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!

1. They motivate students.
2. Students develop critical thinking skills.
3. They're student-centered.
4. They build teamwork and leadership skills.
5. Games encourage creativity and thinking outside of the box.
6. They encourage students to challenge themselves.
7. 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!

1. Play active games to help students get their wiggles out.
2. Add a board game to your reading center or math center activities.
3. Use flashcard-type or trivia games for material review.
4. Explore new concepts in fun ways with games like 20 questions.
5. Help students get to know one another at the beginning of a school year with teamwork games.
6. Explore difficult concepts with skills-based games.