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 It! Operations Game
Use this fun game to practice all four operations and/or order of operations.
- Free Plan
Perimeter and Area Dice Game
Use this area and perimeter dice game as a math center activity when teaching area and perimeter to your 3rd and 4th graders.
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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
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.
- Plus Plan
Escape From the Alien Invasion – Math Escape Room (Basic Fractions)
Save the planet from the alien invasion by identifying fractions, comparing fractions, creating models, and more with an exciting digital escape room.
- Free Plan
Last One Standing Active Game
An active game that allows students to build their vocabulary knowledge.
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We're Going On a Shape Hunt! Graphing Game
Consolidate students' knowledge of 2D shapes while teaching about data collection, recording and graphing!
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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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Back To School - Listening Skill Refresh Activity
Refresh student listening skills with a Back to School Listening Skill Refresh Slides and script.
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Changing Verb Tenses Interactive Google Slides Activity
Provide your students with a digital learning environment to practice using past, present, and future tense verbs.
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Decimal War Card Game
Get your students comparing decimals with this fun card game for two players.
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Roll to Create an Animal - Adaptations Activity
Roll to choose cool animal adaptations for a mystery animal using a fun dice game and report template.
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5th Grade Math Review – Google Slides Interactive Activity
Review important 5th-grade math standards with a student-led interactive activity that covers 12 different mathematical concepts.
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Animal Adaptations Digital Learning Activity Slides
Discover a variety of structural, behavioral, and physiological adaptations with an Animal Adaptations Digital Learning activity.
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Digraph Coding Robot Mat
Practice identifying digraphs with the help of a coding robot and mat.
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Kindergarten Counting 1-20 Matching Game
Use this matching game in your primary classroom to teach students to count quantities and match them to numbers (1-20).
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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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Telling Time Printable Games for 2nd Grade
Help your students learn to tell time to the 5 minutes with this set of six printable Telling the Time games for 2nd grade.
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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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Interactive Activity - 2D Shapes Mystery Bag
Help students identify the properties of 2D shapes with this 10-slide interactive activity.
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Evaluating Expressions – Match-Up Activity
Practice substituting values for variables while evaluating expressions with this match-up activity designed for 6th-grade students.
- Free Plan
Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
- Free Plan
Roll to Create a Strip Diagram
A roll to create template for students to use when learning to use strip diagrams.
- Free Plan
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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Weathering vs. Erosion vs. Deposition Vocabulary Game
Guide your students to review weathering, erosion and deposition vocabulary words with this free dice game.
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Fractions on a Number Line – Kaboom Game
Practice identifying fractions on a number line with an exciting game of Kaboom!
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Our Physical Environment Bingo
Build and master the ability to identify land and water formations in the physical environment with a game of Physical Environment Bingo!
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Rolling for Cash — Printable Counting Coins Game
Print a customizable money game for kids that requires addition and skip counting skills to count coins.
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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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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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40 Traditional Similes - Matchup Activity
A set of 40 simile matchup cards with illustrations.
- Free Plan
Drama Game Task Cards
A set of 17 activity cards with instructions for drama games.