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
Ugly Christmas Sweater - Dice Drawing Game
Roll your way to the perfect ugly Christmas sweater with a printable Christmas dice game.
- Plus Plan
Google Interactive R-Controlled Vowel Word Building Activity
Build an engaging literacy center or station activity around r-controlled vowels with a Google Slides Interactive Activity.
- Free Plan
Properties of Materials Beanbag Toss Game - Describing Matter
Explore and describe the properties of materials with an exciting beanbag toss game.
- Free Plan
Properties of Matter Game - Bean Bag Toss
Play an exciting Properties of Matter game by downloading this printable Matter Bean Bag Toss Game!
- Free Plan
Christmas Trivia Advent Calendar Interactive
Host a Christmas trivia game show with an interactive advent calendar trivia game.
- Free Plan
Roll It! Operations Game
Use this fun game to practice all four operations and/or order of operations.
- Free Plan
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!
- Free Plan
Back To School - Listening Skill Refresh Activity
Refresh student listening skills with a Back to School Listening Skill Refresh Slides and script.
- Plus Plan
Parts of Speech Card Game – Editable
An editable parts of speech card game.
- Free Plan
Vocabulary Dice Roll Activity
6 vocabulary activities to use with a range of words.
- Free Plan
2-D Shape Dominoes
A set of dominoes to help students with their understanding of 2-D shapes.
- Free Plan
Roll to Create a Gingerbread House
Have some Christmas fun without the mess with a Roll-to-Create Gingerbread House Art activity.
- Free Plan
Weathering vs. Erosion vs. Deposition Vocabulary Game
Guide your students to review weathering, erosion and deposition vocabulary words with this free dice game.
- Plus Plan
Never Have I Ever... Getting to Know You Interactive Game
Get to know your new class with this child-friendly version of "Never Have I Ever...".
- 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
Snakes and Ladders Game Board Template
Create a fun activity for any subject area with this black-and-white board game template.
- Plus Plan
Vowel Digraph Bingo
30 different bingo cards using vowel digraph graphemes.
- Plus Plan
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.
- 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!
- Free Plan
Animals and Their Babies Memory Game
Play a fun Memory-style animal game for kids to learn about animals and their babies.
- 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.
- Plus Plan
Analog and Digital Clocks Coding Robot Mat
Practice telling time on analog and digital clocks with coding robots!
- Plus Plan
What Do Plants Need? Plant Habitat Interactive Game
Help some lost plants return to the correct habitat with a Google Slides interactive activity.
- 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.
- Plus Plan
Order of Operations Bingo
Review vocabulary and solve expressions with this Order of Operations Bingo game!
- Plus Plan
Dressing Up A Sentence - Interactive or Printable Activity
Encourage students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing with this activity.
- Free Plan
Decimal War Card Game
Get your students comparing decimals with this fun card game for two players.
- Free Plan
Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentences
Practice writing simple and compound sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
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Editable Blank Dice
A blank dice to add in content that relates directly to your class.
- 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
Rhyming Words Snap Cards
A set of 32 snap cards to reinforce word families and rhyming with your students.
- Plus Plan
Changing Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers Game (Escape Room)
Play this changing improper fractions to mixed numbers game with your students for a fun way to review fraction conversions!