These top 10 classroom games provide fun ways to engage your students

in academic learning, without them even realising!

1. Charades

This simple but classic game is a great way to encourage your student to get out
of their seats and participate in the lesson.

Resources: a list of people, actions or concepts related to the subject you

are teaching.

Game: Select a student to stand at the front of the room and act out a
word from your list (no speaking allowed). The rest of the class must
then guess what the student is attempting to portray. Other students can
shout out their guesses or put their hands up – depending on your
teaching preference! Whoever guesses correctly can act out the next
word.
Alternative: A more challenging version involves the student describing a
subject-specific word but restricted by a list of forbidden words, e.g.
describing ‘habitat’ without using the words ‘home’ or ‘animals’.

2. Hangman

A traditional but interactive game which improves students’ spelling and subject
knowledge, but is also enjoyable.

Resources: whiteboard and pen or interactive whiteboard, plus a list of

subject-specific words to inspire your students.
Game: Divide your class into two teams then select a student to stand at
the front of the class and think of a word related to the lesson (or you
could give them a suitable word). The student must then draw spaces on
the whiteboard to represent each letter in their word. The rest of the
class then guesses the word, one letter at a time (allow one student from
each team to guess alternately). Incorrect guesses result in a hangman
being drawn (one line at a time). The first team to guess the word wins,
unless the hangman is completed. The game then repeats with another
student thinking of a relevant word.
Alternative: If you feel a hangman would not be appropriate then use a
different image – either subject-specific or think creatively e.g. a
spaceman or snowman.

3. Scatter-gories

This fun game will encourage your students to think ‘outside-the-box’ and draw
on a range of subject knowledge.

Resources: pieces of paper, pens/pencils and a list of subject-specific

categories e.g. Earth and Space (topic): rocks, landforms, weather, and
solar system (categories).
Game: Split students into small groups and ask them to note down the
categories on their pieces of paper. Choose a letter (A-Z) at random and
give students 1-2 minutes (depending on how many categories) to think
of a word for each category, beginning with that letter. Once the time is
up, allocate points for unique answers, i.e. if two teams write down the
same word for a category then neither get any points. Repeat the game
with different letters.
Example: Letter M – Topic: Earth and Space
Rocks: Metamorphic
Landforms: Mountain
Weather: Mist
Solar System: Mars

Alternative: If you class only has a small number of students then they
could fill in the categories individually, rather than working in teams.

4. Bingo
A quick and simple game which never fails to motivate students in their
learning.

Resources: whiteboards and pen or paper and pen/pencils, plus a list of

subject-specific terms or concepts e.g. numbers, phonics, key vocabulary,
scientific formulae or historical figures.
Game:Ask students to draw a 6 x 6 grid on their whiteboards or pieces of
paper then select 6 words or images from the given list to draw/write in
their grid. You must then randomly select a word from the list to
describe, and students must guess the word in order to cross it off on
their grid (if present). Continue describing different words until one
student successfully completes their grid and shouts ‘bingo!’ (you can
also award a prize to the first student who gets 3 in a row).
Alternative: Students can insert their own subject-related answers into
the bingo grid, but this makes it more challenging for you due to
extensive word choice and ambiguity. Also, if you have more time, then
you could create your own bingo boards with specific vocabulary or
concepts you are covering in that lesson (reusable).

5. Puzzles

This creative group game encourages students to work together and visualize
academic concepts in an abstract way.

Resources: images, words, calculations or concepts printed or stuck on

card/paper and cut into random shapes (puzzle pieces) e.g. maths
calculations, chemical equations, subject vocabulary, historical figures
etc.
Game: Separate your class into groups (or simply use table groupings)
then hand out a puzzle for each group to piece together.
Alternative: Students can create their own puzzles on the computer or
drawn onto card/paper for their peers to complete.

6. Draw swords

This quick fire game tests students’ fine motor skills and promotes quick
thinking, as well as generating some healthy competition.

Resources: Dictionary or textbook, plus list of key vocabulary.

Game: Split your class into small groups and choose a student from each
group to start. The nominated student then places the dictionary or
textbook under their arm. You then say a word or image which the
students must then race to find in their book (like drawing a sword from
under their arm!). The first student to find the word/image is the winner.
The game continues with different words/images until every student has
had a turn.
Alternative: If you have enough textbooks or dictionaries for every
student then the whole class can compete against each other.

7. Hot potato

This fun classroom game encourages students to think on their feet and draw on
a range of subject knowledge.

