8 Best Google Classroom Games To Try Today - School Sparks (2023)

A large amount of classroom learning is done offline, but you shouldn’t underestimate the usefulness of using the online classroom games and activities that are at your disposal!

There’s a huge amount of evidence that shows that these games in the classroom help students retain knowledge and develop teamwork and problem-solving skills.

These games reinforce student learning while also adding some fun to the Google classroom!

We’ve compiled a list of 8 tried and tested games that are suitable for the online classroom and are great fun for both teachers and students! Let’s dive in.

1. Digital Scavenger Hunt

This is a great way to engage your students with an online classroom game! It will get the kids out of their seats and having some fun!

To play this game online, you should share a list of items for the students to hunt for in their homes. Set them a time limit, and they will need to find these items within this time limit.

This is a great game for testing the kids’ vocab skills, and if you are teaching a class a language, you can give these instructions in the language, testing their vocabulary.

This game is both educational and engaging for the kids, and it will ensure that they are not just doing the same thing every day in their Google Classroom!

2. Online Quizzes

Online quizzes are one of the first things that come to mind when you’re thinking about Google classroom games!

This is a great way to assess the performance of the students while also challenging them at the same time.

Making assessments fun for children is a great way to motivate the students throughout the year.

These quizzes will highlight areas that you need to work on with the students, and areas that they are doing well. Regular knowledge retrieval through quizzes is also proven to cement learning.

With these online quizzes, you don’t have to only do quizzes that test the student’s knowledge of the subject matter.

Sometimes, you could do some quizzes that test general knowledge, or are on topics that the kids will love! Music quizzes are always very popular amongst children.

3. Pictionary

Pictionary suits every age group and it is a perfect game to play in your Google classroom. It encourages creativity and confidence and it is just plain fun!

This game is fairly straightforward to play in a Google classroom. To play, divide the class into two teams. Each team should select someone to draw from their team.

The artists will have 10 seconds to look at the word before they are allowed to begin drawing it.

They will then draw the image until a member of their team correctly guesses the word they are drawing. Artists are only able to use images, they are not allowed to use letters or words.

The word can be drawn by an online generator, or the teacher can generate a word for the students, sending it to them on the private chat feature.

When the team members are guessing the answer, they will need to shout out the guesses.

As a moderator, you will need to listen for the correct term. The team that guesses the drawing correctly first will win a point.

After you have finished the round, you should switch the artist with another student and start the process again. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.

This is a great game to test the alertness and concentration of the kids while keeping them engaged and enjoying the classroom.

4. Simon Says

Simon Says is a game that will test the alertness of your students. To keep the kids even more engaged, it is a good idea to pick a child to be Simon, rather than being Simon yourself.

The chosen ‘Simon’ must give instructions to be followed that start with the phrase ‘Simon says’. If this phrase is not added to the beginning of an instruction, then the direction should not be followed.

For instance, if Simon says ‘touch your toes’ without saying ‘Simon says’ at the beginning of the instruction, then it should not be followed.

If a child does follow this instruction, they will be disqualified from the game.

This game doesn’t only teach children to concentrate on instructions, but it can also be used to teach students about certain parts of the body.

Simon Says is great fun and it is very easy to carry out over Google Classroom. The kids always love this game and you’ll have them requesting it for weeks afterwards.

5. Scattergories

Scattergories is another game for the online classroom that will help students with their learning. It is perfect for practicing spelling and testing students’ knowledge of general topics.

The teacher will pick the categories and the starting letter of the game. For instance, you may play with categories such as:

• Boys’ names
• Places
• Verbs
• Holidays

To play this game, rows, and columns of 5 will be drawn on paper or a screen. The categories should be written in rows, and the letter that you are starting with should be written in the column.

The students will then have to fill in the categories as they are written in rows with words that begin with the chosen letter.

For instance, if the letter is B, and the categories are as above, the answer could be ‘Bob, Bali, Bowling, Beach.’

6. Guess The Sound

Guess the Sound is a very simple game that requires the teacher to play a sound. The students will then guess what the sound is.

This game is great for younger children and perfect for teaching kids about phonemes in a virtual environment.

This is a guessing game that is great fun and will improve the kids’ listening and oral skills. The kids love this game and it always has them in stitches!

You don’t have to just use phoneme sounds, you can also use sounds by animals, musical instruments, or home appliances during the game!

As the teacher, you will have to gather a few different sounds to play with the students. These can be sourced from Youtube.

One way to make this game more suitable for older students is by playing songs for the kids to guess.

This is a super fun game that lots of kids will love! It will have the kids working together and discussing what song they think they should guess.

You can play 20 seconds of a song to see if the kids can work the song out from that!

7. Bingo

Bingo is a very popular game in the classroom, so why not transfer this to the online classroom?

In this game, you will need to send cards that contain pictures or words on them to the students.

For instance, this could be science vocab or math concepts. On each student’s sheet, the words or pictures will be the same but they will be laid out differently.

In the original Bingo game, the teacher will call out the words while the students mark the words or pictures.

The first student to get a line of 5 in a row should shout ‘Bingo’ and is the winner of the game.

You can alter the rules of this game depending on the age of the students, but the overall concept of bingo is fairly straightforward.

Although it may seem very simple, this game has been very popular in the classroom for a long time! It is a great break from regular lessons and will ensure the students are engaged and excited!

8. Guess Who

Guess Who is a great online classroom game that is very simple. It requires yes or no answers, and there are no added complicated rules in this game.

The students will each be assigned a different character, and the game aims to guess who is who! Pretty simple, right?

The students can even dress up as their characters and don’t share their screen until they have been correctly revealed.

To play the game, you will need to call a student’s name, and the other students will ask yes or no questions until they figure out who this student is.

These questions should be based on things that you can see, such as ‘Are you wearing glasses?’.

When the students have decided who they think each person is, these answers should be written down.

The student in question should then reveal who he or she is! Whoever has got the answer right should have their turn next.

Final Thoughts

So, there we have it! The games on this list are great Google classroom games to keep your kids entertained for hours on end!

Not only will they have some fun in their online classroom with these games, but they will also learn some essential skills that will encourage their confidence and creativity.

All of the games on the list are quick and easy to organize and will bring lots of joy and laughter to the kids!