by cutting out a circle for the bottom of the hat and shaping a larger piece into a cone. Then tape the bottom and cone together to create a hat.

Now, take a paper plate and cut out the middle portion. This is what kids will toss to go over the witch’s hat. Is it that easy to make the Witches Hat Toss game!

Candy Corn Count

Challenge kids to Guess How Many Candy Corns Are In The Jar. Use the printable signs and voting cards to make it an easy classroom game.

Escape Room Games

Challenge the kids with a fun escape room party. They are hugely popular right now and a really fun activity to play in the classroom.

Two of our favorite printable games to use are the Escape Room Geeks or Lock Paper Scissors. Each kit has a suggested age range and comes with a printable storyline, puzzles, and clues for the kids to follow.

You can visit our full review of the best printable escape room games for kids to pick out the perfect game for your kids' age group.

The best part is you just need to download the game, print it out, and play. It's that easy! Plus the kids will have a blast playing together in teams.

Hallway Obstacle Course 

What You Need - 4 hula hoops, paper cut-outs, 8 cones, 4 bean bags 

This game may need to be played in the hallway at school. First, create cutouts with a poster board for the kids to jump to.

Tip Tape the shape to the floor with painter's tape so it doesn't move.

Halloween parties cut out pumpkin shapes

Christmas parties cut out green tree shapes

Winter parties cut out snowball shapes

Valentine's Day parties cut out red heart shapes.

St. Patrick's Day parties cut out Shamrock shapes

There will be two obstacle courses next to each other, so the kids can make two lines, one for each team. Both sides will be identical.

-First kids jump from the cut-out shapes taped to the floor to cut-out shapes next, they weave between cones, and last, they must toss a bean bag into two hula hoops.

-After the bean bags are in they need to go back through the course and let the next kid in line go. Whichever team gets all their players through first wins. 

You can easily adjust the obstacles in this game to whatever you have in your home or classroom. This is just an example of a course. 

At Halloween, try this fun DIY Halloween Spider Web Maze in the hallway at school with white streamers.

Charades Word List for Kids

Kids will love this fun game of Charades for Kids, plus it's super easy to run for school parties.

First, print out our Free Printable Charades Ideas for Kids with 192 Words & 8 Categories to choose from. There are Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter categories, plus non-holiday words included.

Then break the kids up into teams. You can do two larger teams, or if you have a lot of kids, maybe make 4 teams.

The first player on a team has 1 minute to act out the word on their paper. If their team guesses the word before the 1-minute is up, their team gets 1 point. If they don't guess the word, the other team has one chance to guess the correct answer and win the point.

Trade-off between teams taking turns until all the students have had a chance to act out a word. The winning team has the most points at the end of the game.

More Printable Charades & Pictionary Word Cards

48 Funny Halloween Act It or Draw It Words

100 Thanksgiving & Fall Act It or Draw It Words

100 Christmas Act it or Draw it Words

Free Printable Funny Christmas Charades Ideas for Kids - There are a lot of generic winter words that you can use for school holiday parties, too.

Classroom Scavenger Hunt

Send the kids on an exciting classroom scavenger hunt. The kids can search in small groups or individually to see who can find all the items first.

Use our Free Printable Classroom Scavenger Hunts that have four types of hunts - a hunt for the classroom, an outdoor playground hunt, a whole school hunt, and an Eye Spy Scavenger Hunt.

Each hunt has a picture version and a text version so that all ages in elementary school can play.

For Valentine's Day - Try this Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt that includes pictures to hide around the classroom.

Bingo Games

What You Need – Bingo cards and chips to cover the cards 

This is a fun and quick game to calm down the kids after the more active games.

For Halloween, grab our FREE Printable Halloween Bingo Cards. 

For Christmas, grab our Free Printable Christmas Bingo Cards. 

For Valentine's Day, grab our Free Printable Valentine's Day Bingo Cards

For St. Patrick's Day, grab our Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Bingo Cards

For Easter, grab our Free Printable Easter Bingo Cards

Holiday Coloring Pages

When you need the kids to calm down a little bit have them sit down and color. It's an easy activity while you get the holiday snack or transition between games.

