The work of a teacher is very complicated because he or she must learn a lot of children. It’s not easy to develop the necessary skills and knowledge equally well. There will always be the ones who fall behind. Some students require help too often, and they always wonder – How can I write my paper properly? Oftentimes, the first problems appear at the elementary school due to the lack of educational games or their low quality. They are crucial and may bring a lot of dividends in the nearest future. If you are a teacher who cannot choose what games can suit his or her class better, read this useful guide on the best educational games for the classroom.
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Benefits of Games in the Classroom
Before we start to enumerate the most effective games that help students to work through challenges, we’d like to remind educators and learners of the possible benefits. Games are not created only for fun if they should be used during lessons. There are many crucial goals they pursue. They help students to:
- Improve understanding and remembering.
- Develop social and collaboration skills.
- Work out problem-solving skills.
- Enhance creative thinking.
- Build analytical skills.
You should agree that these competencies are crucial in learning. Moreover, they are important in everyday life and in the workplace. Therefore, the usefulness of educational games is really enormous.
Math or Fact Baseball
The first recommendation is related to math and the famous US sporting game baseball. This union will surely bring a lot of fun to young learners. You need to divide the students into 2 teams. One is at bat and another at the pitch. The pitch team asks questions, and if the at-bat team answers correctly, it advanced through the bases. In case there are 3 wrong answers, the asking team gets its point. Of course, you can make similar rules that differ from our description. This game can encourage students to work with their wits and develop teamwork skills.
20 Questions
Another way for students to practice their wits is called “20 Questions.” This is a very popular and interesting game. There should be cards related to different topics. Divide the class into 2–4 teams. The answering team should answer with “yes” or “no” only. There should be no more than 20 questions per card.
Beach Ball Toss
We also want to recommend a game known as “Beach Ball Toss.” As you already understand, you will need a simple plastic ball, which is commonly used by kids at the beach. You should write various questions about a definite story that was read in the call. For example, it may be Tom Sawyer. Throw the ball to different pupils. The part of the ball they face as they catch it will be their question. They will earn grades by answering the questions correctly.
Pictionary
This is one more fascinating game. Select various topics and get a wallpaper with pencils. Prepare the cards that reflect a topic and choose pupils. Each of them should draw an image, and his/her team should guess what he/she means by that image. Add a timer to control the duration. If it’s too challenging, you may allow writing 1–2 letters of the topic a certain team cannot guess correctly.
Simon Says
This is a perfect game for students to have fun. It can be applied in learning as well. It may be used to reflect the skills students have mastered. Define which ones they have developed and say – Simon says… The end of this command is to do something that reveals the quality. It may be:
- Cite a poem
- Draw a picture
- Retell a story
- Write a story, etc.
It can be used in many educational and life situations to teach kids a lot of useful and creative things.
Memory
Make students work together to solve the issue of small memory capacity. This is one of the biggest problems of millions of learners from all over the globe. Choose different words and let your students pair them with the pictures to find the right answers and memorize them for good.
Hot Seat
There is one more funny game we’d like to recommend to teachers. It is called “Hot Seat” and it will make the brains of your students run fast. There is a “hot seat” on which one of the pupils should sit to answer the questions. Set a timer for quick answers to the questions you or other pupils should ask. For example, these may be 5 seconds. If the pupil answers correctly, he/she remains sitting on the chair and earning grades. This game helps to develop the flexibility and speed of thinking. It also develops speaking opportunities as students speak with each other or communicate with you. If there is too much pressure because of a timer, don’t use it.
