Time-filler Activities

It’s nearly the end of the school year – that magical time of year when the regular timetable slowly erodes due to the pressures of Sports Day, transition sessions, leavers’ assemblies and the like, suddenly giving you and your class little pockets of free time here and there. However, if your go-to in these situations is Hangman, even the most eager child in your class might be a little bored of it after the third fifteen-minute session of it in the same week. 

But what other activities could you try?  

Classroom Secrets’s staff have put their heads together and brainstormed a load of activities that are tried-and-tested wall-to-wall end-of-year bangers; games, tasks and activities that can be picked up, with no preparation or interactive whiteboard needed, by any classroom adult to broaden what can be done to fill time as the end of year approaches. Of course, these can also be used at any other time of the year too! 

These activities are listed and explained below as a handy reference guide – we’ve even split them up by task type to make this easier for you to navigate. Tell us know how you get on at hello@classroomsecrets.co.uk or let us know about any other activities that you use which we have missed! 

Maths 

• Fizz buzz – an absolute corker. One number is assigned as ‘fizz’ and another number is assigned ‘buzz’ (it always seems to be fizz for 3s and buzz for 5s in most classes). Going round the class, children take it in turns to say a number. If the number is a multiple of the fizz-assigned number, they say ‘fizz’ instead. If it’s a multiple of the buzz-based number, they instead say ‘buzz’. If the number is a multiple of both the fizz- and buzz- numbers, then go hog-wild and say ‘fizz-buzz’. 
  So if 3 was fizz and 5 was buzz, in time-honoured tradition, all children stand behind their chairs and the first 15 children in your class would each say one of the following: 
  One, two, fizz, four, buzz, fizz, seven, eight, fizz, buzz, eleven, fizz, thirteen, fourteen, fizz-buzz, sixteen. 
  If they’re wrong, they sit down. Who will be the last person standing? It gets surprisingly tense and the children are very good at letting others know if they’re wrong, while also subliminally being reminded of their times tables. Win-win. 

• Times tables – there are loads of other times tables games you can play.  
  - A great one is to split the class in two and say a times table question, with the first half to shout the answer winning; keep a running total to find the winning team. This is great for ensuring that those less confident with their times tables aren’t put on the spot in front of the class as they’re being supported by others, and you could do a bit of swapping to ensure that both halves have an even number of times table wizards.  
  - Another good one is for children to play times table rock paper scissors in pairs – they have to get the answer correct as well as win the round each time. This means children are more involved as they’re in a pair, and who doesn’t love rock paper scissors?   
  - Around the World gets the whole class quite competitive. Child A stands behind Child B’s chair, for the classroom adult to ask a times table question. Whoever wins then stands behind the chair of Child C to have another question asked, then whoever wins that stands behind Child D and so on. The challenge is to see who can stand behind the chairs of most peers, and therefore win against them. This does put them on the spot in front of peers, however, and children that aren’t speedy or have gaps could get embarrassed; a simple fix is to train pupils to play in groups. 

• The Fibonacci sequence – an easy investigation! Teach the class how the Fibonacci sequence works (that the previous two numbers add together to make the next number, repeating ad infinitum – 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 etc – 13 is the total of 8 and 5, so the next number is the sum of 13 and 8 and is therefore 21) and set them off – how far can they go? You’d be surprised by how quickly the numbers get into 4, 5 and 6 digits, and beyond, meaning that column addition steps up to the plate. Every few minutes, show children the next few numbers in the sequence (you could work these out yourself, or find a list of them online) so they can self-assess for that instant reward; this also means that children can correct any errors, as if they’ve accidentally got the twentieth Fibonacci number wrong when adding then all subsequent numbers will be incorrect. 

As a bonus, you can show children images of how the Fibonacci sequence is drawn as the Fibonacci spiral and how this can be seen in nature, such as on human ears, a snail’s shell or a flower head. 

• Countdown numbers – the favourite mid-afternoon numbers game can live and breathe in your classroom! Ask children to give you four numbers that are equal to or less than 10 and two numbers from 25, 50, 75 or 100, then randomly choose a 3-digit number for them to make. Explain that all four operations can be used, numbers can only be used once and they don’t have to use all the numbers… and off they go! Don’t use a 30-second timer as this will add unnecessary stress to a fun activity for some but end the round when most of the class have got it. For those that do get an answer quickly, can they find a second or third way of making the target number? Websites are available that will choose all numbers and a target for you, and will show your class how to work out the answer, so these can be used if required.  

