Games and Activities to Make Classroom Learning Fun

What makes a good teacher? Though every individual will have a different answer, a good teacher is anyone who feels a sense of accomplishment after having taught a lesson well. This feeling only comes when you have done the best you could, and when you find that your students were engaged throughout the lesson and have learned something new in the process. After all, teaching is an art and is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea(profession). Some teachers can make interesting lessons boring, while others can make the most mundane lessons thought-provoking!

One simple and effective way to encourage learning in the classroom and make it fun is to use fun classroom games and activities! Here are some ideas that may help.

The Crazy Ball Game

Prepare a questionnaire for the game based on a topic that you taught recently to the class. Divide the class into two teams and choose a student from one of the teams to answer the first question. Don’t allow the teams to discuss answers among themselves as the sole objective is to test each student’s understanding of the topic. If the chosen student answers correctly, she gets to throw a ball into one of three paper cups, each marked with 5, 10, or 15 points and get points for her team. Keep the points on a board so that the teams can follow the progress. Continue to play the game between the teams until you’ve asked all the questions. The team with the maximum number of points wins. Prizes can be a homework pass, free time, extra computer time, and so on.

Headbands

Here’s a fun spin on the classic game of Hedbandz. Instead of using headbands like in Headbanz, use sticky notes to write random words (relevant to the grade’s curriculum) on them. Stick one of the notes on a student’s head without allowing her to look at the word. The student has to figure out what the word on her forehead is by asking her peers for clues. If the word on the sticky note is ‘flower’, then clues can be ‘pollination’, ‘colorful’, ‘spring’, ‘petals’, etc. to help the player guess the word!

Dartboard

Create a giant dartboard and write a question each on the pies. Since creating a dartboard involves a lot of math, you can consider replacing the topical questions with math quizzes and puzzles to double the fun! Then call upon students in random order to throw a dart and answer the question the dart hits! Don’t restrict the dartboard to its customary 20 pies. Feel free to bend the rules to accommodate enough pies so that each child gets a chance to answer.

Classroom Monopoly

This can be a popular game with the class because you don’t have to divide them into teams to play it! Prepare a questionnaire on a particular topic and make fake currencies and distribute them equally among your students. Allow them to wager their money based on how confident they feel about the question you ask. If they get the answer correct, they get to keep the money, else pass it on to the next player. Play a minimum of three rounds so that the cash is passed around enough number of times. The student who has the most money at the end of the game wins.

Thumb Ball

Get a light-colored beach ball and write multiple questions on it. Then have the students sit in a circle. The objective of the game is to play catch. When a student catches the ball, she has to answer the question which her right thumb’s touching. If she drops the ball, then you get to throw it back at the circle. Continue the game until all the questions have been answered.

Simple games like these will not only help you practice lessons with your students in the class but help the class bond too! I’d love to hear any other ideas that you have to make classroom learning more fun.