By Andrea Dillon
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Elementary ages advance through many concepts from first to fifth grade. Many programs can help you teach all the essential skills to your elementary age homeschoolers but why not add in some fun!
Elementary Learning Games
Educational games for this age need to focus on a variety of concepts. For language arts, games need to work on vocabulary, reading, and word creation. For math, the focus needs to be on counting money, patterns, logic, telling time, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. You should make sure to include some basic science/social studies, physical, and social skill games. But most of all these games also need to be fun enough to keep the kids interested and coming back for more. We have compiled a list of some of our favorites below!
Language Arts
How many words can you find? This is an old but great word finding game. Start easy for younger children and get more elaborate as they grow.
This one might not seem educational at first but trust me it is. This one is a top requested one in my house and reinforces reading skills and strategy. It is also sure to bring out some giggles.
I’m sure you have heard about Bananagrams by now. This game is a great addition to any homeschooling family or game lover. Bananagrams is an easily adaptable spelling game that will fit whatever level your child is currently at and will grow with them as they learn!
Practice spelling and vocabulary with fun. We love this game! My children get so wrapped up in trying to create new words that they forget they are learning!
Reading and vocabulary is the key to this game. My children always pull this one off the shelf when we have friends over. Along with learning, there is always a lot of laughter. Some children might want to give the original Apples to Apples a try as well.
Math
Work on money skills. I don’t know about you but Monopoly is banned in my house. It lasts years and eventually, we all end up upset. I found this to be a fun alternative for my elementary homeschoolers. We get to practice counting money and still have a few laughs along the way.
Need to reinforce number recognition and want to make it fun? This one is the answer. This is a game that grows with you. I used this with my children at a younger age to practice their numbers and now that they are older we use this for strategy practice.
I like to refer to this one as the math version of Scrabble! This one is easy to adapt to wherever your children are at. We played for the longest time with just addition and subtraction until my children were ready to move on.
I won’t lie, this one is my favorite. I have always loved Clue! We do however play the old rules because making it easier just isn’t as fun. This game is all about logic and strategy skills.
Money was a tough topic for us. This game finally got both of my children to understand change! This one works similar to the game UNO but with coins instead.
Guess who but with numbers! This one has so many options to expand on. We played it early on just learning the numbers but moved on to odd/even, prime/composite, and various other ways my children decided to ask for clues.
Science, Social Studies, Physical and Social
Get them up and get them moving with this game. This is a favorite in our house and gets played in the winter when going outside is difficult and in the summer when we can set it up throughout the yard and make it more challenging.
This game could be used with younger children however I waited for my kids to be a bit older so they could practice reading the names on the cards. This is a perfect addition to a bird unit study or a bird-watching club!
Give your children a fun safe way to learn about emotions. The game works through 5 strong emotions – anger, sadness, worry, fear and jealousy. Players answer question prompts about different emotions and situations as they play the cards.
I have one child that loves the gross and disgusting and this game is his favorite! This not only covers medical trivia but helps children work on vocabulary and reading skills.
The Scrambled States of America
Explore the United States in a fun way. Learn state locations, cardinal directions and practice reading skills with this game.
Online Games for Elementary Grades
An award-winning curriculum and learning games rolled into one amazing product. Standards supporting lessons are taught and then amazing animated learning games are used to cement the concepts and encourage young learners to master the concept.
Educational games to help build foundational math and language skills. These online learning games, videos, and songs for kids are fun, teach important skills, and are 100% free.
An immersive, interactive, adaptive learning site provides fun lessons that follow your state’s standards for each grade. Practice math, language arts, science, social studies, and Spanish with this award-winning site.
Learn about English vocabulary with these fun language arts games. Practice vocabulary with online word search, crossword puzzle, and hangman.
Boost student engagement & fact fluency with these free multiplayer educational games. This site includes math games, language arts games, and more!
The leading free educational game site since 1997. This site provides hundreds of games, books, comics, and videos that develop skills in math, reading, problem-solving and literacy.
More Ideas
Find learning toys for 5-7 year-olds or explore fun games and activities for preteens to help keep the play going all year long!
Don’t forget to check out our Top Learning Games for Kindergarteners too!
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