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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Roll and Multiply Interactive Activity
Teach your students the multiplication strategy of repeated addition using this colorful interactive dice game!
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Classmate Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
Build a classroom community and help your students get to know each other with a fun getting to know you activity.
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Addition and Subtraction Word Problems - Match Game
Practice reading, modeling, and solving addition and subtraction word problems with a matching activity.
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Seize the Synonym Active Game
Grab, snatch, and match synonyms with an active synonyms game.
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Would You Rather? International Women's Day Active Game
Engage your students in thought-provoking discussions with this set of International Women’s Day-themed "Would You Rather" questions.
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Dividing Whole Numbers – Match-Up Activity
Aim to solve long division problems with multi-digit divisors with this match-up activity.
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Build It! End of Year Interactive Engineering Activity
Bring engineering into the digital classroom with an interactive design project.
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Google Interactive CVCC Word Building Activity
Practice building, reading, and writing words with consonants, vowels, blends, and digraphs while spelling CVCC words.
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What Am I? – Music and Instruments
A fun game for students to identify various musical instruments and terminology.
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CVC Word Building Activity
Practice building CVC words with this 25 slide interactive activity.
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Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentences
Practice writing simple and compound sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
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Alphabetical Order Activity
A fun matchup activity to help teach children the letters of the alphabet and their sounds.
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Contractions Matching Activity - Dog Bone and Bowl
Practice matching words with their contraction with this fun bone and bowl matching activity.
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Counting to 20 Interactive Task Cards
Explore the woods with this nature hike and count the different groups of objects along the way!
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Bugs in a Jar Counting Activity
Practice counting to 20 with this engaging and hands-on bugs in a jar activity set.
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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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Selecting Units of Capacity – Measurement Game
Estimate the units needed to measure capacity with an Interactive Measurement Game!
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Interactive Days of the Week Math Game
Introduce your little learners to the days of the week and months of the year with a self-checking interactive Calendar Math Game.
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True or False? Active Listening Exercises
Improve listening skills in the classroom with an engaging True or False Active Listening Activity.
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Unit Fraction Bingo
Play a game of Bingo with your students to practice their knowledge of unit fractions.
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Donut You Love Arrays? Interactive Task Cards
Help your students relate multiplication facts and arrays 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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Array Beanbag Toss
Engage your students with a fun, whole-class game when learning about arrays.
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Array, Array, Go Away Dice Game
Reinforce how to match arrays and multiplication facts with this printable dice game.
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Ugly Christmas Sweater - Dice Drawing Game
Roll your way to the perfect ugly Christmas sweater with a printable Christmas dice game.
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Equal Groups Multiplication Activity
Engage your students with a hands-on activity to practice making equal groups to represent multiplication.
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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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Multiplication Array Puzzles
Guide your students to match arrays, multiplication facts and repeated addition sentences with this set of puzzles.
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Array Card Kaboom!
Boost your students’ understanding of arrays and multiplication with this engaging Kaboom card game.
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Christmas Trivia Advent Calendar Interactive
Host a Christmas trivia game show with an interactive advent calendar trivia game.
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Managing Big Emotions – Interactive Activity
Teach students how to manage emotions using healthy coping skills with this interactive scenario game for the early years classroom.