20+ Awesome Games for At Home Learning

Our Favorite Educational Games

Games are one of my favorite ways to learn and reinforce skills with kids. My own kids, especially when younger, wanted to play game after game. Why not play games that aid in education?

For convenience, I have added links to all of commercially-produced games in one location! You can browse for them here:

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Print-at-Home games are listed at the end of this post.

Math Skills

You can turn ANY game that uses dice or spinners for game advancement into a math-centric game by simply adding more dice. If you've ever played Chutes and Ladders, you know the game can go on ...and on. Solve this problem and make it more exciting. Instead of using the spinner, use dice (lots of them). It will take a few tries but eventually your kids will be adding up the numbers on dice faster than you can!

Yahtzee is one of the best games to play with multiple dice. I made a set of scorecards you can use while playing with 10 dice that you are welcome to try out (scroll to end of post for link).

Math Card Games: Rat a Tat Cat, Sleeping Queens, Frog Juice, Zeus on the Loose These are all games for early math learning from Gamewright. They work in addition, rounding, and basic number sense. Fair warning - reading the instructions for some of these the first time can feel overwhelming but the games are really not difficult. I suggest the play and read approach - play a bit as you read the directions, or find a YouTube video that explains the play.

Sumoku or Math Dice (intermediate): For Sumoku, you create a grid much like you would in Qwirkle (see below), but instead of shapes, there are numbers, and each row must sum to a multiple of a specific number. If it sounds complicated, well, it can be. However, it's also a TON of fun if you have math-minded kiddos. Math dice is another one where you will only want to play if your kids won't get frustrated by the math involved.

Equate (advanced learners only): If you have a kid that LOVES math, this is the game for them. If math is a struggle, avoid this game as it's quite a taxing one mentally (even for those who love it!).

24! If you haven't played this game before, it's simple to learn but challenging to master. All you need is a sharp mind and a deck of cards! Find the rules here.
 

Logic, STEM, and more

Qwirkle and Rummikub are both great for logic and pattern recognition! For Qwirkle, watch a video on how to get started but you are basically looking to match either color or pattern (with no repeats in a given row or column). Completing a set of 6 earns you a Qwirkle for bonus points! Rummikub is another tile game that is even easier to learn, but much more difficult to master. You need to keep a constant eye on the board and awareness of your current tiles.

Or pick one of these: Gravity Maze, Laser Maze, Rush Hour Traffic Jam, Solitaire Chess, Sequence The first four of these games are all ones that can be played independently, from Thinkfun. They have tasks of increasing difficulty and provide solutions for self-checking. Sequence has a variety of options to choose from, so be sure to check out all the options to find an appropriate set for your family.

Advanced Learners: Set. This is a game that can be frustrating for kids who aren't ready, but once they are ready, there is no upper age limit on this game. It's one I truly love playing with my kids! There is also a junior version available! You can also play a version of this game online every day at the New York Times Crossword Puzzle site (just scroll down and select "Set")!

Robot Turtles A great precursor to coding game, this is a fun one to check out with your kids! It's also from Thinkfun.

Valence and Ion (science): these are for upper elementary and middle school kiddos. If you have kids with an inkling toward Chemistry, these are sure to delight!

Geography

The Scrambled States of America Game This game helped my kids learn all the names of the states!

Ticket to Ride (multiple versions): This is a very popular game among board game enthusiasts and probably one of the longest games to play on this list. If you love board games, you have to try this one!


Flag Frenzy Kids will gain awareness of different flags wiht this matching game.

Apps to Try: Stack the States and Seterra (also their website is great for practicing geography skills) - check out the App Store or Google Play for these!

Literacy Skills

While traditionalists like myself will enjoy playing games such as Boggle, Scrabble, and Bananagrams, they aren't for everyone. If you do have those games but they aren't quite right for your kids, use the tiles to spell out words together that you find around the house, or create a "crossword" with the tiles, building words together of things they love (sports, food, activities, etc.)!

Engage reluctant writers with Rory's Story Cubes. This is less of a game and more of a story generator.

Practice sight words and more literacy skills with Pair Stare (see below).

Just for Toddlers and Preschoolers!

Toddlers don't have to miss out on games! Some of my favorite games for little ones are cooperative games like Busytown and Hoot Owl Hoot.

