How to Build Skills Using Classroom Games

By Brandy Metzger, Guest Author

Family game night has is a beloved tradition in many American households. As a teacher you can use classic games that children play at home in your classroom as learning activities.

By bringing games into the classroom, you’ll review skills that need to be taught in an engaging way. Here are some ideas for turning classic games into learning activities for each major subject area.

Math

• Battleship is a game that can easily be used to help students review the concept of coordinate pairs. When students place their own ships on the board, have them write the location of each ship by listing the coordinate pairs on a sheet of paper. Then, as they locate their opponent’s ships, have them record those coordinate pairs as well. This can be the entirety of the review, or you can take it a step further by using these coordinates on a real map, in math or geography problems, or another related activity.
• Payday is a great game to help students practice addition and subtraction of decimals. In this game they will be earning “money” and also spending it. Have students keep a running record of their additions and subtractions. You can collect their record and check their computations for accuracy.
• Yahtzee can be used to help students review basic multiplication facts. The game comes with five dice. For an easier game, students can remove one die and roll the remaining four. Instruct them to roll two at a time to create a math problem. For example, if a student first rolls a 3 and a 6, the total is 9. Then, they roll a 2 and a 4 and get a 6. They would then multiply 9 and 6. Whoever rolls numbers that total the largest product is the winner for that round. For advanced students, the fifth die can be put into place and added into the first roll for a larger number.

Language Arts

• Scrabble is a fantastic game to help students with spelling and vocabulary. Traditional rules need not apply when used in the classroom. Students can turn all the letter tiles face-up and use the whole set to draw from. On each student’s turn, they will select letters to spell out current vocabulary or spelling words. Students record their word and the score for the word on a sheet of paper. Once the board is full or no additional words can be made, students can each total their score to determine a winner. You can review their papers to check for any errors in spelling.
• Connect 4 can be slightly modified to become a sentence building game. Write a word on each chip prior to game play, including a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives and articles. Challenge your students to form complete sentences that fill the seven spaces across the board, by dropping one word at a time. To fill the board, they must make six complete sentences. As an extra activity, kids can build a story with their sentences, working in pairs, small groups, or as a class.
• Clue is the perfect game for practicing deductive reasoning skills. Encourage your students to listen carefully to clues and examine their own, in order to determine who committed a crime, what they used to commit the crime, and where it happened. As an extension of this game, challenge your students to write a backstory for the murder. This creative writing assignment pushes them to be creative and establish a problem that lead to the murder. It’s also a great way to practice character development in their writing.

Social Studies and Science

• Pictionary can be played without the traditional board to review vocabulary words or concepts in social studies or science. Simply write down the words or phrases that you’d like students to review on note cards (one per card). Divide students into teams. Each team will send one person to the board to select a card and draw. The traditional timer or a stopwatch can be used to give students one minute to draw and guess. After the minute is up, if the drawing team has not said the answer, the opposing team can take one guess. Play goes back and forth in this manner until all words/phrases have been reviewed.
• Hedbanz can also be used to review vocabulary words or concepts. Make your own cards with the specific terms or phrases to be reviewed. In this game, one player wears the headband with the card facing out. A teammate must describe the concept or define the word and the person wearing the band has to guess it. This game can be played with 2 or more players.

With these games in your arsenal of activities, students are sure to love coming to class. Your room will be a place where learning meets fun!

For more teacher resources, check out education.com.

Brandy Metzger is a 5th grade language arts teacher. She has 18 years experience teaching elementary students in grades K-5 and gifted education. Her pastimes include writing and travel.