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.
- Free Plan
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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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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Roll It! Operations Game
Use this fun game to practice all four operations and/or order of operations.
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2-D Shape Dominoes
A set of dominoes to help students with their understanding of 2-D shapes.
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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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Famous Artists Card Game for Kids
A set of 54 famous artist cards to be used for a variety of card games.
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This or That! PowerPoint Game - Common and Proper Nouns
An active PowerPoint game to practice working with common and proper nouns.
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Rounding Games for 4th Graders — Race Up the Rounding Ladder!
Challenge your students with one of our many rounding games for 4th graders — Race Up the Rounding Ladder!
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Battleship Coordinate Plane Game
Use this coordinate plane game to practice plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate grid.
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Metric Conversion Games — "Measurement Mansion"
“Escape” the ordinary in your classroom with metric conversion games like our “Measurement Mansion” escape room.
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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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Is It True? Active Listening Activity
Improve listening skills in the classroom with an engaging 'Is It True?' Active Listening Activity.
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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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Algebraic Expressions – Google Slides Interactive Activity
Practice writing, reading, and solving algebraic expressions with this set of interactive activities.
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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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Rounding Numbers Activity (Escape Room)
Play our rounding numbers activity in your classroom to engage students as they practice and extend their rounding and critical thinking skills.
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Caption Text Feature Matching Game
Teach your students about the caption text feature with this engaging and collaborative matching game.
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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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Halloween Mystery Escape - Multiplication and Division for 5th Grade
Uncover the identify of the thief who stole the pumpkin projects with a printable 5th-grade multiplication and division Halloween Mystery escape room activity.
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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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Positive and Negative Numbers – Board Game
Practice identifying opposite integers, plotting positive and negative numbers, and solving word problems with this free board game.
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Rhyming Word Cards
Reinforce students' knowledge of rhyming words with this set of 30 picture cards.
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Fishing to Know You
Get to know your new class at the beginning of the year with this Fishing to Know You activity.
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Dice Roll - Content Vocabulary Activity
Use our ‘Dice Roll’ Content Vocabulary Activity as an opportunity to help your students grow their vocabulary skills in the classroom.
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Multiplication and Division Bingo
Practice fact families with our multiplication and division bingo resource that offers two different ways to play!
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Oral Language Activity - I Spy Game
Strengthen oral language skills with this I Spy Oral Language Activity.
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Changing Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers Game (Escape Room)
Play this changing improper fractions to mixed numbers game with your students for a fun way to review fraction conversions!
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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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Selecting Units of Capacity – Measurement Game
Estimate the units needed to measure capacity with an Interactive Measurement Game!
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Design a Donut Persuasive Writing Interactive
Explore persuasive writing with this fun donut-themed interactive activity.
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Line of Symmetry 2D Shapes Interactive Activity
Engage your students in a variety of interactive activities all focused on the line of symmetry for 2D shapes.
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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.