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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Multisyllable Words Google Interactive
Build multisyllable word decoding skills with upper-grade students with a Google Slides interactive activity.
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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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100 Chart Missing Numbers
Practice counting forward beginning from a given number with this set of 100 charts and recording sheets.
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Frog and Flies Match-Up Activity (Counting to 12)
Practice counting numbers 1 to 12 with this fun frog and fly match-up activity.
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Differentiating Long and Short Vowels - Interactive PowerPoint
Practice differentiating between long and short vowel sounds with this interactive PowerPoint.
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What's Missing? – Interactive PowerPoint
Put those inferencing skills to use with this "guess what's missing" interactive activity for young learners.
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Order of Operations Dice Game
Practice order of operations with this set of 6 dice activity mats.
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Fill the Grid Active Game
An active game that allows students to practice their multiplication facts.
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Compound Words Game Show Interactive
Turn your compound word lessons into a fun game with an interactive Compound Word Game Show activity!
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Compound Words - Read, Spell, & Write Interactive
Build skill with reading and writing compound words with a Google Slides Digital Learning resource.
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Elapsed Time Interactive Word Problems Game
Practice solving elapsed time word problems with an interactive quiz game for 3rd and 4th graders.
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Figuring Elapsed Time - Interactive Game
Determine the elapsed time between events and have fun with an interactive Elapsed Time game.
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Time by the Minute - 3rd Grade Math Interactive
Practice telling time by the minute with an interactive Time-telling digital learning activity.
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Types of Circuits Interactive Task Cards
Test your students’ knowledge of different types of circuits with this set of 24 interactive task cards.
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Choices and Consequences Board Game
Encourage your students to think about the choices they make with this printable SEL board game.
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Perimeter Escape Room – The Mysterious Missing Cupcakes
Have your supersleuth students solve this perimeter escape room to find out who stole the missing cupcakes!
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Roll to Create a Gingerbread House
Have some Christmas fun without the mess with a Roll-to-Create Gingerbread House Art activity.
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Array Match-Up Activity for 3rd Grade
Challenge your students to create sets of arrays, multiplication facts and products with this matching game for 3rd grade.
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Adjective and Adverb Scoot Game
Scoot! This fun active learning game will have your students up and about on an adverb and adjective adventure around your classroom!
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Adverbs and Adjectives Interactive Activity
Share this interactive drag-and-drop activity with your students to allow them to practice the correct use of adverbs and adjectives in the English language.
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Antonym Coding Robot Mat
Practice coding for kids and matching antonym pairs with a coding robot mat.
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Plant Adaptations Webquest Activity
Research and learn about the amazing adaptations of eight unusual plants with an interactive webquest research activity.
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Race to 50: Cooperation Challenges
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a set of team-building number race activities.
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Fact Family Matching Game (Multiplication and Division)
Use this engaging and fun game to practice fact families and the relationship between multiplication and division.
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Hundreds Chart Addition Strategy Interactive Activity
Practice using the hundreds chart as an addition strategy with this fun interactive activity.
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Blast Off Addition Strategy Interactive Activity
Practice four different addition strategies in this fun space-themed interactive activity.
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3D Shapes Cafe- Interactive Activity
Practice identifying 3D shapes and their properties in multiple ways with this engaging interactive activity.
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Comparing Fractions Board Game
Improve student understanding of how to compare fractions with the same numerators or denominators with this comparing fractions game.
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What Doesn’t Belong? Fraction Models – Teacher Guided Activity
Strengthen student understanding of different fraction models with this teacher-led activity.
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Digital Pixel Art - Adding and Subtracting Integers
Practice adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers with an exciting spreadsheet pixel art activity.
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Planet Puzzle Match-Up Activity
Use your knowledge of the solar system to complete 8 different planet puzzles.
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Math Bowl - Mixed Operations Word Problem Game
Score a mathematical touchdown with by solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems with an exciting football math game.