Quiet Classroom Games With Full Rules, Silent or in a Whisper

33 games for a room that has to stay quiet, from Sleeping Lions to Sprouts, with full rules.

Quiet Classroom Games With Full Rules, Silent or in a Whisper

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  1. Dots and BoxesPairs, 10 minutes, paper and a pencil each. Grades 1 to 8. Draw a square grid of dots, 6 by 6 for a full game or 4 by 4 for 1st grade. Take turns drawing one line between two neighboring dots, across or down. When your line closes the fourth side of a box, initial it and draw again. At the end, the player with more boxes wins. A 6 by 6 grid makes 25 boxes, so there is no tie. Édouard Lucas of France published it in the 19th century.

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All 33 games

Whole-class quiet games 13

  • Air Writing Whole class, 5 minutes, paper and a pencil each. Grades K to 3. A pupil stands at the front with their back to the class, so the letters are not reversed, and writes a letter, a number or a spelling word in the air with big, slow finger strokes. The class watches in silence and writes what they saw. Check together, then a pupil who had it right writes next. Start with single letters in kindergarten. By 2nd grade, use whole spelling words, one letter at a time.
  • Count to 20 Whole class, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades 3 to 8. The class has to count from 1 to 20 aloud, one quiet voice for each number, with eyes shut and no order agreed. Anyone may say the next number, but if two pupils speak at once the count goes back to 1. No signals, no going around the room, and nobody may say two numbers in a row. Expect plenty of restarts. What the class has to find is patience: leave a pause, and listen before you speak.
  • Heads Up, Seven Up Whole class, 10 minutes, nothing needed. Grades K to 5. Seven pickers come to the front. On "Heads down, thumbs up" everyone else lays their head on the desk, eyes shut, one thumb raised. Each picker tiptoes around, presses down one thumb and returns. On "Heads up, seven up" the pupils whose thumbs were pressed stand, and each names the picker they suspect. A right guess takes that picker's place. With fewer than 20 pupils, use 4 or 5 pickers.
  • Huckle Buckle Beanstalk Whole class, 10 minutes, one small object such as a thimble or an eraser. Grades K to 3. While the class hide their eyes, one pupil puts the object where it can be seen without moving anything. Everyone hunts with hands behind backs and lips closed. When you spot it, walk on a few steps so you do not give it away, then say "Huckle buckle beanstalk" in a low voice and sit down. The first pupil to sit hides it next. As hot buttered beans, it has been known in the United States since at least 1830.
  • Invisible Ball Whole class in a circle, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades K to 5. Hold up a ball that is not there and show its size and weight with your hands: a marble, a beach ball, a bowling ball. Look at a pupil across the circle so they know it is coming, and throw. They catch the same ball, at that size and weight, and may squash or stretch it into a new one before passing it on. Nobody is out. It trains eye contact, so it is a good warm-up for Silent Ball.
  • Museum Statues Whole class, 5 to 10 minutes, nothing needed, but a clear patch of floor. Grades K to 5. Everyone freezes as a statue in a museum. One pupil is the guard and walks slowly among them. Statues may change pose only while the guard's back is turned. A statue the guard sees moving sits down at the side without arguing. Blinking and breathing do not count. The last statue standing becomes the guard. It is the old game of Statues, in which the watcher is sometimes called the curator, played on one spot so nobody runs.
  • Read My Lips Whole class, 5 to 10 minutes, a word list on the board and paper or a mini whiteboard each. Grades 2 to 8. Write 12 to 15 vocabulary or spelling words on the board. One pupil stands at the front and mouths a word from the list slowly, with no sound at all. Everyone else writes the word they think they saw, and the answers go up on your signal. Pupils who got it score a point, and one of them mouths the next word. Words that look alike on the lips, such as "pat", "bat" and "mat", make the hardest rounds.
  • Silent Ball Whole class, 5 to 10 minutes, one soft ball. Grades 2 to 8. Everyone sits on their desk or stands beside it. The ball goes from pupil to pupil with an underarm toss and not one word. You sit down in your chair if you make a sound, throw too hard to catch, or drop a fair throw. Agree two rules before the first toss: no throwing straight back to the pupil who threw to you, and no holding the ball for more than 3 seconds. Pupils who are out referee by pointing.
  • Silent Charades Whole class, 10 to 15 minutes, word slips and a mini whiteboard each. Grades 2 to 8. An actor draws a slip and mimes it with no sounds and no mouthing. Pupils write a guess on a mini whiteboard and hold it up, and the actor points to the first correct board, whose owner acts next. Allow one guess per pupil per word. Teach three signals first: fingers in the air for the number of words, fingers laid on the arm for syllables, and a tug on the earlobe for "sounds like".
  • Silent Line-Up Whole class, 5 to 10 minutes, nothing needed. Grades 2 to 8. Without a word, the class lines up in order of birthday, from January 1 at one end to December 31 at the other. Pupils may hold up fingers for the month and the day, but may not mouth words or write. When the line is still, each pupil says their birthday aloud and you count the pupils out of place. Next time line up by first name in alphabetical order, or by the number of letters in your name, and try to beat that score.
  • Telephone Whole class in rows, 5 to 10 minutes, a sentence on a slip of paper for each row. Grades K to 5. Give the first pupil in each row the same sentence of 8 to 10 words on a slip. They whisper it once to the pupil behind, with no repeats, and it travels to the back of the row. The last pupil writes down what arrived. Read the results against the original. With no slips, the first pupil in each row makes up the sentence. The win is a message that arrives whole, which takes a soft, clear voice and close listening. In Germany the game is called Stille Post, quiet mail.
  • What Changed? Whole class, 5 to 10 minutes, nothing needed. Grades K to 5. Five pupils stand at the front and hold a pose while the class studies them for 30 seconds. Heads go down and eyes shut. The five quietly make 3 changes between them: two swap places, one rolls up a sleeve, one turns a collar. Heads up. Pupils show on their fingers how many changes they can see, then you call on three pupils to name one each. The pupils who name a change are part of the next five.
  • Wink Detective Whole class in a seated circle, 10 minutes, nothing needed. Grades 3 to 8. The detective waits outside while you point to one pupil, the winker. The detective comes back and stands in the middle of the circle. The winker catches a classmate's eye and winks. That pupil counts to 5 in their head, then folds their arms and drops their chin as if asleep. The count hides where the wink came from. The detective has 3 guesses to name the winker. It is a gentle form of a well-known parlor game.