Halloween Color by Number Printables

Thanksgiving Color by Number Printables

Cute Winter & Christmas Coloring Pages

Balloon Keep it Up

What You Need - A balloon for each child in the classroom

This is a fun and simple balloon game for kids. Each child is given a balloon, and then the kids space out around the room. When you say go, they need to try to keep the balloon up in the air without touching the ground. 

The last student to keep the balloon up in the air wins the game. Use balloon colors to match the holiday theme for each party.

Minute to Win It Kids Party Games 

Minute to Win It Games are really fun 60-second party games. You'll love that you can rotate through the groups of kids quickly so that all can play in a limited amount of time. Perfect for quick classroom parties. 

Here are a few favorites, but if you want more ideas, check out 20 Easy Minute to Win It Games for Kids and Classroom Minute to Win It Games.

Holidays Minute to Win It Games

Halloween Minute to Win It Games

Winter Minute to Win It Games

Christmas Minute to Win It Games

Valentine's Day Minute to Win It Games

St. Patrick's Day Minute to Win It Games

Easter Minute to Win It Games

If you have Tweens in the class for 4th or 5th grade, also try Best Minute to Win It Games for Teens & Tweens too. 

Snowman Stack 

What You Need – Bag of Marshmallows, Chopsticks

This is another great Winter party game. Players must stack 3 marshmallows in under 1 minute. They use chopsticks to build up their snowman.

Make it easier or harder based on the player’s age. Younger kids can use oversized marshmallows and older players can use mini-marshmallows. If you have a mixed age group use the regular size marshmallows.

Tip: For players that have a hard time using chopsticks, we use cheater chopsticks for our kids. It's a simple reusable plastic piece you put on the end of your chopstick so it's easier to use.

For more Winter party games, visit our Winter Minute to Win It games these are fun all winter season from Christmas to St. Patrick's Day.

Cup Stacking

What You Need -  42 red solo cups.  

First, split cups into two groups (21 each) and have two children compete against each other.

Kids have one minute to unstack the cups and create a pyramid then restack the cups back into each other.

Use the timer on your phone for this and write down the time they finish. At the end look at the times to find a winner. Just add more cups if you want to have more than two kids compete at a time.

Tip: When stacking cups up don't press them tightly together or they can be hard to get apart.

Make cup stacking holiday-themed -

Halloween - Add googly eyes on white cups to be ghosts

Winter Party - Use a black marker to add dots onto white cups to look like snowman eyes and buttons

Valentine's Day - Use red solo cups, St. Patrick's Day - Green Solo Cups, Easter - Pink, blue, or purple cups

Drop in the Cup

What You Need -5 Solo cups and 10 ping pong balls per player, masking tape

This is a Minute to Win it Game for Tweens so try this with older 4th or 5th graders. 

Each player or a team of two players together is given 10 ping pong balls. When the timer starts players need to roll their ping pong balls and try to get all their balls to land in a cup in 1 minute.

If you roll all your ping pong balls and still have time on the clock players can pick up balls that fell on the ground and keep going.

The winner is whoever gets the most ping pong balls in the cups in 1 minute.

Spoons  

What You Need – box of plastic spoons, 24 ping pong balls, 8 small paper bowls -

This game is for four kids at a time. Give each a spoon and two bowls. In one bowl add six ping pong balls. Kids have one minute to try to transfer the ping pong balls to the other bowl using only the spoon in their mouth. They may not use their hands.  

For Winter Parties pretend the ping pong balls are snowballs. 

Straw Race  

What You Need – box of straws, items to race, blue painter's tape 

This game can be customized by the time of year the party happens.

Halloween parties get some spider rings cut off the ring part and you have a spider to race.

Winter parties use cotton balls or white ping pong balls for snow

Valentine's Day use candy hearts or red ping pong balls.

St. Patrick's Day - use lightweight plastic gold coins.

At a long table in the classroom, put down blue painter's tape (it shows up well & doesn't stick to the table) at one end for the finish line.

On the other side of the table, two kids will line up with a straw, and they have one minute to race their spider to the finish line by blowing through the straw.  

Don't forget to check out - 20 Easy Minute to Win It Games for Kids and Best Minute to Win It Games for Teens & Tweens

Winter Party Games

Find the best Classroom Winter Party games that are fun for the whole winter season at school.

If you are throwing a Christmas or Winter holiday party, use our Free Printable Christmas Games. You'll find tons of Christmas-themed printable games perfect for school parties. 

