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.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Roll to Create a Strip Diagram
A roll to create template for students to use when learning to use strip diagrams.
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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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Digraph Coding Robot Mat
Practice identifying digraphs with the help of a coding robot and mat.
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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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Past, Present, and Future Verb Tense Matching Activity - Regular Verbs
Practice using past, present, and future tenses of regular verbs with a butterfly matching activity.
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Roll and Cover – Telling Time to the Minute
Practice telling to the minute with this roll and cover game
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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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Bump! Subtraction to 10 Math Game
Practice subtraction facts to 10 with a fun printable subtraction board game.
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Graphing Numerical Equations – Google Slides Interactive Activity
Recognize and analyze patterns in graphs, input-output tables, and equations with this interactive activity.
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What Do Good Citizens Do? Matching Activity
Teach the roles and responsibilities of good citizens with a scenario matching cut and paste worksheet.
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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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Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
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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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Fractions on a Number Line – Kaboom Game
Practice identifying fractions on a number line with an exciting game of Kaboom!
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Rhyming Word Cards
Reinforce students' knowledge of rhyming words with this set of 30 picture cards.
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Mega Matcher (Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages) 6th Grade Math Interactive Game
Match equivalent fractions, decimals, and percentages with this interactive game for 6th grade math with a code-cracking twist.
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I Have, Who Has? - Time to the Minute
Practice telling time to the nearest minute with this set of “I Have, Who Has” game cards.
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Interactive Perimeter Puzzle
Play this perimeter game with your class so they can practice calculating the perimeter of a variety of 2D shapes.