How to create games simply...
In the past, I thought games had to be difficult and time consuming to make or expensive to buy premade. I remember making Bingo games for my students to practice sight words. I had to write in all those boxes the different sight words I wanted my students to practice and in different spaces on each game board for each student. With 24 students – THAT’S A LOT OF PREP WORK! Even for a small group of 8 or 4 students, that’s still too much work for me! I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a lot of money to spend on premade games especially when they are specific to a particular skill for students to practice. I teach numerous standards. If I had to buy a different game for each standard, I would be broke! Over the years, I have learned how to simplify my gaming experiences without affecting the fun level for my students. Wait… I take that back, I believe it may be more fun for them, because even the same game can be different every time we play it! There are several ways that I created games and I’m going to share this with you so you can enjoy them with your students too.
Traditional Board Games
Most likely many of you have games like Sorry, Trouble, 4 Square, Candy Land and/or many more. If not, you can find them pretty cheap at yard sales. What I do for any of these types of games is just add one step in the process. Before a student’s turn, I show the student a flashcard that displays a subject related skill the student is working on. The flashcard might be a sight word, an addition fact, a science or social studies term to be defined, or anything else the student is working on. If the student answers the problem shown correctly, they take their turn. If the student answers incorrectly, they miss their turn for that round.
Created Board Games
Created Board Games are fun to make when you have the time and you can attach them to themes that your students are studying. I’ve used many materials to do this including file folders, large pieces of construction paper, butcher paper, tag board, dry erase boards or even copy paper. There are many other options you can use that may be more available to you. You can do this as quickly as drawing a circle or S-shape on the material used with a Start and Finish space as well as blank spaces in-between or you can spend time on making the game board “pretty.” If you’d like a pretty game board, but don’t have time to create them, check out my Teacherspayteachers Store as I have many at very reasonable prices. For game pieces for each student, I like to give each student a small sticker that will fit in the square of the game board. That way, when the game is finished, everyone earns a prize as I let them keep their stickers!
Created BINGO Games
There are a ton of different types of BINGO games out there (Number, Letter, Sight Word, Shape, etc). Wouldn’t it be so much better to have 1 BINGO card that would cover all of these? I think so and that is how I play with my students. I provide my students with blank BINGO cards, if you don’t have one, you can find them online to print out or you can download the “pretty” ones from my TpT store. Yes, this BINGO game is played slightly different from the tradition game, but it is still just as fun! I provide my students with a blank BINGO card and some type of markers (beans, paper scraps, small stickers, or blocks.) Students take turns providing answers for questions of skills they are working on. If a student answers the question correctly, he or she can use a marker to cover any space of choice on the game board. If the student answers incorrectly, he or she misses a turn. The goal of this game is to cover the entire board. I typically continue playing the game until all students have covered their game board as my goal is for my students to get the practice they need in the skills I presented versus “finding a winner.”
Activboard Games
You can also create game boards on an Activboard flipchart. Make sure to lock down the game, then you can use clipart for game pieces for each student. If you’re playing with a large number of students, you can just type each student’s initials on the board and he or she can use that as his or her game piece. You can also find Activboard games at my TpT Store. Activboard games can be used in multiple ways.
1. As a whole group: Interactively passing the pen to each student as it is his or her turn.
2. With partners: Students can use the board or just the software at a computer they share.
3. Individually: Students can play games with self-checking answers.
Other website games
There are tons of games online that students can play that focus on specific skills. If you can’t find one that practices the skill your students are working on, you can make any game into an educational game even if it wasn’t intended to be that way. Just find a game that would be fun for students to play and then play it in the manner I described playing the traditional board games. For example, the below website is a puzzle students can put together online. For this game, all my students are on the same team working together to put the puzzle together, but in order to accomplish this task, they must first correctly answer a question. If they provide me with the correct answer during their turn, they may move one puzzle piece to the board.
Active Games
As fun as games are, they are even more fun when kids can get up and move around. I like to play “life size” games. Again, you can do this several ways. First, you can play a traditional game like baseball, kick ball, or “Mother May I,” just have students follow the same pattern as previously discussed. Ask the student a question before his or her turn. If he or she answers correctly, they may hit the ball, kick the ball, or move forward 5 steps. If incorrect, that student will miss his or her turn. One of my favorite ways to play in this manner takes almost zero preparation at all! Grab about 20 or so sheets of construction paper from the shelf and lay them on the floor in a game board manner. The students can be their own game pieces as they move around the game board. This is a favorite! PS: If you have a carpet with squares in a circle in your room, you don’t even need the construction paper!
There are so many ways to create fun games for students that will take very little preparation on your part, but are still effective in reviewing, practicing, applying, and learning new skills. Be creative and find several that work for you and your class! I’m going to leave you with a couple of additional tips that can add to the simplicity of creating games in your classroom.
1. I’ve mentioned flashcards a lot today because that is one way that I present the skill I want my students to demonstrate knowledge of during the game. Of course you can take index cards and write out sight words you want your students to read, addition facts you want them to know, etc, but I find that printing worksheets I find online and using the paper cutter to cut each word or problem out that I need to be much faster. You can laminate these for durability if you choose and stick them in a baggie labeled with the skill and you’re done!
2. One thing I didn’t mention is a dry erase board. I have small dry erase boards cut into 1 ft X 1 ft squares from Home Depot for each of my students, but I frequently use one during game time to display questions, pictures, or problems my students are to complete before they can move their game piece. With kindergarten I might draw a square at the beginning of the year and they tell me the name of the shape. In first grade, I might ask them to draw me a shape that has 3 sides and 3 angles. The possibilities are endless and using a dry erase board in this fashion really frees you up to differentiate your game time as well. We will talk more about that in my next posting.
Maybe you do some of these things already or have more great ideas that you would like to share. I would love to hear from you and I’m sure my readers would too, so please share in the comments section below! For more information about games, be sure to check out Games in the Classroom Part 1.
Teacher Jen
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