6 Educational Kids Games That Are Easy to Make
Game-based learning is highly motivational for kids since they have fun while they learn new skills. In fact, this resource has been used for a while now in classrooms to complement the learning process.
5-Minute Crafts wants to show you 6 educational games that you can create on your own. They take little time to make and will be very entertaining for your children.
Learning the colors
Materials
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Cardboard
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Scissors
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Colored markers
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Balls of yarn or ping-pong balls
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Tempera or acrylic paint
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Make a board using a large piece of cardboard. You can use a dismantled box.
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Cut circles out of the cardboard. Each circle corresponds to one color, so you should cut as many circles as you want colors.
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Color around the edges of each circle with different colors and write the name of the respective color.
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Make balls of yarn or paint ping-pong balls to match the same colors as the circles.
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Teach your children the names of the colors while they toss the ball, aiming at the holes with the corresponding color.
Learning geometric shapes
Materials
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5 feet of poster board
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Adhesive tape
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Colored markers
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Use a poster board of approximately 5 ft or stick together smaller ones until you get the right length.
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Draw different geometric shapes, such as circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, rhombuses, etc. It will be easier to distinguish the shapes if you paint each one a specific color. For example, color all circles in red.
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Tape the poster board to the ground, as if it were a mat.
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It can be used to play hopscotch so your child will have to go from one end to the other, always stepping on the same shape. It can also be transformed into a game of Twister, where one extremity is placed on a specific shape while a different one goes on another.
Learning numbers
Materials
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Rectangular cardboard
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Poster board
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A cutter
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White and colored tempera
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Glue
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On a rectangular piece of cardboard, cut out 7 hexagons in the shape of a digital number 8. Feel free to download the model here. Save the pieces you’ve cut since you’ll use them for the number puzzle.
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Glue the poster board to the back of the cardboard to use it as the base.
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Double the number of cut pieces by using the same piece as your guide. You should have 14 pieces in total.
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Paint 7 pieces white and the rest in another color.
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Make cards with numbers 1 through 9 to use them as a reference for your child to put together the numbers of the puzzle.
Learning to tell time
Materials
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1 small disposable plate
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1 big disposable plate
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A permanent marker
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A brass paper fastener
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Colored poster board or poly
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Scissors
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Glue
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Place the small disposable plate on the big one.
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Write the minutes clockwise starting with 00 (00, 05, 10, 15, 20, etc.) on the big plate. On the small one, write the hours clockwise starting from 12 (12, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.).
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Draw the 2 hands of the clock on the poster board or poly and secure them to the plates using the fastener.
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Write “hours” on the short hand and “minutes” on the long one.
Learning the alphabet
Materials
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Colored poster boards
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A black marker
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Adhesive tape
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Scissors
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A small ball or toy car
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Draw 27 rectangles on the poster board, then cut them out. On the end of each rectangle, write a letter of the alphabet.
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Tape the poster boards to the ground, arching them to make a tunnel.
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Have your kid go through the tunnels with the ball or car in alphabetical order.
Learning to count
Materials
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10 toilet paper tubes
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Scissors
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Colored paper
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Adhesive tape or glue
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Poster board
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A black marker
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55 popsicle sticks
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Line the toilet paper tubes with the colored paper using some tape or glue.
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Cut 10 circles of identical size out of the poster board.
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On each circle, write a number from 1 to 10. Stick one number to each tube.
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Your child needs to put the same amount of sticks as the number indicates in each tube.