Educational Games For Kindergarten and Elementary School Students

Last year, I started in my teaching job at an elementary school located in the suburb and I was teaching two classes of kindergarten and first grade students. I was already teaching for several weeks when I started to notice that some of my students looked like they were bored with the lessons and that some of them lacked interest and motivation to learn. So paid attention to the activities and lessons for my two classes and I noticed that the curriculum I was following for my classes did not include any educational games or activities. I believed that this should not be the case since during my college studies and from the additional training I got as a trainee teacher, I was told by my superiors that incorporating educational games in classes would be beneficial for students.

So I researched and studied about the appropriate and relevant educational games and activities for kindergarten and first grade students, and I selected several games and activities that I could use in the classroom and in the outdoors. I presented my list of educational games to our principal and when I got here permission, I incorporated several games and activities for my classes.

The educational games that I initially used for the classroom included the last toothpick, alphabet list game, chain reaction, and sparkle. I selected these games because they improve the skills for mathematics, spelling and logic, and they are fun and engaging for kindergarten and first grade students.

In the last toothpick game, I would place toothpicks in several piles, and I would instruct the students in taking turns in removing any number of toothpicks in each pile and the student that is the last to take out the last toothpick is the one eliminated from the game. The play continues until the only student left behind becomes the winner. The alphabet list game involves a category of items to be listed. The first player names an item that begins with the letter A, the next player names  an item that begins with the letter B, and so on. The player who cannot name an item that begins with the corresponding letter is eliminated.