Still and listening games 6

  • Guess the Minute Whole class, 5 minutes, a timer that only you can see. Grades 2 to 8. Cover the wall clock. Everyone stands with eyes shut. Start a timer that only you can see and say "Go". Each pupil sits down silently at the moment they believe 60 seconds have passed, and may then open their eyes and watch. Note who sits closest to the minute, early or late. Afterwards ask how they kept count: tapping a toe, counting breaths, saying a long word between numbers. Try 30 seconds with 2nd grade.
  • Keeper of the Keys Whole class in a seated circle, 10 minutes, a chair and a bunch of keys. Grades 1 to 5. The keeper sits on a chair in the middle with eyes shut and the keys on the floor underneath. Point to a pupil, who creeps in to take the keys and carry them home without a jingle. If the keeper hears something, they point toward the sound. If they point straight at the creeper, you choose someone new. A pupil who gets the keys home becomes the keeper. The circle must stay silent, or the keeper hears nothing.
  • Kim's Game Whole class, 10 minutes, a tray, a cloth and up to 15 small objects. Grades K to 8. Set out the objects under the cloth: a key, a spoon, a die, a shell, a paper clip. Lift the cloth for 1 minute while pupils look without talking or writing, then cover the tray. Each pupil lists every object they remember, and the longest correct list wins. Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts, advised at most about 15 objects at first. With kindergarten, show 6 and take one away. The name comes from Kim, the 1901 novel by Rudyard Kipling.
  • One Minute of Sounds Whole class, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades K to 5. Everyone shuts their eyes for exactly 1 minute and listens. Each time you hear a new sound, put up one finger: the clock, a chair next door, a truck outside, your own breathing. When the minute ends, pupils hold up their count, then write or draw the sounds they heard. Collect them on the board and sort them into sounds from inside the room and outside it. Play again another day with the window open and compare.
  • Quiet Mouse, Still Mouse Whole class, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades K to 2. Say "Quiet mouse, still mouse" and every pupil sits as silent and as still as they can. One pupil stands at the front, watches the room for a slow count of 10, then taps the desk of the stillest mouse. That pupil becomes the picker and the first one sits down. Two rules keep it kind: a picker may not choose the pupil who chose them, and nobody is picked twice.
  • Sleeping Lions Whole class, 5 minutes, nothing needed, but floor space to lie down. Grades K to 2. All the lions lie down on the carpet, shut their eyes and keep as still as they can. One or two hunters walk among them looking for movement. Hunters may come close and tell jokes, but may never touch a lion. A lion who wriggles or giggles gets up and joins the hunters. Breathing does not count. To settle a young class after recess, make every child a lion and be the only hunter yourself.

