The next time Wood plays, she’ll use Whiteboard.fi instead of Blackboard Collaborate, a free virtual whiteboard. Using Blackboard Collaborate for Pictionary, students take turns drawing on a whiteboard-prompted by a word generator-while students call out their guesses. Wood’s students also love games where they take a more active role.
Wood then reveals the actual drawing and it tends to bring out a lot of laughter, she says. When her students are done drawing, they turn on their cameras, put their artwork up to the screen, and guess what they drew. Wood gives directions like “Draw a large oval with a smaller oval inside on the left side, attach a triangle,” based on images from a drawing book or a directed drawing YouTube channel. She says her students have also enjoyed directed drawing exercises-when students are directed to draw something without seeing it. During asynchronous time, they used Flipgrid to give a tour of their forts. Once, they were asked to find a broom, a blanket, and a few heavy objects, and then they had 10 minutes to build a reading fort. Wood has even focused the game around particular learning goals, like having students find objects that reinforce vocabulary or putting together a project with the items. When they find the object, they can share it on video or by typing in the chat box. When it’s time to play, Wood projects a word like blanket and a matching image on a slideshow, and then students run to find the item in their homes.
Games to Boost Creative Thinkingĭuring morning meetings, fifth-grade teacher Sarah Wood says she incorporates games like scavenger hunts that the whole class can play together while learning from home. If students need help solving a problem, they can rely on their partner or click the “Ask for Help” button after trying one of the strategies they learned in class with pencil and paper first. To play again, they move their pieces back to the side of the board. Each student in the pair selects a set of color pieces, and when it’s their turn, they roll two digital dice, multiply the numbers shown, and place a piece onto the virtual board with the corresponding number. Then, she pairs up students and places them in breakout rooms on Zoom.
Before playing, Nahhas goes over directions and the code of conduct with students, reminding them of protocols such as not interfering with classmates’ games or else having their gaming privileges revoked. Similarly, Robin Nahhas says her third-grade students have loved playing Multiplication Tic-Tac-Toe, a downloadable game she created on Google Slides so that they could practice their multiplication facts. If students are new to sharing Google Slides, Henneberry recommends modeling the step-by-step process first. Students can then share the game with their friend using Google Drive so that the two can play a round together. During recess breaks, students click a board game shelved in a virtual recess room, which creates their own copy of the game. Gaming With Google SlidesĪfter noticing how much her students missed informal socializing during hybrid learning, Liz Henneberry, a third-grade teacher in Franklin, Massachusetts, transformed Connect Four, Trouble, Chess, and Checkers to Google Slides the latter two are adaptations from Eric Curts' templates, and all of Henneberry's templates can be downloaded and immediately used in your virtual classroom.
We found some easy-to-use virtual games that elementary teachers are playing with their students this year, along with tips on how to incorporate them into the classroom. While most educators feel too worn out to take on anything else this year, classroom games-old and new-can provide a much-needed respite for students and teachers who are burned out on video lessons and miss social connection.