Other games for this age

Pengaloo A game that challenges memory and reinforces color awareness! I love the feel of this game, its wooden piece are very satisfying to play with!

Uno Moo A simple game of matching that is also just so fun to play! This one never gets old.

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Perfect for color learning, memory, and more!

Print at Home Games

I have created a number of print-at-home learning games for elementary and middle school learners:

Free Games:
Crazy Yahtzy
Pair Stare Sample
Nature Bingo

Other Games:
Pair Stare Games
Alphabet Game

Sight Words Games: Fry Sight Words or Dolch Sight Words
Blends Games
Math Games
Vocabulary Synonyms Game
Greek and Latin Roots Games: Set 1 and Set 2

Money Games
Money Games Bundle
Gnome or Money a silly and punny coin game (No More Money)

Economics
Barter, Trade, Create!

Math and Number Systems
Mayan Number Games
Multiplication War

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Activities to do with The Dot for International Dot Day

International Dot Day Activities

The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds, has turned into more than just a read aloud about overcoming frustrations and encouraging others. It's an entire movement now! For any child who feels as if they are "not enough," this story will hit home.

Two quotes that came to mind when reading this book:

"The best way to get things done is to simply begin."  - Unknown

"Believe you can and you're halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt

Disclaimer: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you downloads of value and information about educational resources. The link below is an Amazon affiliate link. You can read my full disclosure here.

Warm up the Brain for Creativity on International Dot Day

Not only does drawing wake up fine motor skills, it allows an emotional connection and creativity to blossom. Start drawing or painting with a dot!

Move on to STEM Activities with The Dot
All budding artists need proper tools to draw and paint with. They also need an appropriate place to do it! Vashti would appreciate a desk just for art! Why not make it a "Dot Desk"?

Design and Create an Easel

Sometimes a desk won't cut it. Why not create a tabletop mini-easel?

Easels gained popularity as canvas paintings became more common. You can view your artwork more easily from a distance when it's on an easel, and it gives you a different perspective than a desk view. Easels are also great for displaying finished works of art!

Design and Create a Painting Tool

If you haven't tried these painting methods with kids, you're missing out:

• sponges
• painting with bubble wrap
• painting by rolling marbles
• finger painting
• spin art

There are SO MANY fun ways to paint! Have your students design their own unique painting device using pom poms, sponges, rollers, cardboard, etc.

Read The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds

*by ordering from this link I may earn a small commission as an Amazon associate member. You can read my full policy here.

  

Download this Resource

I created this resource to use with The Dot book on International Dot Day. 

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Pair Stare for Blends!

Practicing Blends with a Fun Game

Who doesn't love a fun game? My favorite way to engage learners of all ages is through play, and this game is fun for kids and adults alike! Over the years I have developed a number of these games, and now there is a set of pair stare games for blends!

If you aren't familiar with pair stare, you may want to visit this pair stare post. However, you can get an idea of how it's played by watching the video below:

You can try it out in the image below. Look at the top two cards. Do you see the one and only image or word that is on BOTH cards? Once you find it, do the same with the bottom two cards! 

Why is this game so much fun? No matter how often you play, the game is always slightly different. You can try playing with the cards below. Pick two cards and then look at them until you find the match. It's harder than it seems! Sometimes you think there must not be a match...but I promise you there is. A few things that can help you out:

• If it's a word or blend, it will always be the same color and font
• the match will NOT always be the same size

Did you find the answer to the image above?

This game is always different, because when you shuffle the cards, there is a new match! ANY two cards in the deck have one unique match. With over 55 possibilities, it's harder than it initially sounds!

The game also has both words and images, as well as the blends! The words have been carefully selected as easier to read, as you can see above with words like brag, from, and free, while more complicated words that students would not yet be able to read are displayed in image form, such as trampoline, broccoli, and dragon.

L Blends, R Blends, and S Blends

You can find all three blends games in my TpT shop:

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Why Learn Greek and Latin Roots

Learning Greek and Latin Roots

Many words in the English language have Greek or Latin roots. When you start delving into STEM fields, that number only increases. If your students are interested in pursuing careers in a STEM field, knowledge of root words can only increase their understanding and fluency of terminology in the field. Those aren't the only benefits of studying root words, however.