Resources: a soft toy, object or item for each group to pass round e.g. bear
or ball, plus a list of subject-specific themes e.g. numbers – prime,
composite, rational, fractions, decimals etc.
Game: Divide your class into small groups and hand out an object/soft
toy to each group. The person with the object in each group will start.
You name a title or theme, e.g. prime numbers, and it is then a race
against time for the student to give 5 correct responses, e.g. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11,
before the item/soft toy has been passed round everyone in their small
group and returned to them.
Alternative: With small classes you could play in one large group, however
shy students may find this intimidating because of the the pressure to
give correct answers.

8. Pictionary

An old classic but also a great way for students to visualize their understanding
in a fun team game.

Resources: whiteboards and pens or pieces of paper and pencils/pens,

plus a list of subject-specific concepts.
Game: Students work in small groups. One student from each group is
chosen to start and they must draw the subject-related concept you state,
within a given time (30 seconds – 2 minutes). The rest of the group must
then guess what he/she is drawing. The first group to correctly guess the
word wins. The game repeats until every student has had a turn/there
are no more words on your list.
Alternative: Students could model concepts using playdough for their
peers to guess.

9. Quizalize

This fun and engaging quiz game allows you to test your students’ knowledge,
in any subject, using a motivating classroom team activity.
Resources: interactive whiteboard, devices for your students or an IT
suite and a Quizalize quiz (create your own or choose from thousands of
quizzes created by teachers from around the world).
Game: Once you’ve created or found a quiz on Quizalize, simply assign it
to your students and they can access it from any device – no apps to
install! Students visit zzi.sh, enter their class code (shown on the ‘Launch
Game View’ screen) followed by their name and then they can play the
quiz. Students’ results appear in real-time, so they can track their score
while they play (Click here to sign up and find out more).
Alternative: You can also set Quizalize quizzes as an interactive
homework.

10. Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Although this game isn’t academic, it is an excellent behaviour management

tool which endorses hard work amongst students.

Resources: n/a
Game: 3 – 4 students are chosen to stand at the front of the room. The
rest of the class then put their heads on the table and hold their thumbs
in the air. The 3 – 4 students at the front then carefully tip-toe around
the classroom and gently pinch one thumb each, from the students with
their heads down. The 3-4 students return to the front of the room, once
they have pinched a thumb, and the class raise their heads. The students
whose thumbs were pinched then stand and have to guess who pinched
them. If they guess correctly then they swap with the student at the front,
and the game continues.
Alternative: To make this academic you could ask subject-related
questions to select the students for each round.
Try out these exciting classroom games with your students and encourage them
to apply their knowledge in new ways. These simple but effective group games
are a great addition to any lesson plan.
What classroom games do you like to play? What do you and your students
enjoy most about playing classroom games? Comment below – we’d love to
hear from you.

https://www.quizalize.com/blog/2018/03/02/classroom-games/

Conventional lecture methods would not be very productive when the students are
tired or sleepy, especially in the afternoon sessions. Having some fun classroom
activities can make students active after the lunch hour.
Some teachers would make it plainly fun games while some others use it as a strategy
to revise what is learned in the previous classes. In the morning sessions also, some
teachers would take a short gap in between the strenuous learning to bring in some
fun.
Are you looking for some interesting fun classroom activities to make your learning
session interesting and engaging? Here are a few among the most played cool
classroom activities for students of diverse class levels:
1. Educational Bingo: This awesome game can be played in groups. It is a lot of fun
while helping to revise what is learnt in the class.

Teacher can ask a question that was taught in the previous class and the answer would
be hidden in the bingo puzzle. It is widely used to learn mathematics with fun. The
bingo card can contain numbers in columns and they have to solve maths puzzles to
find out the answers in the list.
For example, teacher can call out “all numbers that are divisible by 4 in a row”.
2. Bleep: Bleep is an interesting memory game in which students are restricted to use
certain words during reading comprehension.
A list of banned words is first provided to the participating students. This can also be
word categories such as colors, names, animals, food and more.
Teacher would then give a reading comprehension material containing the relevant
words. Each student is asked to read a sentence or paragraph by omitting these words.
They have to bleep once they come over a banned word to succeed in the game.
3. Pink Tac Toe: This is a really funny game that can be played with any number of
students by grouping them into teams. Teacher would call out a body part followed by
a colour.
A student from a team is assigned the task of finding an object in the classroom with
that particular colour. He/she then needs to touch it with the mentioned body part.
If teacher calls out pink toe, he/she has to find out an object with pink colour and
touch it with his toe.
4. Sports Gallery: This is an energizer game that raises the acting spirit in students.
Teacher will have a list of sports activities with him/her numbered from 1 to 10 or so.
He would then randomly call out a student and asks to say a number.
Teacher now call out the sports activity that is linked to the particular number in
his/her list. The student has to enact the activity for at least 10 seconds. The list can
include items such as shooting a jump shot, batting a baseball, serving a tennis ball,
juggling a soccer ball and more.
5. Blind Artist: This amazing classroom activity can invoke creativity among
students. Students are first paired and are placed in a position such that they don’t face
each other.
A student will be given a picture and the other student will be given a plain paper and
pencil. The student with the picture has to describe what is in the picture without
actually telling what it is.
The other person has to bring in some creativity and imagination to draw a picture
according to his description.
6. Crazy train: This is a funny game which can be played with elementary level
students. Students can be grouped into 10 or 12. They are asked to line up and
connect among themselves to represent a train.
Teacher says start when the train slowly moves forward. He would then give
commands during the journey such as fast, slow, move backward, turn left and more.
Kids would listen to these commands and make changes in their move.
7. Four Corners: Teacher would randomly choose a student ‘X’ and ask him/her to
stand outside the classroom after his/her eyes are tied up.
Rest of the class would be divided into four and asked to stand at four corners of the
class, say A, B, C and D. Then X will call out an alphabet and those students staying
at that corner will be out of the game.