English 

• Number plate game – a classic from childhood car journeys that easily translates to the classroom. Pick three letters at random; what’s the longest word that you can make that includes all three letters? Additional challenge can be added by adding the criteria that the letters have to be in the same order, or by making a word that nobody else in the class has got when they share what they’ve come up with. 

• Word grid – write a 3x3 grid of 9 letters on the whiteboard. What words can children come up with using these 9 letters? This can be made easier for earlier year groups by allowing each letter to be used more than once, or harder for upper Key Stage 2 by adding the rule that the letters must be adjacent to each other. Just be mindful of what letters are chosen; if you have S, you don’t want a H and an I and a… you get the idea with that. 

• Countdown letters – 9 children request either a vowel or a consonant (so you can be in charge of what letters there are!) – what’s the longest word that can be written using these? As with word grid, concessions can be used for younger year groups. 

• PLANETS – a build-on from Countdown letters, write the word ‘planets’ on the board. How many words can be made from these seven letters, with each one being used only once? One Year 6 class that a colleague worked with found over 100 words, from ‘planes’ and ‘staple’ at six letters down to shorter words like ‘tea’, ‘ant’ and ‘at’. Note that the colleague also said that this task lodged in his brain and he spent idle moments over a weekend thinking of further words, so perhaps this one comes with a health warning.  

• Synonyms and antonyms – write an adjective on the whiteboard. How many synonyms and antonyms can children find? Easy as pie. 

• Word chain – a really fun game that makes children think about spellings! Going round the class, children take it in turns to say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. For example, child 1 says 'tray' so child 2 could say 'yoghurt' then child 3 could say 'target' etc. Spellings including homophones come into play, such as clarifying if the previous pupil meant ‘sore’ or ‘saw’, and savvy pupils will throw their partner under the bus by using a word like ‘appendix’. As children become more familiar with how to play, new rules can be introduced each round such as not allowing a word that’s been said previously (otherwise the class can get stuck in a loop with ‘eye’ being used on repeat), the word has to be a noun or it must be said within ten seconds, or adding in a competitive element of asking children to stand up when the game starts then sit down once they are out so play focuses on finding a winner as each new round adds more challenging elements. Once children understand the game, this is a great one that can be started within a matter of seconds. 

• Change, add or remove a letter – a bit more wordplay with this one; start with a word which can have any letter removed from it, added to it or changed within it; repeat with the next word, then the next word and so on. Children record responses on whiteboards and then compare after a few minutes – they are guaranteed to have got a different chain to their partner! 
  For example, starting with ‘cap’ allows for ‘caps’ by adding a letter, then ‘maps’ by changing a letter, then ‘map’ by removing a letter, then ‘mop’ by changing a letter. It could have also gone ‘cat’, ‘tat’, ‘tap’, ‘taps’ and ‘traps’. 

• Longest sentence – ask children to give you a simple sentence e.g. ‘the dog barked’. Applying their knowledge of clauses and word classes (just about allowing this to be curriculum-based, if your English lead queries it), how many words long can they make the sentence, with the winner being the longest sentence that still makes sense? For example, this one could end as ‘The dog, which had been lazily lounging on the sunlit porch all afternoon and watching the fluttering leaves with idle curiosity, suddenly barked at the postal worker who, dressed in a slightly wrinkled red uniform and carrying a bulging satchel full of letters and small packages, had just approached the rusted iron gate with a cautious step and a wary glance at the animal.’ (shout-out to ChatGPT). 

• Root word hunt – etymology is the study of words, with root words (familiar to children from prefix and suffix work) being part of this. Take a root word and ask children to come up with as many words as possible that use that root word as part of its meaning e.g. ‘spec’ is Latin for ‘to see’ and leads to English words to do with seeing such as spectator, spectacle, spectacles, inspect and perspective. Linguistic proficiency as a time-filling activity – your secondary English teacher would be proud. 

