Classroom games you can't do without!

[behappy]

Hello! I am not in the U.S. but I am wondering what GAMES Teachers LOVE to have in their classroom. I am talking mainly about BOARD games for say, Literacy or/ and Maths centres, fun, cheap ones, ones that last for 20 minutes even....... not electronic games but that are valuable and the children find cool.

ESP. Games that you find that work well with littler kids (I teach Grade 1 ) and maybe ones you can reccommend that I go out and buy for my classroom!!! I don't have many resources. If necessary, please provide a company name or website where I would find the game/s.

Thank you so much!

 

[TexTeacher]

I would suggest buying a few file folder game books and then make some or have parent volunteers make them for you. File folder games are self-checking and the kids love them.

 

[ily]

I teach K and my class loves checkers, connect four, Guess Who, trouble, Giant snakes and ladders, tic tac toe, UNO, memory.

 

[K/1 Teacher]

games

I teach K/1 and my class enjoys Connect 4, Candyland, Trouble, Chutes and Ladders, and Memory

 

[Wanda]

games

I have used a tradition, I have been told, African Game. It is called Mancala. It is great for teaching counting and math strategies. It can be played with about any kind of marker; stones, buttons, beads etc. The board can be made with a egg carton, or holes dug out of the sand or circles drawn on the sidewalk. There are several variations of the rules so check the internet and see what you come up with.

 

[istoleahalo]

definately get mancala

Kids of all ages I have found love mancala! I have worked with 2-8 grades and they all love it.

Also I have found that kids really enjoy the teacher made games becuse theyhaven't played them 1,000's of times before. One "game" (i don't think its a game but some of my kids do) that they really like is Silly Sentences. They have several bags of sentence parts such as "who" "did what" "when" "where" and an "adjective" Students have to pick one card from each bang and make a silly sentence which they then draw a picture to illustrate (showing comprehension). For instance, they may make the sentence "Yesterday, a fat crayon danced under the sofa." I have each of the sentence parts in diffrent colors 1. so that they will put them back in the same bag and 2. so that they can easily see the diffrent parts and later when we discuss subject/predicate, adjectives, etc I can say "Remember the blue part of the silly sentences? Thats a subject."