Why Learn Greek and Latin Roots?

Even if you don't love language, there are so many reasons to get familiar with Greek and Latin root words. As students move into increasingly technical textbooks and fields of study, the terminology itself can feel overwhelming. When you are able recognize at least a portion of a new word, it helps to ease the mind a bit.

This is especially important for students choosing a STEM career path. Every STEM field has words with Greek and Latin roots.

Even the names of the fields themselves draw from these languages:

• biology: the study of life (Greek "bio")
• mathematics: learning, mental discipline (Greek "máthēma")
• science: from the Latin scire, "to know"
• engineering: from the Latin ingenium, "cleverness" and ingeniare, "to contrive, devise" (from Wikipedia)
• architecture: Greek, meaning "chief builder"
• astronomy: the study of stars, space  (Greek ástron, "star")

Greek and Latin Roots for Standardized Testing Preparation 

In order for students to get into college or graduate school, they will need to take standardized tests. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of standardized testing, it's still a requirement for applications of most major universities. Knowing Greek and Latin roots strengthens vocabulary and can be used to help decipher unfamiliar words in reading passages. Even if the precise meaning of the word is still a mystery, students can still make an educated guess on the meaning.

Introduce Greek and Latin Roots with a Collaborative Pennant Activity 

Have each student choose a root (or assign them) and have students doodle images that represent the root, or write words with the root on the pennant. Display the pennant so that students can refer to them. You can create your own or use the templates I have created.

Improve Retention by Playing Root Word Games

Greek and Latin Roots Pair Stare

I have created several root word games and a collaborative pennant activity so that root words can be put on display in your classroom. Try root words BINGO, root words pair stare, or both! Games are my favorite way to encourage my kids to learn - usually they are having so much fun they don't even realize they are actually learning something! Learn and use over 60 root words by getting the complete bundle here. You will get the pennant templates, printables to explore the root words, and two games each of pair stare and BINGO.

More Sources for Learning Root Words

Some websites I have found useful when learning about root words:

Membean
Wikipedia
Online Etymology Dictionary
Macroevolution

Online Games to learn roots:
It's Greek to Me game on Scholastic
Root word memory 
Various root word skills 

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Little Red Riding Hood STEM Activity with Integrated Literacy

Fairy Tale STEM Activity for Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is on her way to visit her sick grandmother, but the wolf beats her to Grandmother's house. Can you help stop the wolf before he eats Grandmother? This is a great STEM activity to try for National Fairy Tale day!

Materials Needed for this STEM Fairy Tale Activity

• Supplies to create two different musical instruments (metal like washers and bolts, etc., rubber bands, recyclables cups and containers, balloons or plastic bags to create drums, craft sticks and rubber bands to create kazoos, etc.

Before Getting Started with the STEM Tale

STEM tales work best if you read the original fairy tale first or do your own storytelling. Discuss the similarities and differences as you read through the story. For this STEM tale, you will start with an exploration of Morse code!

After getting acquainted with Morse code, students will then create two instruments that make distinctly different sounds, to represent the short and long parts of the code.

Fairy Tale STEM with the Engineering Design Process 

I have designed STEM tales so that as students read the story, they will follow the engineering design process. What is the problem that needs to be solved in the Little Red Riding Hood STEM Tale? Grandmother can't call for help because she lost her voice with her illness. She did, however, learn Morse code with Little Red Riding Hood so the instruments will help save Grandmother!

Design a Musical Instrument or Sound Device

After brainstorming instrument design ideas, the students will then choose two to create. They will need to test out their instruments with a partner and decode the message! This can also be done digitally if desired:

You can have students create a Scratch program to send the message. Otherwise, stick with simple instruments like the ones shown below:

STEM tales are a great way to foster teamwork and problem-solving. To find the full resource, which includes an 8-page booklet, check list for self-evaluation, and tips, visit Little Red Riding Hood STEM:

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To read more about how to conduct a STEM challenge, visit this post:

To see all posts in this series, click here:

Gingerbread STEM Activities - Classroom Appropriate for the Holidays

Gingerbread Man Activities and STEM Challenges

Do you love the holidays but aren't sure how to bring a learning experience into a fun topic? One way to celebrate the season is with all things gingerbread! Even though I have a soft spot in my heart for the jolly bearded fella, I know it's not always easy to use certain themes in the classroom.

