While outdoor adventures and water balloons are classic, sometimes indoor spaces offer the perfect time for new kinds of fun. Whether it's too hot or rainy, having a strong list of indoor activities ensures your days at summer camp stay exciting. From indoor games and summer camp crafts to scavenger hunts and simple experiments, we’ve got plenty of activities to keep your campers smiling. Dive into these ideas and turn indoor time into a favorite part of summer at camp!
In this blog post, you'll find 25 creative indoor summer camp activities organized across different types, from active games and crafts to STEM and drama, plus several example indoor summer camp activity schedules to inspire your own camp planning.
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Active Indoor Games
- Indoor Scavenger Hunt: Create a list of items using household items like a glass bottle, toilet paper roll, or colored balloons. Hide the items around your indoor space and split the kids into teams to race and find them.
- Balloon Volleyball: A fun activity using just a few balloons and an open space. Set up a "net" with string or chairs and have teams bat the balloon back and forth without letting it touch the ground.
- Obstacle Course: Challenge kids with physical activities using bean bags, chairs, and an assortment of props. Have them crawl under tables, jump over cones, and balance bean bags on their heads.
- Musical Chairs: A classic among indoor camp activities; spice it up by adding camp songs. Kids walk around chairs while music plays, and scramble to sit when it stops!
- Sprinkler Limbo (Indoors): Replace the sprinkler with a colored rope or paper streamer. Kids lean backward to limbo under it, lowering it each round for extra challenge.
- Circle Games: Group kids into teams for energetic games like "Duck, Duck, Goose", where players chase each other around a circle to stay active and laughing.
Arts and Crafts Projects
- Tissue Paper Flowers: Provide tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and scissors for kids to create colorful flowers. Great for simple or complex projects, depending on skill level.
- Popsicle Stick Projects: Hand out popsicle sticks and glue for kids to make mini bridges, frames, or even mini cabins, perfect for a camping adventure theme.
- Paper Plate Masks: Using construction paper, paper plates, and markers, kids design their own masks, from wild animals to camp staff characters.
- Toilet Paper Roll Creatures: Give kids toilet paper rolls, googly eyes, and construction paper to craft animals, monsters, or robots—an excellent activity for recycling.
- Pipe Cleaner Sculptures: Twist pipe cleaners into crazy shapes or functional sculptures, ideal for shyer campers who love individual creative time.
- Comfortable Woodworking Projects for Kids: Provide simple woodworking kits to make birdhouses or shelves with kid-safe tools, encouraging hands-on learning.
STEM-Inspired Fun
- Marshmallow Spaghetti Towers: Challenge kids to build the tallest tower using only spaghetti sticks and marshmallows. This tests their engineering and teamwork skills.
- Simple Experiments: Drop food coloring into glasses of water and watch it swirl. Add oil for extra "lava lamp" effects to explore simple science concepts.
- Build a Mini Rocket: Create air-powered rockets using plastic bottles, straws, and construction paper fins. Let kids race their rockets indoors!
- Sink or Float Challenge: Fill a bin with water and predict which household items will sink or float. Turn it into a fun science experiment with a discussion.
- Outer Space Coding Adventure: Use free coding platforms like Scratch to let kids design a simple game or animation about traveling to outer space.
Drama and Imagination Activities
- Collaborative Stories: Start a camping adventure story with one line and have each camper add a sentence. Perfect for building group creativity.
- Camp’s Got Talent: Organize a showcase where each player at camp can sing, dance, tell jokes, or show off a fun idea in front of their fellow campers.
- Ghost Stories: Gather around an LED "campfire" and take turns telling spooky Campfire Stories. Great for building imagination during indoor time.
- Story Prompt Games: Give each child a piece of paper with a story prompt, and challenge them to come up with a short story in five minutes.
- Puppet Show: Craft puppets using pipe cleaners, paper towels, and markers. Kids then create and perform a puppet play together.
Quiet Time and Mindfulness Activities
- Yoga for Kids: Lead campers through simple yoga poses and stretches to calm their minds and bodies after energetic indoor games.
- Gratitude Journals: Provide notebooks and colorful pens for campers to write about their favorite summer camp activities and moments they are grateful for.
- Indoor Campfire Storytime: Dim the lights, sit in a circle, and share campfire songs or Campfire Stories to create a cozy, reflective mood.
Example Indoor Summer Camp Activity Schedules
Example 1: Active Morning, Creative Afternoon (Ages 5–8)
• 9:00 – 9:30: Morning Welcome and Circle Games (warm-up)
• 9:30 – 10:30: Indoor Scavenger Hunt (plus prize ceremony)
• 10:30 – 10:45: Snack Break
• 10:45 – 12:00: Craft Time – Paper Plate Masks and Popsicle Stick Projects
• 12:00 – 1:00: Lunch Break and Free Play (board games, building with blocks)
• 1:00 – 2:00: Collaborative Storytelling with Story Prompts
• 2:00 – 2:15: Movement Break (balloon volleyball or freeze dance)
• 2:15 – 3:30: Puppet Show Making and Performing
• 3:30 – 4:00: Reflection Circle + Camp Songs
Example 2: STEM Adventure Day (Ages 8–12)
• 9:00 – 9:30: Morning Welcome and Quick Physical Challenge (bean bag toss)
• 9:30 – 10:45: Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower Challenge
• 10:45 – 11:00: Snack Break
• 11:00 – 12:15: Simple Experiments with Food Coloring and Sink-or-Float Games
• 12:15 – 1:15: Lunch Break and Indoor Free Play (board games, coloring)
• 1:15 – 2:45: Outer Space Coding Adventure (design a simple game)
• 2:45 – 3:00: Movement Break (mini indoor relay race)
• 3:00 – 4:00: STEM-Inspired Obstacle Course (physical challenges + trivia)
Example 3: Drama and Fun Day (Mixed Ages)
• 9:00 – 9:30: Morning Welcome with Circle Icebreaker Games
• 9:30 – 10:45: Skit Creation in Small Groups (story ideas + rehearsal)
• 10:45 – 11:00: Snack Break
• 11:00 – 12:15: Puppet Show Making (puppets with pipe cleaners, paper towels)
• 12:15 – 1:15: Lunch Break and Free Play (puzzles, card games)
• 1:15 – 2:45: Camp’s Got Talent Showcase (with fellow campers as judges!)
• 2:45 – 3:00: Movement Break (freeze dance or sprinkler limbo)
• 3:00 – 4:00: Ghost Stories + Gratitude Journals