Ice Cube Relay Race 

What You Need - Square Foam blocks as your ice cubes - (look at the dollar store by fake flowers) 

Divide up the kids into two teams, then line them up for a relay race. Kids need to put the "ice cube" between their knees and race around a cone or chair, then come back and pass the block to the next kid in line.

See which team can finish first. We did this at a family holiday party and it was tons of fun too!

Snowball Toss 

What You Need - clear plastic cups, white ping pong balls

The Players need to toss the snowball (ping pong ball) into the plastic cup. If you're playing this on a table, save room by lining cups up in a triangle form like bowling pins. 

To make it harder, space the cups further away. See which child can get the most ping pong balls into the cups. 

TIP: Place the table with a wall behind it so it's easier to grab the balls when the kids miss.

Funny What's Your Name Game?

Older elementary age kids will love finding their funny holiday name. Using their first name and birth month to create a silly name and writing it on the included name tags.

What's Your Villain Name?

What's Your Vampire Name?

What's Your Turkey Name?

What's Your Elf Name?

What's Your Bunny Name?

Tic Tac Toe

Keep the kids busy in between activities with a fun Tic Tac Toe Game. Get a large black poster board and draw a tic tac toe board with a white crayon for Halloween or a Red poster board for Christmas & Valentine's Day.

For Halloween - Use white and orange pumpkins as your game pieces or paint one set of the pumpkins to distinguish the player's pumpkins.

For Christmas - Use two Different Color Plastic Ornaments.

For Winter Parties - Use foam blocks as ice for winter. Then use a marker to add an X or O to the blocks.

For Valentine's Day - Cut out paper hearts in two different colors ie. pink & purple.

For St. Patrick's Day - Cut out Shamrocks shapes in green and gold

Christmas Family Feud

Kids are now watching the updated versions of the 70s show Family Feud with host Steve Harvey, so they love it too! It's a great group game at parties; you can have kids playing or cheering on a team.

Split the kids up into two teams to represent the 2 "families" that will compete. Then read how to play and use the free printable Christmas Family Feud Questions & Answers to host the game.

This Family Feud game show is easy to play and sure to be a hit in the classroom!

For Valentine's Day Party, visit kids' favorite Valentine's Day games too! Includes Minute to Win It Games.

Entertain the Kids for Easter parties at school with this 50-page free printable Easter Activity packet with coloring pages, math, matching, memory games, jigsaw puzzles, shapes, and more.

Play these 17 printable Easter games throughout the Easter season. Get Easter Scavenger Hunts, Finish the Phrase, Bingo, Word Scramble, Trivia, Would You Rather game, and more.

I hope that you have found a few easy indoor party games for kids that will be perfect for your next school party. All these classroom party games are simple to put together and have been a hit at my kid's school parties. I hope your kids will love them too. 

Overwhelmed by the idea of throwing the class party? Make it easy on yourself by ordering the My Classroom Party Box. You'll get 3 games, 1 craft, and decorations. So there is nothing to plan just open the box at the party and play. It's the perfect mom hack for room parents.

Get free shipping using my code HAPPYMOMHACKS at checkout too!

More Party Games for Kids & Activities

Need more fun ways to keep the kids busy both at school and at home? Visit our Kids' Party Page and get inspired by some of our favorite activities for kids listed below. 

Classroom Scavenger Hunts - Free printable scavenger hunts you can do at school

50 Spooktacular Halloween Activities for Kids - With At-Home & Party Ideas

5 Halloween Mystery Boxes for School Parties - Quick Halloween Sensory Game

Thanksgiving Printable Games - Quick & easy Thanksgiving games

Free Printable Christmas Games for Kids - 14 Printable Holiday Party games 

Awesome Valentine's Day Games Kids Love - Valentine's Day-themed games

15 Awesome Balloon Party Games for Kids-Cheap group games with Balloons

40 Easy & Fun Birthday Party Games for Kids -Find the perfect Party Game for your Kid's birthday

Zoom Games for Kids at Home & Classroom - Virtual Games to Play with Kids

Fun Rainy Day Activities & Indoor Games for Kids - Keep your kids busy indoors when you can't go outside

If you have some great indoor party games for kids and want to share them please leave them in the comments for us all to see. I love to learn from my readers.

Did you try these games? Let us know how it went in the classroom. Have a fun school party!! 

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