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.
- Plus Plan
Random Pairing Generator Cards
Use these printable partner cards as a randomized pair generator when grouping students in the classroom.
- Plus Plan
Subordinating Conjunctions (for Conditions) Interactive Activity
Use this interactive digital activity to help students identify conditional subordinating conjunctions, and construct sentences using this part of speech.
- Plus Plan
Subordinating Conjunctions Game Show Interactive Activity
Use this interactive digital activity to assist your students in practicing identifying and constructing sentences using subordinating conjunctions in a fun way!
- Plus Plan
Would You Rather? Parent Teacher Meeting Game
Engage students and parents in a fun game of Would You Rather? to spice up your open house for school.
- Plus Plan
Long A Vowel Team Interactive Activity
Practice identifying the different vowel team graphemes that spell the long /a/ sound with this fun space-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Long I Vowel Teams Interactive Activity
Practice identifying the different vowel teams that spell the long /i/ sound with this fun iceberg-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph KN Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘kn’ with this fun knight-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph SH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘sh’ with this fun beach-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph TH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘th’ with this fun sloth-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph WH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘wh’ with this ocean-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph NG Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘ng’ with this fun playground-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph CK Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘ck’ with this fun rock climbing-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Digraph PH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘ph’ with this fun ocean-themed interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Christmas Game for Kindergarten - Upper and Lowercase Letter Memory
Build letter recognition skills and add Christmas spirit to your literacy centers with a Printable Letter Matching Christmas Game for Kindergarten.
- Plus Plan
Christmas Board Game - 1st Grade Punctuation
Engage students by having them play a Christmas board game, refining their abilities to use correct punctuation at the end of sentences.
- Plus Plan
Christmas Interactive: Singular and Plural Nouns
Practice using singular and plural nouns with a fun Christmas-themed digital resource.
- Plus Plan
Christmas Pass The Parcel
Play "Pass the Parcel" with your students for a fun twist to the traditional classroom Christmas gift exchange!
- Plus Plan
This or That? Christmas Edition
Take a Holiday Brain Break and play a game of This or That! Christmas Edition!
- Plus Plan
Would You Rather? Christmas Edition
Engage your students in thoughtful and hilarious discussions in an engaging, interactive game of Christmas Would You Rather?
- Plus Plan
3rd Grade Geometry Christmas Game- Classifying Shapes
Identify 2D and 3D shapes and their attributes with an exciting Christmas Geometry Game!
- Plus Plan
Christmas Memory - Beginning Letter Sound Games
Have fun matching Christmas words with their beginning sounds using printable Christmas Letter Sound Games.
- Plus Plan
Fiction vs Nonfiction Interactive Activity
Explore fiction and nonfiction examples with your students using this digital game for Kindergarten and 1st grade students.
- Plus Plan
Sound Energy Sources Interactive
With your students, explore the sources of sound energy and how we sense them using this interactive science activity.
- Plus Plan
Printable Christmas Game - Journey to The North Pole
Inspire silly holiday fun with a printable Christmas Board Game for Kids!
- Plus Plan
Fighting Gravity Interactive Clip Cards
Explore objects that must fight gravity to stay in their air with this set of 24 digital clip cards.
- Plus Plan
Christmas Writing Prompt Dice Game - Roll-a-Story
Roll a Christmas Writing Prompt and write a fun Christmas story with our printable Christmas Dice activities.
- Plus Plan
Interactive Build A Snowman Sequencing Activity
Practice sequencing and writing procedural texts with an interactive How to Build a Snowman game.
- Plus Plan
How to Decorate a Christmas Tree - Year 1 Procedural Writing
Practice sequencing and writing procedural texts with an interactive ‘How to Decorate a Christmas Tree’ slide deck and differentiated writing prompts for 1st grade.
- Plus Plan
Number Line Multiplication – Interactive Picture Reveal for 3rd Grade
Engage your students with this interactive multiplication game while learning how to multiply on a number line.
- Plus Plan
High or Low Friction? Interactive Clip Cards
Explore high and low friction examples with your students using this set of 24 digital clip cards.
- Plus Plan
Array Beanbag Toss
Engage your students with a fun, whole-class game when learning about arrays.
- Plus Plan
Vowel Team Dominoes - AI and AY
Decode words with vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds using this set of 26 dominoes.