Partner games with no paper 4

  • Chopsticks Pairs, 5 to 10 minutes, nothing needed. Grades 3 to 8. Each player holds out 1 finger on each hand. On your turn, tap one of your partner's hands, which adds your tapping hand's fingers: a 2 tapped by a 1 becomes 3. A hand that reaches 5 or more is out. Some play that only exactly 5 is out, so agree first. Or split: touch your own hands and share the fingers a new way, so 3 and 1 become 2 and 2. Knock out both hands to win.
  • Don't Say 21 Pairs or groups of 3, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades 2 to 8. Players count up from 1 in whispers. On a turn you say the next 1, 2 or 3 numbers, so after "1, 2" your partner might say "3, 4, 5". Whoever is forced to say 21 loses. Let pupils play a few rounds before you ask what they notice. With 2 players there is a winning plan: always stop on a multiple of 4. After 20, your partner has nothing left but 21. Then make 31 the losing number.
  • Mirrors Pairs, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades 1 to 8. Partners stand face to face, an arm's length apart. One leads with slow movements of the hands, arms and face, and the other copies as a mirror would, so the leader's right hand is matched by the partner's left. Swap leaders on your signal after 1 minute. In the last round nobody leads, and each pair tries to move as one. Walk around and try to tell who is leading. If you cannot, the pair is doing it well.
  • Odds and Evens Pairs, 5 minutes, nothing needed. Grades K to 3. One partner is Odds and the other is Evens. They whisper "One, two, three, shoot", and in this classroom version each shows 1 to 5 fingers on one hand. Add the two hands. An even total scores a point for Evens, an odd total a point for Odds. First to 10 wins. Ask 2nd graders why two odd numbers always make an even one. It is a variation of par impar, a Roman guessing game played with nuts or coins.

