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.
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Roll to Create a Gingerbread House
Have some Christmas fun without the mess with a Roll-to-Create Gingerbread House Art 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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Christmas Trivia Advent Calendar Interactive
Host a Christmas trivia game show with an interactive advent calendar trivia game.
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Weathering, Erosion and Deposition Matching Game
Challenge your students to identify different slow changes to Earth’s surface with this matching game designed for 4th and 5th-grade students.
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Adjective and Adverb Scoot Game
Scoot! This fun active learning game will have your students up and about on an adverb and adjective adventure around your classroom!
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Roll, Count, and Cover - Dot Day Activities
Build fine motor skills and counting skills with a set of printable Roll, Count, and Color Dot Day Activities.
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Team Building Games – Upper Grades
Encourage communication and cooperation with this set of 10 team-building games.
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Who Would Win? - Plant Adaptation Interactive Game
Identify plants and plant adaptations that allow for survival in different environments with an exciting “Who Would Win?” showdown game!
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Google Slides Interactive - Prefixes Activity
Practice adding prefixes to words by identifying, defining, and matching them in context.
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Spring "Numberpillars" — Kindergarten Math Center Activity
Match numbers 1-10 with their various visual representations to build a fun mathematical caterpillar!
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Four Corners-Back to School Active Game
Get moving with this engaging All About Me Active game for the beginning of a school year.
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Subitizing Battle
Quickly subitize and compare numbers up to 5 with this fast-paced card game.
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Google Interactive - Regions of the United States
Practice identifying states in the five regions of the United States with a Google Interactive activity.
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Adverbs Activity - Grammar Charades
Have some fun and build grammar skills with an adverb charades activity.
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Let's Research! Digital and Print Poster Project Templates
Conduct, organize, and display research about books, people, planets, animals, states, and countries with a versatile set of printable and digital poster templates.
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100 Alphabet Letters
Practice counting to 100 by 1’s with upper and lowercase alphabet cards and our 100 chart.
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Numbers 1-10 Bug Matching Game
Help students learn to represent numbers 1-10 in picture, word and number form.
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Oblivious Orchestra – Rhythm Challenge
A fun and challenging game where students try to keep a steady beat.
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40 Traditional Similes - Matchup Activity
A set of 40 simile matchup cards with illustrations.
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Order of Operations Dice Game
Practice order of operations with this set of 6 dice activity mats.
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Fishing to Know You
Get to know your new class at the beginning of the year with this Fishing to Know You activity.
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Roll and Read – Rhyming Words
A fun game for students to practice reading rhyming words.
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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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The Bean Game
A fun active game to play at any time.
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Software and Hardware Match-Up Game
A matching game to assist students in understanding the difference between hardware and software.
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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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Roll and Read – Sight Word Game Pack
Practice reading sight words with this set of 5 Roll to Read Sight Word Game boards.
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Compound Words Roll and Read Game
Roll and read compound words with a pair of printable Compound Words Roll and Read Partner Games!
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Compound Words Self-Checking Digital Game
Make putting words together to form compound words into a game with a self-checking Google Interactive activity.
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Unit Fraction Puzzle Pop Match
‘Pop’ in a bit of extra practice with unit fractions using this fun set of Unit Fraction Puzzle Pops!
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Time to 5 Minutes - Digital Learning Activity
Review how to tell time to the nearest five minutes with an independent Telling Time Digital Learning Activity.
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3rd Grade - Time to the Minute Quiz Game
Practice telling time to the minute with an engaging 3rd Grade Telling Time Quiz Game.