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.
- Free Plan
Roll It! Operations Game
Use this fun game to practice all four operations and/or order of operations.
- Plus Plan
Halloween Escape Room - The Missing Treat Mystery - Multiplication and Division Facts
Solve the mystery of who stole all the treats from the Halloween Party with an interactive Halloween Escape Room featuring multiplication and division.
- Plus Plan
Is It True? Active Listening Activity
Improve listening skills in the classroom with an engaging 'Is It True?' Active Listening Activity.
- Free Plan
Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentences
Practice writing simple and compound sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
- Free Plan
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.
- Free Plan
Frog and Flies Match-Up Activity (Counting to 12)
Practice counting numbers 1 to 12 with this fun frog and fly match-up activity.
- Free Plan
Last One Standing Active Game
An active game that allows students to build their vocabulary knowledge.
- Free Plan
What Do Good Citizens Do? Matching Activity
Teach the roles and responsibilities of good citizens with a scenario matching cut and paste worksheet.
- Free Plan
Expanded Form Dominoes (5-Digit Numbers)
Use this set of dominoes when learning how to match 5-digit numbers written in standard form and expanded form.
- Free Plan
Roll It, Make It, Expand It! - Place Value Worksheet
A worksheet for students to use when learning to write two-digit numbers in expanded form.
- Free Plan
Drama Game Task Cards
A set of 17 activity cards with instructions for drama games.
- Free Plan
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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Roll to Create a Haunted House Halloween Activity
Have some spooky Halloween fun with a Roll-to-Create Halloween Art activity.
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Escape from Pete's Pumpkin Patch - Halloween Escape Room
Escape the evil witch who turns children into pumpkins at Pete’s Pumpkin Patch using inferencing, problem solving, and grammar skills
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Spooky Subtraction - 3rd Grade Halloween Math Game
Practice triple-digit subtraction with regrouping with an exciting 3rd Grade Halloween Math Game.
- Free Plan
Decimal War Card Game
Get your students comparing decimals with this fun card game for two players.
- Plus Plan
Telling Time Bingo - Time to the Quarter Hours
Practice telling time to the quarter hour with a printable Telling Time Bingo Game.
- Free Plan
Roll, Count, and Cover - Dot Day Activities
Build fine motor skills and counting skills with a set of printable Roll, Count, and Color Dot Day Activities.
- Plus Plan
Bingo Cards - Rounding Numbers Using a Vertical Number Line
Review how to round numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, and ten thousand with a vertical number line Bingo game.
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Character Traits: Interactive Activity
Analyze text and identify character traits of characters 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.
- Free Plan
What's Remaining? - Long Division Board Game
A game to play to when learning to solve long division involving remainders.
- Free Plan
We're Going On a Shape Hunt! Graphing Game
Consolidate students' knowledge of 2D shapes while teaching about data collection, recording and graphing!
- Plus Plan
States of Matter Interactive Task Cards
Identify examples of the 3 states of matter with a set of self-checking interactive task cards.
- Free Plan
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!
- Plus Plan
True or False? Active Listening Exercises
Improve listening skills in the classroom with an engaging True or False Active Listening Activity.
- Free Plan
Roll to Create a Gingerbread House
Have some Christmas fun without the mess with a Roll-to-Create Gingerbread House Art activity.
- Plus Plan
Roll to Create a Spooky Halloween Scene
Create a spooky scene to include in a narrative text using a die and a chart with this fun, hands-on Halloween activity.
- Free Plan
2nd Grade Odds and Evens Animal Racing Game
Play this fun animal racing came to quickly practice odd and even number recall.
- Free Plan
Fill the Grid Active Game
An active game that allows students to practice their multiplication facts.
- Free Plan
2-D Shape Dominoes
A set of dominoes to help students with their understanding of 2-D shapes.