© 2008 Randy Robertson, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio
There are tons of online educational games out there, and many, many collections of them, too. However, I’ve found that most of these collections also include quite a few non-learning games — arcade type or shoot-em-ups that have no redeeming value (at least, that I can see).
That’s not a problem for me most of the time — usually, when I have students play online games I’m pretty specific about which ones I want them to play.
However, there are infrequent times (very , very infrequently) — students are done early with a state standardized test; it’s late on a Friday after a hard week and both they and I are pretty burned-out; or when our school’s schedule is all crazy because everybody in one grade is taking the H.S. Exit exam and everybody else is in different classes — when I just want to give students the opportunity to play some learning games and not be concerned they’ll go to useless ones.
I thought that readers of this blog might sometimes be in similar situations, and thought I’d share a short “The Best…” list of sites that work well in those cases.
Except in a couple of cases, I”m just going to list the site and not give any explanation — they’re all pretty similar — they have a variety of learning games in a variety of subjects and offer very, very few, if any, useless ones.
Here are my choices for The Best Collections of Online Educational Games:
BBC Bitesize Games; Bitesize 2
Primary Games Arena has an impressive group of learning games.
Games for Change has a collection of “serious games.”
Canadian secondary Social Studies teacher Mike Farley has gone far beyond my sharing of games. He writes a blog where he lists the links to fifteen excellent Social Studies-related games. That’s nice, but you can find those links in my “The Best…” lists. But what Mike also shares in his blog are student hand-outs for all those games. I don’t think you’ll find these kinds of resources anywhere else on the Web, and they’re a gold mine! Even if you don’t want to use some of them, they are excellent models that can be easily modified.
British Council Games is a second Council game site.
Games To Learn English is a nice collection of online games.
Interactive Sites For Education
Show.me, the popular site that collects interactives from museums throughout the United Kingdom, has just unveiled a brand-new (and sorely needed) redesign.
Brainpop has pulled together a nice collection of online games.
Smithsonian Science has put all their games in one place.
Fun Stuff for Kids Online is from the Smithsonian.
The National Museums Scotland has a nice collection.
Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
Hi Larry,
Thanks for the list and also mentioning for teachers that “many” sites have a lot of time wasters for students.
I spent days and days (like you) scouring for the best. Based on;
ability to present to a whole class, educational value, stimulation, creativity and engagement, functionality.
I put them all on a Learning Arcade on EFL Classroom. Also on our GAMES page. Just click under the PLAY tab. Some wonderful games there – I love the Spiderman game!
One nice thing is a teacher can make one generic id/pw and the whole class at once can use it, on our network.
Thanks,
David
http://eflclassroom.com
Larry,
Love your blog and lists of great websites! Just was on Play Kids Games website and an add pops up that is difficult to get rid of. The add is not appropriate for school kids to view. Just a heads up. Got to hate adds that are not appropriate for kids on kids sites.
Hi Larry, I think you may of overlooked Primary Games Arena?
Thanks for putting this up. Will definitely be popping back from time to time.
Hi! This is a nice list, I’ll use it for my kids! I’m a programmer on a small team in Costa Rica that has been working on an online educational game that just released – and I wanted to mention it if that’s ok!
Please see the game here: http://therainforestrangers.com/
This game teaches kids (grades 2-6, depending on reading level) about the tropical rainforest, ecosystem, wildlife, and conservation in a really fun way! We’ve worked hard to blend education with fun, so parents, teacher, and kids will all be happy! Also, parents/teachers can create alliances, and monitor the child’s progress, and see their grade point average in the “Teacher’s Lounge” (http://therainforestrangers.com/lounge).
The entire game was developed right here in the tropical rainforest and a percentage of the profits are given back to local schools and environmental organizations!
Thanks!
Erin
Mulele – A project for my kid.
================================
Hi, my name is Daniele Fornaciari and I’m a proud daddy of a 2 years and half old baby. This summer I started by joking a little very funny project for my kid. I’m a senior software developer and due my skill the project is about a simple learning game for kid developed for mobile device. To develop it I needed a character, so thanks to a designer freelancer, I developed this very funny and amazing character called Mulele (Mulele is a short version of my son’s name: Samuele used by a his friend). During these days the nursery school setup a little Xmass market so I develop pro-bono stickers and pen holders. Everyone bought one and ask me to prepare also the picture frame, I hope to finish it as soon as possible.
So I started a IndiGoGo campaign to search support to continue to develop my project. I know that parents like my project because them know that it’s build up by a dad for his kid, a dad like them.
Another aspect that I love of this project is that it join my wife and me much more than before, in fact she paint the pen holds and believe or not I made the cross stitch 😉
I will be very glad if you would like to support us writing some raws about our project hoping that someone would like to buy some perks helping us to finish the phase 0 of the project.
Some links:
1] twitter: https://twitter.com/Mulele1
2] indiegogo: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mulele-phase-0/
Soon website, blog and store will be available.
Regards.
Daniele Fornaciari
Larry,
Love your blog and lists of great websites! Just was on Play Kids Games website and an add pops up that is difficult to get rid of. The add is not appropriate for school kids to view. Just a heads up. Got to hate adds that are not appropriate for kids on kids sites.
Thanks, I’ll remove it.