Also Read: 10 Activities for Teachers to Grow Leadership Skills in Children

The rest of the three groups are again divided into four and asked to stand at four
corners. X will again call out an alphabet and that group gets out. This elimination is
continued until four students are at four corners and the luckiest student will be the
last one standing.
8. Sentence Race: This is a vocabulary review game that can be played among high
school students.
The teacher would write up vocabulary words in pieces of paper and folds it and
keeps in a box. The class would be divided into two groups and the blackboard would
also be partitioned into two, each side for a team.
A member from a team would come up and picks a piece of paper. He needs to write a
meaningful sentence that includes the word specified on the paper on blackboard.
Teacher would finally evaluate the sentences and the side with most meaningful
sentences will win.
9. Chain spelling: This is an amazing game in which students need to connect two
unrelated words by looking at their spelling.
Teacher first writes a word on the board. First student is asked to take the last three or
four letters of the word and form another word.
The next student has to repeat the same and this is continued until a student fails to
form a word or misspells it. The game can be made tighter by restricting them to
certain category of words.
10. Blindfold conversation: This is a team building activity for a new classroom.
First teacher asks everybody to introduce themselves in a few sentences.
Once it is done, class would be divided into two teams. A student from a team is
called up and his eyes would be tied. A student from the other team is then called and
asked to say something.
The student who is blinded has to recognize him/her from his voice. If he/she failed to
do so, he/she may also ask certain questions related to what was discussed in the
introduction to identify the person.
11. Jumping the line: This is an energizer game that would be apt to play at the end
of a class which can be used as a revision too.
A line is drawn on the class floor and one side of the line will be marked ‘true’ and
the other as ‘false’. The students are asked to stand on the line.
Teacher would pick a student and says a statement based on what is taught in the
class. If the student thinks that it is true, he/she has to jump to the true side or else the
false side.
If the student’s assessment is wrong, he/she has to go back to his desk.
Teacher would continue the game and the last student standing in the line with the
most right assessments will be the winner for the day.
12. Missing cards: This is a memory game for any level students that improve their
attention to detail. The class is first divided into two. Teacher has a set of cards which
denotes different categories.
A student from the first team is asked to come up and teacher shows him/her 5 cards
for 10 seconds. He/she then shuffles the card and shows only 4 cards next time.
The student has to recall his/her memory and identify the missing card. The team with
the most number of correct card recalls win.
13. Mime: This is a very popular game in which action words or verbs are revised in a
funny manner.
The class is first divided into teams. Teacher writes action words such as running,
gardening, singing etc in pieces of paper. It is then folded and placed in a bag or box.
A student from a team comes and picks a paper and enacts the word. The other team
has to guess the word correctly to win a point.
14. Buzz: This is a great game that stimulates concentration and attention to detail in
students while still having fun.
The teacher can first choose a list such as a number 1 to 100, a series of words, prime
numbers and more according to the knowledge level of the students.
The participants will be first informed about the buzzwords or numbers in the list, say
every odd number, prime number, vowels or so. They have to read the items in the list
while replacing the particular number or alphabet as ‘buzz’.
These are just a few among the many popular fun classroom activities for students.
Board race, scavenger hunts, spin the wheel, and jigsaw are among other commonly
chosen fun activities to let students enjoy the beautiful feeling of learning with fun.
Teachers can choose the activity wisely depending on the level of students they are
handling. Some of the activities not only evoke fun but also stimulates their creativity,
thought process and team work.
Some activities can also be used as part of strategic plans to teach difficult topics.
However, it needs a lot of planning and preparation from teachers to execute such
activities successfully rather than making it a distraction from serious learning.
A good classroom environment should always have the right mix of learning and fun

https://www.edsys.in/14-fun-classroom-activities/