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
Everyday Stress Coping Strategies Interactive Game
Develop your students’ ability to effectively cope with everyday stress using this interactive learning game.
- Plus Plan
Managing Stress Social Stories Interactive Activity
Share this relaxing and calming interactive activity with your students to help them to differentiate between helpful and unhelpful strategies for coping with stress.
- Plus Plan
Food Chains - Interactive Activity
Review producers, consumers and decomposers in food chains with this interactive digital quiz.
- Plus Plan
3D Shapes Cafe- Interactive Activity
Practice identifying 3D shapes and their properties in multiple ways with this engaging interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Mixed Numbers - Fraction Model Match-Up
Practice matching improper fractions, mixed numbers, bar models, and fraction number lines with this set of 36 match-up cards.
- Free Plan
Lab Equipment Vocabulary – Match-Up Activity
Identify different types of science tools by matching vocabulary terms, pictures, and definitions.
- 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
Unit Fraction & Whole Number Division Models – Match-Up Activity
Practice how to divide a unit fraction by a whole number and divide a whole number by a unit fraction with this match-up activity.
- Plus Plan
Math Bowl - Mixed Operations Word Problem Game
Score a mathematical touchdown with by solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems with an exciting football math game.
- Plus Plan
Making Ten Memory Game
Practice making ten using ten frames with this fun memory game.
- Plus Plan
Multiplying Fractions – Google Slides Interactive Activity
Challenge your students to multiply fractions while completing 7 different tasks with this Google slides interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Ordered Pairs Match-Up
Practice plotting ordered pairs and describing the process for graphing with this match-up activity.
- Plus Plan
Headbands Game-Back to School Icebreakers
Print a fun forehead game for students to get to know each other on the first day of school.
- Plus Plan
Bingo Game – Coping Skills for Kids
Review calming strategies and coping skills for kids with a game of Bingo!
- Plus Plan
Multiplying Fractions – Domino Games
Engage students with a dominoes game while practicing how to multiply fractions.
- Free Plan
What Do Good Citizens Do? Matching Activity
Teach the roles and responsibilities of good citizens with a scenario matching cut and paste worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Elf Escape! - Digital Escape Room
Help Elfy, the classroom Elf escape the locked classroom and return to the North Pole with an exciting escape room!
- Plus Plan
Least Common Multiple – Match-Up Activity
Determine the least common multiple of a set of numbers with this match-up activity.
- Plus Plan
Long Ago, Now, or In the Future? Match-Up
Help your students develop a sense of history and how life, transportation, and communications have changed with a matching activity.
- Plus Plan
Order of Operations Bingo
Review vocabulary and solve expressions with this Order of Operations Bingo game!
- Plus Plan
Subject-Verb Agreement Digital Learning Activity
Improve sentence structure and grammar skills with a Google Interactive resource that focuses on a range of subject-verb agreement rules.
- Plus Plan
Measuring to the Nearest 1/4 Inch – Match-Up Activity
Practice measuring objects to the nearest ¼ inch with this match-up activity.
- Plus Plan
Telling Time Knockout
Practice telling time to the minute by reading analog and digital clocks with this competitive whole-class Telling Time Knockout game.
- Plus Plan
I Have, Who Has? - Coin Game
Practice counting a collection of coins with this set of “I Have, Who Has” game cards.
- Plus Plan
Telling Time to the Nearest Five Minutes - Interactive Activities
Read different clock faces to the nearest 5 minutes.
- Plus Plan
100 Chart Missing Numbers
Practice counting forward beginning from a given number with this set of 100 charts and recording sheets.
- Plus Plan
How Much Does It Measure? Match-Up Activity (Length, Mass, and Capacity)
A set of 18 match-up cards to reinforce measurement concepts of length, mass, and capacity.
- Plus Plan
CVC Words Parking Lot Game
Practice decoding and spelling CVC words with this set of 16 word cards and matching game board.
- Free Plan
What Am I? – Music and Instruments
A fun game for students to identify various musical instruments and terminology.
- Plus Plan
Disappearing Ice Cream Sundae (Hangman Alternative)
An interactive, kid-friendly alternative to hangman.
- Free Plan
Fill the Grid Active Game
An active game that allows students to practice their multiplication facts.
- Plus Plan
Nonfiction Text Features: Match It Up!
Download this nonfiction text features game to teach elementary school students about the common text features of informational texts.