Students, regardless of age, all have one thing in common: they have short attention spans and can't sit around learning for long. Just 30 minutes into the lecture you will find them fidgeting, staring blankly at the ceiling, or asking trivial questions.
To keep students' interests high and to avoid textbooks like your kids avoid vegetables, check out these fun games to play in class with your students. They are versatile, work great for both online and offline learning, and don't require much effort to set up.
5 Benefits of Interactive Classroom Games
- Attentiveness: a handful of fun greatly increases students' focus, according to a study by University of Wisconsin researchers. Fun classroom games are upbeat and require attention to win.
- Motivation: students often look forward to a lesson if it includes a fun game. Motivated students overcome the hardest learning obstacles.
- Collaboration: participating in pairs or teams teaches students to cooperate and work in harmony — there are no rights or wrongs, only achievable goals.
- Affection: playing games is a great way to form special bonds with your students. They will think you're the "cool teacher" who knows how to build a welcoming environment.
- Learning reinforcement: classroom games put hard knowledge into something enjoyable, so students sprout positive memories of the learning process — much easier to recall during exams.
18 Fun Games For Students
Games for Online Classrooms
Battling through the silent void during virtual lessons is not a walk in the park. Revive the class atmosphere and leave the brightest smiles on your students' faces with this engagement first-aid kit.
Check out the full list 👉 15 online classroom games for every age.
1. Live Quiz
Gamified quizzes are trustworthy sidekicks to a teacher's lesson review. They help students retain lessons and fire up their competitive spirit, which the traditional pen-and-paper method cannot accomplish.
2. Charades
Whether online or offline, Charades is a fun physical game to satisfy your students' urges to move around when stuck behind a computer screen. Students work in teams or pairs and demonstrate words/phrases through actions for teammates to guess.
3. Time to Climb
Elementary students absolutely love this game. Time to Climb transforms standard multiple-choice quizzes into interactive games — students choose characters and advance to the top of the mountain with the fastest correct answer.
Games for ESL Students
Learning a second language requires double the energy. With these ESL ice-breakers, "timid" or "shy" will not be in your students' dictionary 😉
Here's the full list 👉 12 Exciting ESL classroom games.
4. Baamboozle
Baamboozle has 2 million games in its library. Select a pre-made game or create a custom one based on the learning topic, then divide students into teams. They take turns selecting a number or question from the game board.
5. Tell Me Five
Divide students into groups and give each group a category (e.g., pizza toppings). They must come up with five things in that category in 20 seconds (cheese, mushroom, ham, bacon, corn).
6. Show and Tell
Give students a topic (e.g., favourite snack). Each person brings an item that matches and tells a story or memory involving that object. Add prizes for best story-teller, best plot, most hilarious, etc.
7. Word Chain
Come up with a word like 'bee', then throw a ball to a student. They think of another word that starts with the last letter ('e' → 'emerald'). Continue around the class until someone can't shout the next word fast enough.
Advanced: prepare a theme. If the theme is "animal" and the first word is "dog", the next must be an animal starting with 'g' like "goat" or "goose".
8. Word Jumble Race
Perfect for practising tenses, word order, and grammar. Cut sentences into words, split your class into small groups, and give each a batch. When you say "GO!" each group races to put words in correct order. Use AhaSlides' "Correct Order" slide to do this online:
- Sign up for AhaSlides, create a presentation, choose the "Correct Order" slide.
- Add words of a sentence — they shuffle randomly for players.
- Set the time limit.
- Present to your students.
- They join on phones and race to sort the words fastest.
Vocabulary Classroom Games
These games focus on mastering individual words. Non-threatening — great for boosting student confidence.
Full list 👉 10 fun vocabulary games for the classroom.
9. Pictionary
Assign one student to read a word; they sketch it in 20 seconds. When time's up, others guess based on the doodle. To play online, use Zoom whiteboard or a Pictionary-type free app.
10. Word Scramble
Prepare Word Scramble worksheets with themes (animals, festivals, stationery). The first student who decodes all words wins.
11. Guess the Secret Word
Think of a word, then tell students words associated with it. They use existing vocabulary to guess. If the secret is "peach", say "pink". If they guess "flamingo" — not related. "Guava" — yes, related.
12. Stop the Bus
Prepare categories with target vocab (verbs, clothing, transportation, colours). Choose a letter. Teams write words in each category beginning with that letter. First team finished shouts "Stop the bus!"
Example with letter "C":
- Corset (clothing)
- Canada (countries)
- Cupcake (cakes)
Classroom Board Games
Boardgames are versatile classroom staples that boost collaboration and vocabulary through fruitful competition.
13. Hedbanz
Print cards (animals, food, objects) and stick them on students' foreheads. They ask Yes/No questions to figure out what the cards are before time runs out. Best in pairs.
14. Boggle
On a 16-letter grid, find as many words as possible (up, down, left, right, diagonal). Use free Boggle templates online.
15. Apples to Apples
Two card types: Things (nouns) and Descriptions (adjectives). Teacher (or judge) picks a Description card; students pick the best matching Thing from their hand. The winner is whoever collects the most Description cards.
Classroom Math Games
16. Would You Rather
"Would you rather buy 12 cookies for $3 each or 10 cookies for $2.60 each?" In the maths edition, students race to choose the best deal and justify it.
17. 101 and Out
Goal: score as close to 101 as possible without going over. Divide your class into groups, use a spinner wheel as a die. Each spin can be counted at face value or multiplied by 10 (a 5 stays as 5 or becomes 50). For older students, multiply by 7 to make decisions trickier.
💡 Want more Spinner wheel games? Find 'class spinner wheel games' in the AhaSlides template library.
18. Guess My Number
From 1 to 100, students guess your number with logical questions: "Is it odd?" "Is it in the nineties?" "Is it a multiple of 5?" You can only answer Yes or No.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these games suitable for all age groups?
We've included games for various age ranges, from elementary to high school. Each game notes its recommended age group.
Do I need any special materials to play these games?
Most of these games require minimal materials — often just everyday classroom supplies or online tools like AhaSlides.
Can these games be used for team building or icebreakers?
Absolutely. We've highlighted which games work well for building classroom community and breaking the ice.
How can I manage classroom behaviour during games?
Set clear expectations before starting. Explain the rules, emphasise sportsmanship, and ensure everyone has a chance to participate.
