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
Read Across America Bingo
Encourage your students to read different types of books with this Read Across America bingo card.
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Roll and Read – Rhyming Words
A fun game for students to practice reading rhyming words.
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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
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.
- Plus Plan
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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Battleship Coordinate Plane Game
Use this coordinate plane game to practice plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate grid.
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Mystery Prize Picker - Interactive Behavior Rewards
Reward your students with special surprises by using our interactive behavior reward picker!
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Improper Fractions Activity Cards
Provide these improper fractions activity cards to your students to give them a variety of ways to practice converting improper fractions to mixed numbers.
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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.
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Last One Standing Active Game
An active game that allows students to build their vocabulary knowledge.
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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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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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Rhyming Word Cards
Reinforce students' knowledge of rhyming words with this set of 30 picture cards.
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Drama Game Task Cards
A set of 17 activity cards with instructions for drama games.
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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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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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Snakes and Ladders Game Board Template
Create a fun activity for any subject area with this black-and-white board game template.
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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!
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Is It True? Active Listening Activity
Improve listening skills in the classroom with an engaging 'Is It True?' Active Listening Activity.
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Roll It! Operations Game
Use this fun game to practice all four operations and/or order of operations.
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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.
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Oral Language Activity - I Spy Game
Strengthen oral language skills with this I Spy Oral Language Activity.
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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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Decimal War Card Game
Get your students comparing decimals with this fun card game for two players.
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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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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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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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States of Matter Escape Room - The Laboratory Lockdown
Use a States of Matter Escape Room activity to engage and excite your students about the forms and changes seen in matter.
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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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Would You Rather? Read Across America Game
Engage your students in thought-provoking discussions and fun exercises on Read Across America with a fun game of Would You Rather?
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The Lost Library Card – Whole Class Escape Game
Use inference and problem-solving skills to decipher the puzzles and uncover the hidden code.
- Free Plan
Nothing but Nouns Game
A game to practice working with common, proper, and collective nouns.