Pencil and paper games 10

  • Bulls and Cows Pairs, 10 to 15 minutes, paper and a pencil each. Grades 4 to 8. Each player secretly writes a number with 4 different digits. Take turns writing a guess on a shared sheet. Your partner answers in bulls and cows. A bull is a right digit in the right place, a cow a right digit in the wrong place. If the secret is 6281 and the guess is 1285, the answer is 2 bulls and 1 cow. The first to find the other's number wins. A perfect player never needs more than 7 guesses; 10 is a good score in class.
  • Consequences Groups of 5 or 6, 10 to 15 minutes, a long strip of paper and a pencil each. Grades 3 to 8. Everyone writes the first line of a story at the top of the strip, folds it back out of sight and passes it left. Six lines make a story: a character, who they met, where they met, what the first one said, what the second replied, and what happened in the end. Fold and pass after every line, then unfold and read the mixed-up stories. Use animals or book characters, never classmates. It is an old parlor game.
  • Dots and Boxes Pairs, 10 minutes, paper and a pencil each. Grades 1 to 8. Draw a square grid of dots, 6 by 6 for a full game or 4 by 4 for 1st grade. Take turns drawing one line between two neighboring dots, across or down. When your line closes the fourth side of a box, initial it and draw again. At the end, the player with more boxes wins. A 6 by 6 grid makes 25 boxes, so there is no tie. Édouard Lucas of France published it in the 19th century.
  • Five in a Row Pairs, 10 minutes, grid paper and a pencil each. Grades 3 to 8. One player is X and the other is O. Take turns marking one empty square anywhere on the grid paper. The first to get 5 marks in an unbroken row, across, down or diagonally, wins. A row of 3 open at both ends already needs blocking, because an open row of 4 cannot be stopped. The player who starts has the edge, so swap who goes first. In Japan the game is called gomoku and goes back to the mid-1700s.
  • Hidden Ships Pairs, 15 minutes, grid paper, a pencil each and a folder to stand up as a screen. Grades 3 to 8. Each player rules two 10 by 10 grids, lettered A to J across and numbered 1 to 10 down. On one, shade 4 ships of 5, 4, 3 and 2 squares, across or down, never overlapping. Take turns whispering a square such as D7. Your partner answers "hit" or "miss". Mark your second grid. A ship sinks when every square is hit, and its owner says so. Sink all 4 to win. It began on paper around World War I.
  • Nim Pairs, 5 minutes, paper and a pencil, or 12 counters. Grades 2 to 8. Draw three rows of tally marks: 3 in the first row, 4 in the second and 5 in the third. On your turn, cross out as many marks as you like, at least one, all from the same row. The player who has to cross out the last mark loses. Play best of 5. Forms of the game go back to ancient times. Charles Bouton of Harvard worked out its full theory in 1901 and named it Nim.
  • Sim Pairs, 5 minutes, paper and two pencils of different colors. Grades 4 to 8. Draw 6 dots in a ring, like the corners of a hexagon. The players use different colors and take turns joining any two unjoined dots. There are 15 possible lines. The first player to complete a triangle with all three sides in their own color, corners on the dots, loses. Sim can never end in a draw: once all 15 lines are colored, a triangle of one color must exist. Gustavus Simmons described the game in 1969.
  • Sprouts Pairs, 5 to 10 minutes, paper and a pencil each. Grades 4 to 8. Start with 3 spots. Each turn, draw a line from one spot to another, or a loop from a spot back to itself, then mark a new spot on that line. A line may never cross or touch another line, and no spot may have more than 3 lines. A loop uses 2 of a spot's 3 lines, and a new spot already has 2. The last player able to move wins. From 3 spots a game lasts 6 to 8 moves. John Conway and Michael Paterson invented it at Cambridge University in the early 1960s.
  • Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe Pairs, 10 to 15 minutes, paper and a pencil each, or a printed board. Grades 4 to 8. Draw a large tic-tac-toe grid with a small grid in each of its 9 squares, 81 in all. Start anywhere. After that, the square you pick in a small grid sends your partner to the small grid in that position: a top right square sends them to the top right grid. Three in a row wins a small grid. Three small grids in a row win the game. If sent to a grid that is won or full, play anywhere.
  • Words Within a Word Whole class, 5 to 10 minutes, paper and a pencil each. Grades 2 to 8. Write one long word on the board, such as "thunderstorm" or "celebration". Pupils have 3 minutes to write, in silence, every word they can make from its letters. A letter may be used only as many times as it appears. Words need at least 3 letters, and proper nouns do not count. Score 1 point per word and 2 for a word nobody else found. "Thunderstorm" alone hides storm, north, mother, shout and student.

How it works

These quiet classroom games keep a whole class busy while the room next door takes a test. In 25 of the 33 nobody speaks at all, and the other 8 use whisper voices. Every game is written out below the button.

Read the full guide

Silent classroom games and whisper games

The All games menu sorts the list by kind: 13 whole-class games, 6 listening games, 4 partner games and 10 pencil and paper games. Choose Silent games for the 25 played without a word, from Silent Ball to Sim. Choose Whisper games for the 8 that need a low voice, such as Hidden Ships, where a pupil whispers a square like D7.

Quiet games for middle school and for kindergarten

Quiet classroom games for middle school have to be real contests, or older pupils will not stay silent for them. Middle school in the menu lists 21, including all 10 pencil and paper games. Kindergarten to 2nd grade lists 23, led by Sleeping Lions and Quiet Mouse, Still Mouse, which ask only for stillness.

  • Teach the silent signals before the first round: a raised hand for a question, a point before a throw, a thumb for yes.
  • Give pupils who are out a silent job. In Silent Ball they referee by pointing.
  • Deal three and let pupils vote with a show of fingers, so the choosing stays quiet as well.

Questions and answers

Which quiet games need no equipment at all?

Choose No equipment in the menu for 14 games, 12 of them also in its 5 minute games. In Silent Line-Up pupils line up by birthday, using fingers for the month and the day. Mirrors, Chopsticks and Odds and Evens need only hands.

Which games work while another class is testing?

Choose Played at desks in the menu. It lists 24 games with no walking about, and 17 of them are silent, from Guess the Minute to Bulls and Cows. Silent Ball is silent for voices, but a dropped ball is not.

How do you keep a quiet game quiet?

Make silence part of the rules, not a request. In several games a sound already costs something: you sit down in Silent Ball, and the count goes back to 1 in Count to 20. For a reset with no winner, try a calming brain break.

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