The average attention span for a school aged child is approximately 7-8 minutes. So why do teachers continuously read longer, speak longer, and lecture for what sometimes feels forever? In higher grade levels when you had teachers who lectured, what did you want to do? That’s right – you wanted to sleep because it was so boring. However, in kindergarten and elementary school we played a lot of education games and that is how we learned. Education games, of course, start at a young age, but believe it or not, high school ages can learn from them, also, especially since we have such diversity in America. Now, we will go back in time and remember some fun educational games.
Fun Educational Games
Follow Your Leader:
Have one student blindfold another. Once a student is blindfolded, the teacher reorganizes the classroom into an obstacle course. The student who is not blindfolded is the leader and the student who is blindfolded in the follower. The teacher has set an object such as a small book somewhere in the classroom. The follower must find it from listening to the leader’s directions. The leader cannot touch the follower. The leader must give exact wording such as: move two steps, turn 180 degrees to your right, etc…
Purpose: Everyone has to give directions at one time or another. How often have you been given incorrect directions? This is a life skill that should be easily attained. This is a great game for the first day of class.
Another decent game is 20 questions. Use small groups with this game. You simply have 20 questions you can ask to determine what “the decider” chose, whether it be an animal, person, or thing.
These fun educational games above are usually for middle school grades or higher.
Educational Games for Preschoolers
Educational games for preschoolers consist of puzzles, arts and crafts, drawings, sports games, and some animal games just to name a few.
A teacher can create a slideshow of jungle animals or sea animals and ask students what their favorite animal is. When a student decides her favorite animal, she can draw it by looking at the picture on the slideshow and give 1 or 2 facts about her favorite animal. As she grows older, this animal and other animals, she will continue to learn about.
There are plenty of other ideas teachers can use by searching educational games for preschoolers online.
Kindergarten Games
A few kindergarten games you may be familiar with are “Heads up 7 up” and maybe a variety of treasure hunt games. By the way, treasure hunts are great for any age depending on your idea and how to facilitate them. Something you may not have heard of is “the shape game.” Make a contest with your kindergarteners and see how many circles they can find in the classroom, then triangles, then squares, and so on.
Education games are imperative to learning because when you create fun, children will continue to want to learn. When you create boredom, school becomes a place they prefer to not enjoy.