Do you have fond childhood memories of books where you got to choose what happened? I know I do. I would go back and read through all the possible endings just to make sure I got the best one (admit it, you did too).

I was thinking how FUN and ENGAGING it would be to alter a classic tale and let students choose how it unfolds? This STEM adventure starts with the story of the gingerbread man and turns it into a Pick the Path STEMventure activity. The gingerbread man meets a fox...will he survive? That depends on your students' choices (**spoiler alert** - the gingerbread man always survives, but they won't know that while choosing their adventure):

In this short storybook, the gingerbread man may need a zip line transport across a canyon, or he could need a tent for the night to stay alive. Here is a gingerbread man crossing a river to get away from the fox:

When the story is complete there are even a couple of bonus STEM challenges to complete. The gingerbread man finds himself among more gingerbread people and is so excited to have finally found a safe place where he won't be eaten. The gingerbread people decide they want to pursue the circus life. What gingerbread man wouldn't want to get launched from a catapult or slingshot? Move over, Cirque du Soleil...

The easy to follow booklet includes the engineering design process.

All your students have to do is follow the story, fill in the pages for the challenges they pick, and continue on with the story. This is even a great activity to send home over winter break if you know families will get involved. Click the image below to go directly to the resource on Teachers pay Teachers (or on my site here):

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I need more gingerbread it my life. Read on, my friend.

My teacher friend Amy and I were chatting about all things gingerbread. Do you know Amy? Her forte is social studies and writing.You are going to LOVE these gingerbread resources she put together. You can head over to her blog, Teaching Ideas 4U, to find out more about them. Two I know you'll love are this non-fiction gingerbread book report and this writing resource for character development:

It wouldn't be a gingerbread post without some recipe links! Here are some to try out, depending on what floats your boat. Do you like cookies? To build gingerbread houses? Do you like your gingerbread spicy, crunchy, or chewy?

Gingerbread Recipe Links
Genius Kitchen Gingerbread Cookies
King Arthur Flour Gingerbread Cookies
Eileen's Spicy Gingerbread Men Recipe
Spiced Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread House Recipe

Novels with STEM and STEAM

Novel Studies that Incorporate STEM and STEAM

I know it's not always easy to make time for STEM. That is why it's so beneficial to integrate STEM and STEAM into other subject areas you already have time allocated to. If you do read alouds with your students, why not really dive into the book and make the story come alive with STEM challenges?

Why Reading and STEM?

Maybe you aren't sold on STEM and STEAM education or you want to just stick with the novel studies you have done in the past. Maybe you want to try STEM but don't know where to start. So, where should you start? Start with a novel you love that integrates with STEM. In addition to needing strong literacy skills to succeed in STEM fields, you will also be able to reach kids who may not be all that interested in reading or books.

Stories Come Alive with STEM

Some of the lucky ones have a fabulous imagination and can picture anything in their heads. Others are a completely blank slate up in the old noggin' until they can touch it, feel it, experience it first hand. If you have any tactile learners, they will benefit enormously from hands-on STEM challenges where they can observe a physical manifestation of part of the story.

Teamwork and Growth Mindset with a Story

If you are reading a story where the character experiences a trying situation or there is room for improvement in some way, why not "choose your own adventure" by altering the story with a STEM challenge. Have the students brainstorm a way the character could have approached the problem differently in order to come out with a better solution, or how they might approach the problem differently in the future. How might the character benefit from a new perspective your students offer?

Some Novel STEM Ideas to Get You Started for 2nd - 5th Grade

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - create a wardrobe with a working latch

Charlotte's Web - create a spider web out of string

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle - design and create an upside-down house

The One and Only Ivan - design and create a domain for Ivan

Flora & Ulysses - design and create a comic strip or a stop motion animation film about Incandesto!

The BFG - design and create a suitcase

I have also created more in depth Novel STEM studies which I would love for you to explore. Blog posts about them can be found by clicking on the images below (The Wild Robot, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Hatchet, and Holes):

Do you have a favorite read aloud you keep coming back to? Let me know at meredith@momgineer.com and I will see what STEM challenges I can come up with for it!

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