Games in the Elementary Classroom

Are you ready to successfully use games in your classroom? I am sharing all my best tips to get you started today.

Why Should You Use Games in an Elementary Classroom?

Before we talk about how to use games, let’s talk about why we should use games.

Games are a great way to make learning fun! They can really motivate students to want to learn. Games also have lots of other benefits, such as:

being a great way to review and practice skills;
helping students stay focused on one subject;
offering an opportunity for students to practice cooperating with others;
providing teachers with time to teach small groups or work with other students one-on-one.

Did I already mention that games are fun?! You can read my blog post “Why Should Learning be Fun in a K-2 Classroom?” to see all the reasons I am a big believer in making learning fun.

When Should You Use Games?

I promise we will get to the part where I share how to start using games but let’s talk about when to use games.

Games are so versatile. You can use them at any time and with any subject.

Games can be used to introduce a topic or skill, review, assess, or reward (good behavior or completion of a goal).

You can use games during whole group or small group instruction. Partner games are a great way for students to practice skills and a great way to free you up so that you can teach a small group or work with one student. Games are also great for time fillers (as long as students know how to play independently – more about this later).

You could even send a game home for homework – if a student already knows how to play independently or you have really simple specific directions.

What are some games you can play?

There are so, so many different kinds of games. You can play board games, card games, movement games, and digital games. All of these different games can be played in whole groups, small groups, with partners, or individually.

Because there are so many different games, I am going to talk about some of my personal favorites.

Card Games

Classic card games, like Memory, Go Fish, or Uno can be great for reviewing basic skills. I especially like using different memory games for independent practice.

Digital Games

There are so many great digital learning games for your students. My absolute favorite digital game isn’t even a game (it just seems like a game). For digital fun, I love using Boom Cards™. Boom Cards are a great, safe alternative to using a free learning website. When your students use Boom Cards, they are on a closed platform. You control what they see and do.

Boom Cards can be played on a computer, an iPad, or even an interactive TV/ActivBoard.

I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about Boom Cards today, certainly a future topic, but if you want to see some in action you can check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store and view some previews. I have several free options you can try out too.

Boom Cards Letters, Sounds, and Words Endless Bundle

Movement Games

Movement games are a wonderful way to get your kids out of their seats. Some fun ones to try are Simon Says, 4 Corners, and Trashcan Ball.

Simon Says is the classic game where a caller gives a direction and the group has to decide if they should follow the direction. The tricky part is that they can only follow the direction if the caller first says, “Simon Says”. If they follow the direction and the caller didn’t say Simon Says, then they are out. You could use Simon Says to review a variety of skills, such as addition or counting syllables. For example, Simon Says Jump 5 + 3 or Simon Says clap the number of syllables in the word pizza.

4 corners is also a classic movement game. Students move to one of the 4 designated corners (or areas) of the room and hope that the one caller (who has his or her eyes closed) doesn’t choose their corner. This game lends itself to great review. You could put a sign with a number, word, picture, etc. in each corner. Then, you could silently show the students a question and have them move to the correct corner, based on the answer to the question. The caller then randomly calls out a corner and tries to get a large number of students out!

Trashcan Ball is always a favorite. Basically, you ask the students some type of question. If they answer correctly they get a chance to throw a ball into a trashcan for a point. Usually, I make two teams and use a soft squishy ball, like a foam Ba ll. Students take turns answering questions for their team.

Board Games

Board games are another fun type of game to use in the classroom. I love to use board games in small groups to reinforce a skill. However, using partners is my favorite way to play board games.

I use board games to review addition, subtraction, number recognition, phonics, and word families, … well, you can tell I use them in a variety of ways.

Don’t forget to get your free gameboards. When you click this button, you actually sign up for a free resource library that contains Boom Cards, gameboards, and Bingo games (another great game option)!

Free Gameboards!

I also have lots of options in my Teachers Pay Teachers store that you may be interested in, such as these math games or word family games.

How do you start using games in your classroom?

Now, let’s talk about how to start using games in your classroom. I have shared lots of different game options. For this part of our discussion, I am going to talk about how I use partner games for independent review.

Introduce and Model

It is very important to first introduce the game to your students and model how to play before they ever try to play independently. Just giving quick directions doesn’t usually work well.

I always have my students sit in a circle on our big rug. I show them the new game and give directions. We then “play” as a whole class – the class vs. me. Really, I just want to model how to play.

Monitor

Next, I either follow up with a small group game or try partner games. If the game is a brand new format and one they really have never seen before, I will play the game as part of my small group instruction while the rest of the class is in centers or doing some other activity I know they can complete independently. If the game is similar to other games we have played, I will partner my students up and let them find spots all over the room to play. I then walk around and monitor them to make sure they truly know how to play.

Independent Practice with Partners

Finally, when I am confident my students know how to play, usually after several opportunities to play with me monitoring, I let partners play while I work with a small group or individual student. I never jump immediately to independent practice. I always make sure my students know how to play first.

Since kids love board games, using the same game over and over is a great option. In fact, the more they play a particular game, the more likely they will be successful in playing independently (without direct supervision). Once students can play games in the classroom independently, then board games become great options for time fillers. Just make sure to have the games in an easily accessible location with all of the materials also readily available (i.e. dice, game pieces, spinners). You also want to make sure that students understand the rules and procedures for this type of independent practice.

It can also be a good idea to use games with similar formats so that students quickly learn to play, such as the board games I previously showed you.

Speaking of board games I have shown you, don’t forget to get your free game set.