• Playing with words – there are loads of things you can do to just explore and play with words!  
  - Palindromes are words that spell the same forwards and backwards e.g. mum, dad, Anna, madam, racecar. How many palindromes can children find? You can blow their minds by showing them sentences that are palindromes, such as ‘a man, a plan, a canal, Panama’. 
  - Once palindromes are mastered, you can show them what a semordnilap is; these are words that spell a different word backwards e.g. pan becomes ‘nap’, stressed becomes ‘desserts’. You may have noticed what ‘semordnilap’ backwards is… clever, eh? Task children with finding as many semordnilaps as possible! 
  - Homophones are part of the Year 2 English curriculum but there are other word relationships that can be explored. The word ‘homophone’ is Greek for ‘same sound’ (homo = same and phone = sound); with ‘nym’ being the Greek root for ‘word’, there are also homonyms (words with the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings e.g. ‘bat’ as a flying mammal and ‘bat’ for a piece of sports equipment, ‘quiver’ for shaking and ‘quiver’ for a case of arrows) and homographs (words with the same spelling but different pronunciation e.g. ‘lead’ for the metal and ‘lead’ as in to take someone somewhere, ‘lives’ for how many tries are left at a computer game and ‘lives’ for describing where someone has set up home – these are also called heteronyms). Ask children to find examples of homophones, homonyms and homographs – again, there are a lot more of these than you’d think, and children will enjoy simply playing about with words (while also thinking about spellings – result!). 
  - Spoonerisms are phrases made by swapping the first letter of two words, named after Reverend William Spooner (1844-1930) who often did this unintentionally. Examples include ‘plaster man’ for ‘master plan’ and ‘bunny phone’ for ‘funny bone’. Children’s full names can often cause brilliant spoonerisms, and helps pupils to enjoy wordplay that they will have seen in books by Roald Dahl, David Walliams and Lewis Carroll.  
  - Malapropisms are another example of wordplay; named after a character from an eighteenth-century play, these are phrases where a similar-sounding word is used instead of the intended one, making the phrase utter nonsense e.g. ‘she danced a flamingo’ instead of flamenco; ‘the doctor gave me a subscription’ instead of ‘prescription’. Spoonerisms and malapropisms are more challenging to think of but the difficulty of doing so makes it that bit more satisfying when one is found! 

 
Thinking games 

• Can you name – give a category for children to write down as many possible answers in a given time limit, such as ‘boy names beginning with P’, ‘things you’d find in a bathroom’ or ‘UK cities’ (yes, it can be linked to the National Curriculum!). Children take it in turn to share answers, with one point per answer that nobody else in the class got. Who can get the most points each round? Once children get the hang of this, they can challenge the class with their own ideas for rounds too. 
  
  

  

• Beginning with – ask children to think of specific things that begin with a chosen letter of the alphabet e.g. a country, an animal, a book title, a film, food / drink and singer / band beginning with R. This can be done in pairs so that all children can access information needed. After a set time, pairs share their responses, scoring two points for a unique answer or one point for an answer that another pair also got. 

• ABCs – give children a topic for them to think of examples beginning with each letter of the alphabet. For example, animal ABCs could yield aardvark, bear, cat, etc. (children unexpectedly find it hard to think of animals beginning with N – poor newts and narwhals – and there are some animals beginning with X!). This can be done with colours, verbs or even the topic you’re currently doing to keep it at least vaguely educational. 

• What am I? – the classic party game can come to life in your classroom (sticky notes optional). Children write the name of something (maybe an animal or a historical figure) onto a whiteboard, for their partner to hold but not look at. The child holding the whiteboard has to guess what they are. Lols abound. 

• Twenty questions – that game you used to play at your gran’s house makes a perfect classroom time-filler. One child thinks of a person, place or thing for either the rest of the class or a partner to guess within 20 yes/no questions. Independence, critical thinking and communication skills in one easy package! 

• 21 – a mathematical game that promotes problem-solving, strategy and analysis. Each child stands behind their chair and can then say either one, two or three numbers that follow from the previous person (so child A might say “one”, child B might say “two, three”, child C might say “four” etc). Whoever says twenty-one is out and sits down, then play starts again from one. When children realise they have the power to either save a friend or eliminate a competitor as it dawns on them that they can say “twenty”, it’s mega! You could even push the boat out and play this in your school’s chosen MFL.  

Oracy 

• Would you rather… - children love these questions, and often the weirder the better (‘would you rather have hair for teeth or teeth for hair?’… grim). Explaining their responses and reasoning will often crease children up, but is also subtly promoting oracy techniques too. Everyone’s a winner! 

• Just a Minute – another oracy activity, this time using the long-running BBC Radio 4 game. Children must speak for a minute about a chosen subject with no hesitation, repetition or deviation. This is more challenging than you’d think! This can be done with one pupil performing to the class so that they all act as judges but this does put one child in the spotlight with the others not participating beyond listening for errors; once children understand the rules, they can easily play this in pairs for maximum engagement. 

