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
Cover Up! - Addition Facts Game
Develop a love of addition facts with this multiplayer Valentine’s Day board game.
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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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Rhyming Word Cards
Reinforce students' knowledge of rhyming words with this set of 30 picture cards.
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Dice Roll - Content Vocabulary Activity
Use our ‘Dice Roll’ Content Vocabulary Activity as an opportunity to help your students grow their vocabulary skills in the classroom.
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Aliens in a Spaceship Counting and Subitizing Game
Download a fun, hands-on game for teaching kids to count and use one-to-one correspondence or to subitize.
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Last One Standing Active Game
An active game that allows students to build their vocabulary knowledge.
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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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Cupid's Compound Sentences Valentine's Day Activity
Build some sweet sentence writing skills using a fun Valentine’s Day Compound Sentence interactive activity.
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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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Read Across America Bingo
Encourage your students to read different types of books with this Read Across America bingo card.
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Race to 100 Odd and Even Game
Create a fun math station with this roll to 100 game where students show their knowledge of odd and even numbers up to 100.
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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.
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Metric Conversion Games — "Measurement Mansion"
“Escape” the ordinary in your classroom with metric conversion games like our “Measurement Mansion” escape room.
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Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentence Game
Play a ‘Roll-a-Sentence’ simple and compound sentence game to help your students practice writing simple and compound sentences.
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Rounding Numbers Activity (Escape Room)
Play our rounding numbers activity in your classroom to engage students as they practice and extend their rounding and critical thinking skills.
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Rounding Games for 4th Graders — Race Up the Rounding Ladder!
Challenge your students with one of our many rounding games for 4th graders — Race Up the Rounding Ladder!
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Properties of Matter Game - Bean Bag Toss
Play an exciting Properties of Matter game by downloading this printable Matter Bean Bag Toss Game!
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Coordinate Plane Escape Room
Play this engaging coordinate plane escape room with your students to help them refine their coordinate grid skills.
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Spring "Numberpillars" — Kindergarten Caterpillar Puzzles
Match numbers 1-10 with their various visual representations to build fun caterpillar puzzles!
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Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
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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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Volume Escape Room
“Escape” ordinary volume activities with this engaging volume escape room that will have students solving volume challenges on a quest for a lost civilization.
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Battleship Coordinate Plane Game
Use this coordinate plane game to practice plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate grid.
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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!
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Weathering, Erosion & Deposition Interactive Activity
Use this set of interactive activities to strengthen student understanding of weathering, erosion and deposition concepts.
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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.
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Roll and Read – Rhyming Words
A fun game for students to practice reading rhyming words.
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Valentine Bingo - 2-Digit Addition and Subtraction Game
Add and subtract two-digit numbers to win this fun Valentine’s Bingo Game!
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Valentine's Day - Number Form Match-Up
Identify three-digit numbers in standard form, word form, expanded form, and in base-ten form with a printable Valentine’s Day Math activity.
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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.
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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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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.