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, 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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Drama Game Task Cards
A set of 17 activity cards with instructions for drama games.
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Adverbs and Adjectives Interactive Activity
Share this interactive drag-and-drop activity with your students to allow them to practice the correct use of adverbs and adjectives in the English language.
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Interactive Plant and Animal Sorting Game - External Features
Observe, sort, and group living things based on external features with an Interactive Plant and Animal Sorting Game.
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Irregular Plurals Escape Room
Teach irregular plurals with this engaging escape room game that helps teachers bring grammar lessons to life while keeping students motivated and excited to learn.
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Describe it Card Game
Engage with this Describe it Card Game to get your students using their oral language skills in a fun way!
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I Have, Who Has? - Place Value Games for 1st Graders (2-Digits)
Reinforce your students understanding of 2-digit Place Value concepts with printable Place Value Games for 1st graders.
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Roll and Write - Telling Time Dice Game
Practice telling time and have fun learning how to tell time with a Roll and Write Telling Time Dice Game!
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One Has to Go! Game of Elimination Icebreaker
Play ‘One Has to Go!” and engage your students in a friendly classroom debate with this Google Slides icebreaker game.
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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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True or False? Active Listening Exercises
Improve listening skills in the classroom with an engaging True or False Active Listening Activity.
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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.
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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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The Case of the Missing Football – Estimating Products Escape Activity for 4th Grade
Uncover the identity of the thief who stole the football with a printable estimating products escape room activity.
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Managing Big Emotions – Interactive Activity
Teach students how to manage emotions using healthy coping skills with this interactive scenario game for the early years classroom.
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Main Idea and Details - Interactive Clip Cards
Practice identifying the main idea with these interactive clip cards.
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Lab Safety – Interactive and Printable Cloze Reading Activity
Demonstrate an understanding of lab safety rules and expectations by completing a cloze reading activity.
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Native American Regions of North America - Indigenous Groups Interactive
Review learning objectives related to the indigenous tribes of North America with a self-checking interactive activity.
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Greek and Latin Root Word Rummy - Card Game
Explore Greek and Latin roots, words, and meanings with this hands-on card 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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Pictograph, Bar Graph, & Dot Plot Match-Up (Scaled Intervals)
Use data analysis skills to match tally charts and frequency tables with their corresponding bar graph, pictograph, or dot plot.
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Identifying Character Traits Interactive Activity
Get your students identifying character traits with this engaging digital quiz that helps students understand how language reveals personality in writing.
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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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Build It! End of Year Interactive Engineering Activity
Bring engineering into the digital classroom with an interactive design project.
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Skip Counting by 10s Dominoes
A set of dominoes to use in the classroom when learning to skip count by 10.
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2-D Shape Bingo
Engage your students while consolidate learning about 2D shapes, their names and properties with 2D Shape Bingo!
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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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How It Moves - Digital Toy Sorting Game
Explore motion and categorization with an engaging Interactive Toy Sorting Game.
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How Does It Move? Game
Engage your little learners in the study of motion with a self-checking ‘How Does It Move?’ Game.
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Addition Fact Practice: Numbers to 20 Escape Room
Engage students in addition fact practice with an interactive escape room and companion student notebook that make learning fun, hands-on, and meaningful.
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4x4 Blank Bingo Template Pack
Create your own bingo games with custom content using our Printable Bingo Template Pack.
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Animal Features and Functions Matching Activity
Explore animal features and their functions with an engaging Animal Features Matching Game.