Games for Teachers
We don't have to tell you that fun classroom games are worth their weight in gold! Encouraging critical thinking, building social skills, and helping engage students with the curriculum? Yes, please. Get ready to bring game-based learning to your classroom with helpful printables, escape rooms, and more educational fun for elementary school students.
With a long list of benefits of learning games on hand, the teachers at Teach Starter have spent hours creating classroom card games, board games, scavenger hunts, and more that can help students build core competencies while having a whole lot of fun!
Game-based learning has gotten a lot of interest in recent years, but what exactly, is it? We know you've got a lot to do in your classroom and not a whole lot of time to do it, so our teacher team has put together a quick guide to gamification in education.
(Know all you need to know? Feel free to jump ahead to our printable and digital learning games!)
What Is Game-Based Learning?
In essence, game-based learning allows you to borrow from the gaming world to allow your students to engage with their lesson material in more dynamic ways. They can help improve student motivation and help students achieve learning objectives.
We like to think of it a bit like the parents who hide the broccoli inside the tasty hamburger. A little bit of gameplay helps the medicine — or core curriculum — go down!
Games aren't just fun, after all. They have failure baked into them, along with repetition, and the chance to accomplish goals along the way. Playing games in a classroom fosters many of those social and emotional learning skills, even when the topic at hand comes from the science curriculum or is focused on an ELA standard.
Why Are Classroom Games Good for Kids?
We hinted at some of the benefits earlier, but let's dig deep into the benefits of playing educational games in your classroom!
- They motivate students.
- Students develop critical thinking skills.
- They're student-centered.
- They build teamwork and leadership skills.
- Games encourage creativity and thinking outside of the box.
- They encourage students to challenge themselves.
- They improve student concentration.
Learning Games Ideas
Good teachers can make just about any lesson fun, but maybe you're looking for learning game ideas to mix things up. We thought you'd never ask!
Check out a few of our teacher team's favorite (and fun) ways to inject gameplay into your students' education:
- Digital escape rooms
- Card games
- Dominoes
- Active games
- Scavenger hunts
- Would you rather? games
- Bingo
- Board games
How to Use Games in the Classroom
Looking for a few fun ways to use games in the classroom? Our teacher team has a few quick ideas for you to try on for size!
- Play active games to help students get their wiggles out.
- Add a board game to your reading center or math center activities.
- Use flashcard-type or trivia games for material review.
- Explore new concepts in fun ways with games like 20 questions.
- Help students get to know one another at the beginning of a school year with teamwork games.
- Explore difficult concepts with skills-based games.
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Last One Standing Active Game
An active game that allows students to build their vocabulary knowledge.
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Roll to Create a Creature - Drawing Game
Use a die and a chart to create a creature to include in a narrative text or a comic strip.
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Escape From the Alien Invasion – Math Escape Room (Basic Fractions)
Save the planet from the alien invasion by identifying fractions, comparing fractions, creating models, and more with an exciting digital escape room.
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Compound Words Bump Game
Help your students discover new compound words with a printable Compound Word BUMP! Game.
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Dressing Up A Sentence - Interactive or Printable Activity
Encourage students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing with this activity.
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The Lost Library Card – Whole Class Escape Game
Use inference and problem-solving skills to decipher the puzzles and uncover the hidden code.
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Never Have I Ever Questions for Kids ... Getting to Know You Game
See fun "Never Have I Ever" questions for kids to break the ice in your classroom and help students get to know one another.
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I Have Who Has? Game – Composing Fractions
Get your students to compose fractions with an engaging whole-class game perfect for lesson warm-ups or wrap-ups!
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Would You Rather? - End of Year Summer Fun Game
Kick off your summer vacation with a fun end of year “Would You Rather?” Brain Break activity.
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Aliens in a Spaceship Counting and Subitizing Game
Download a fun, hands-on game for teaching kids to count and use one-to-one correspondence or to subitize.
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Roll It! Operations Game
Use this fun game to practice all four operations and/or order of operations.
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We're Going On a Shape Hunt! Graphing Game
Consolidate students' knowledge of 2D shapes while teaching about data collection, recording and graphing!
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Animals and Their Babies Memory Game
Play a fun Memory-style animal game for kids to learn about animals and their babies.
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Back To School - Listening Skill Refresh Activity
Refresh student listening skills with a Back to School Listening Skill Refresh Slides and script.
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One More, One Less Match-Up - Two-Digit Numbers
Identify one more or one less of a given 2-digit number with this set of 36 match up cards.
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Converting Fractions and Decimals – 6th Grade Interactive Activity
Use this set of interactive slides to practice converting, ordering and solving problems with fractions and decimals.
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Diving Into Decimals – Google Slides Interactive Activity
Use this interactive activity to take a deep dive into decimals while improving skills with decimal operations and place value concepts.
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Roll to 100 Odd and Even Game
Create a fun math station with this roll to 100 game where students show their knowledge of odd and even numbers up to 100.
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What's That Decimal? - Number Line Mystery Reveal
Sharpen numeracy skills by identifying decimals on a number line with an interactive mystery picture reveal.
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End of Year Scoot and Glyph Activity
End the school year with an activity in which students get to share their summer plans, get moving, and create a work of art.
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Perimeter and Area Dice Game
Use this area and perimeter dice game as a math center activity when teaching area and perimeter to your 3rd and 4th graders.
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Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Building Compound Words - Puzzles
Practice building compound words with this set of 20 puzzles, each with three pieces—two smaller words and the compound word they form.
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Selecting Units of Capacity – Measurement Game
Estimate the units needed to measure capacity with an Interactive Measurement Game!
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Group It Many Ways – Multiplication Activity
Promote hands-on learning with this activity, where students will practice making equal groups to represent multiplication.
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Top Secret Scavenger Hunt – Estimating Decimal Sums and Differences
Join the decimal scavenger hunt adventure! Download our printable scavenger hunt and guide your students to sharpen their estimation skills by using decimal benchmark values when finding sums and differences.
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Digraph Coding Robot Mat
Practice identifying digraphs with the help of a coding robot and mat.
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Bump! Subtraction to 10 Math Game
Practice subtraction facts to 10 with a fun printable subtraction board game.
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Decimal War Card Game
Get your students comparing decimals with this fun card game for two players.
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Fill the Grid Active Game
An active game that allows students to practice their multiplication facts.
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Fact Family Find and Flip - Addition and Subtraction Up to 20
Addition and subtraction game cards demonstrating the relationship between fact families.
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Drama Game Task Cards
A set of 17 activity cards with instructions for drama games.