Educational games can be great tools to get kids to exercise concepts and use their critical thinking skills while still having fun. Teachers know this (those smart cookies!) and will sometimes adapt existing games to their lesson plans or create a whole new game entirely. Just check out the games category on Teachers Pay Teachers for some awesome examples.
Not only do we focus on an all around fun experience, but we want our educational games to help improve cognitive functions and reinforce learning. This is why we love it when we hear from teachers who are fans of our games and use them with their students. But sometimes a game may not feel appropriate for a classroom setting, whether it’s due to noise level, lack of organization, or the addressing of lesson concepts. When using games as learning tools, we encourage teachers and parents to break the rules! With a little creativity, you can turn existing games into a classroom or homework activity that targets the lesson at hand.
Last year, we were fortunate to have a teacher in Pennsylvania with over 20 years experience in elementary school education design lesson plans using our educational games. Since there are quite a few, we are going to continue this post as a series divided by game.
Educational Games We’ll Cover
- Sumoku
- Tell Tale
- Speedeebee
- Spot it!
- Double Shutter
- Dragon Face
- Speedeebee
- Pixy Cubes
- Chickyboom
- Pengoloo
First up, we have Sumoku!
Practicing Math with Sumoku
Sumoku is a crossword style mathematics game with 5 different ways to play included in the rules. In the basic version, players roll a die to get a key number. Players try to arrange the longest row or column of numbers that add up to a multiple of the key number, without repeating tile colors. The total of your tiles is your score for that turn. Sumoku is perfect for practicing multiplication but it can be used to teach younger kids too.
Grade Level Application: 2nd
Skills: Math concepts, such as addition/subtraction fluency and skip counting, attention to detail
Suggested Lesson Plan
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 1 per group
Noise level: Low
Practice Addition
Use a math worksheet with addition equations that have blank boxes to write in. Each student draws 4 tiles at a time to create 2 two-digit numbers. Using those numbers, they fill in the blank boxes to create an equation to solve. For example, if you pull tiles 3, 2, 4, 4 it could be 32+44=_ or other combinations of the 4 tiles.
Practice Subtraction
Use a math worksheet with subtraction equations that have blank boxes to write in. Each student draws 4 tiles at a time to create 2 two-digit numbers. Using those numbers, they fill in the blank boxes to create an equation to solve. For example, if you pull tiles 3, 2, 4, 4 it could be 44-32=_ or other combinations of the 4 tiles. This means the student must understand to put the larger number first.
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 2 per group
Noise level: Moderate to low
Practice Skip Counting
Have a draw pile on the table 1 bag per 2 students. Then have them each race to be first to create a string of numbers skip counting 2 up to 20 or 3 up to 30.
(Zeros can be represented by flipping a tile over showing the blank side or using a similarly sized object such as a penny.)
Grade Level Application: 3rd
Skills: Math concepts, such as addition/subtraction fluency, multiples, attention to detail
Suggested Lesson Plan
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 1 per group
Noise level: Low
Practice Addition & Subtraction
Use a math worksheet with addition equations that have blank boxes to write in. Each student draws 6 tiles at a time to create 2 three-digit numbers. Using those numbers, they fill in the blank boxes to create an equation to solve. For example, if you pull tiles 3, 2, 1, 4, 4, 5 it could be 321+445=_ or other combinations of the 6 tiles.
You can do the same exercise with subtraction. For example, if you pull tiles 3, 2, 1, 4, 4, 5 it could be 445-321=_ or other combinations of the 6 tiles. This means the student must understand to put the larger number first.
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 2 per group
Noise level: Moderate to low
Practice Multiples
Have a draw pile on the table 1 bag per 2 students. Then have them each race to be first to create a string of multiples of 3 up to 30 or 4 up to 40.
(Zeros can be represented by flipping a tile over showing the blank side or using a similarly sized object such as a penny.)
Grade Level Application: 4th
Skills: Math concepts, such as multiples and multiplication
Suggested Lesson Plan
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 2 per group
Noise level: Moderate
Practice Multiples
Have the students create a draw pile of one tile of each digit from 2-9 and place them face down. The rest of the tiles are face up. Each student take one face down tile, flips it, and immediately begins building a string of 10 multiples.
(Zeros can be represented by flipping a tile over showing the blank side or using a similarly sized object such as a penny.)
Practice Multiplication
Use a math worksheet with multiplication equations that have blank boxes to write in. Each student draws 2 tiles at a time and then fills in the blank boxes to create an equation to solve. For example, if you pull a 3 and a 2 tile it would be 3×2=_.
Grade Level Application: 5th
Skills: Math concepts, such as multiples, multiplication, division, and prime/composite numbers
Suggested Lesson Plan
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 2 per group
Noise level: Moderate
Practice Multiples
Have the students create a draw pile of one tile of each digit from 2-9 and place them face down. The rest of the tiles are face up. Each student take one face down tile, flips it, and immediately begins building a string of 10 multiples.
(Zeros can be represented by flipping a tile over showing the blank side or using a similarly sized object such as a penny.)
Small Group: 4 children
# Of Games Required: 1 per group
Noise level: Moderate
Practice Multiplication
Use a math worksheet with multiplication equations that have blank boxes to write in. Each student draws 2 tiles at a time and then fills in the blank boxes to create an equation to solve. For example, if you pull a 3 and a 2 tile it would be 3×2=_.
Practice Division
Use a math worksheet with division equations that have blank boxes to write in. Each student draws 3 tiles at a time to create a one digit divisor and a two digit dividend and then fills in the blank boxes to solve for the quotient. For example, if you pull a 3, 4, and 8 tile it could be
34 / 8 =_.The quotient could be written as 4.25, 4 ¼, or 4 remainder 2.
Practice Prime/Composite
Each student draws 20 tiles. Have them sort the tiles by prime and composite numbers.