Memory 

• Shopping list – yep, the “I went to the shop and I bought…” game works fantastically and is also promoting techniques for remembering information!  

• Kim’s Game – named after Kim from a 1901 book by Rudyard Kipling (incredible trivia), show children a load of random objects to memorise within a time frame of 30 seconds, then remove one once they have closed their eyes. A visualiser works well at ensuring all children can see, if you have one tucked away somewhere. Which item was removed? Rinse and repeat. The perfect chance to tidy your desk of staplers, stained coffee cups and pens that don’t work. 

Activity-type games 

• Heads, shoulders, knees and toes – get stretching and singing! Bonus points from your MFL subject lead for singing it in your school’s chosen language (anyone for “tête, épaules, genoux et pieds”?) and this could maybe just about stretch to ticking off some PE objectives too. 

• Simon Says – children get surprisingly engrossed with this, especially if you introduce rules like ‘last person standing’ to add that competitive element. This is another one that can be linked to MFL (“Simon dit…”) if you fancy threading some already-learnt verbs into the game. 

• Heads down, thumbs up – the highlight of wet playtimes! Three children (chosen by the teacher initially) move around the class whilst everyone else has their eyes closed, heads on the desks and their thumbs sticking up. The three who are 'It' lightly pinch the thumbs of three seated children and then go to stand at the front with their backs to the class. Then the children who've been 'pinched' have to go to the front and stand behind the person who pinched them. If they are correct, they take over, if not, the original pincher stays on for another round. The best thing about this is that it is fairly self-sufficient once children know the rules and can police who swaps in or out. 

• Charades – film, book or song? Using mime, one child silently acts out their chosen title for a partner or the class to guess. You could even teach them the ‘sounds like’ gesture and how to tap the number of words onto their forearms, like in the proper game for unknown reasons.  

• Sleeping lions – the perfect activity for the end of a long day at the end of the summer term. The classic way is to have all but two children be sleeping lions then have two hunters whose job it is to wake the lions, but you could just have a whole class of sleeping lions with the aim being to see how long they can remain sleeping if it’s been a particularly challenging day; your call. 

• Don’t Wake The… - a lovely calm circle-time game. One child sits in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed / blindfolded while a noisy object is passed around the circle (a bell or a tambourine work perfectly). If the child in the middle hears a noise, they must point to where it came from. They win if they do this successfully but the circle wins if they pass the noisy item around the circle without being rumbled. Pair this with sleeping lions for a lovely end of the day! 

• Giant’s Castle – a variation on the previous game that makes it more Key Stage 2-appropriate. A child representing a giant stands at the front of the classroom with their eyes closed. A noisy item, like a bell, must be collected from one side of the classroom, passed to each child and then removed from the classroom without the giant hearing; if a noise is heard, they must point (as above). Why’s it called Giant’s Castle, though?! 

• Wink murder – One person (chosen by the teacher) is the detective and has to leave the room for a few seconds (no peeping through glass door panels). Whilst they are away, the teacher chooses a 'murderer' who will 'kill' their victims by winking at them surreptitiously when the detective comes back into the room. Everyone stands up, the detective returns and the game begins. When the murderer catches someone's eye, they wink at them and their victim sits down/falls down whilst the detective tries to find out who the murderer is, silently walking around the room and investigating. This continues until either no one is left standing or the murderer is discovered. Great fun for any budding actors in the classroom, but brief children on how to be ‘murdered’ appropriately and safely… no parent needs to see ‘wink murder’ as reason for injury on an accident form.  

• Telephone game – promoting listening and team work, one child chooses a phrase (this could be linked to things like mathematical facts, adverbial phrases or a fact from History, if you wanted to keep it educational in the most abstract sense) to whisper to their partner, who whispers to the person next to them and so on… is the phrase the same when the last person hears it? This is another one that can be played as a whole class initially but works well in small groups once the rules are understood.  

Other 

• Singing – pop on an appropriate song and just enjoy some singing! Transparent OHP sheets optional. 
  
  

  

• Flags, countries and capitals – the only one on our list that would be enhanced with an interactive whiteboard. How many flags, countries and capital cities does your class know? You could focus on countries that are geographically close to you to broaden local-ish geography knowledge first, or on well-known countries, before moving onto other countries within the continent you live in. Your class will be guaranteed to thank you in 15 years’ time in a pub quiz. 

• I Spy – who doesn’t love I Spy? This can be adapted to spotting colours or shapes for younger year groups (“I spy something blue…”). 
  
  Images: Stock Images