10 Classroom Games to Play On Zoom With Students

Are you looking for classroom games to play on Zoom with your students? Just like in the classroom, my students LOVE to play games on Zoom.  Here is a list of ten fun games that you can play with your students during your next Zoom or Google Hangouts lesson!

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What Games Can I Play With My Students On Zoom?

1. Guess the Sound

This game has been a great way to either begin or end my Zoom lessons.  I simply play the video, then pause it right after the sound is played.  The students send me their guesses in chat, and then I press play again to see if they are correct.  They love it, and luckily he has several videos like this to choose from!

2. Guess the State

I have always done Mystery Skype activities with my students where we met up with another classroom, and we had to guess the state they lived in before they guessed the state we were from.  Because of the current situation, we weren't able to do that, BUT, I was able to adapt the game to our Zoom classroom lessons.

The students each had a copy of this map, which I had also uploaded to my PowerPoint lesson.  They could ask me yes or no questions in order to guess the mystery state I had chosen.  Some sample questions might be:

Is this state bordered by water?

Does this state start with the letter M?

Is this state in the South?

They marked x's on the states that did not fit the criteria based on my answers.  They tried to guess using less questions than the day before.

3. Boggle

Boggle is another game that easily translates from the classroom to the Zoom environment.  Students can write their answers on paper, send them in chat, or call them out as they see new words.

4. Mental Math

My students always BEG to play this game in the classroom, so I knew I had to play it on Zoom as well.  I gave the students printable tiles so they can play at home as I read the clues.  I do not show them the cards just like I don't show them in class. You can find my mental math tiles to play on Zoom with Students here.



5. Hangman

You can create your own Hangman games here and share your screen on Zoom to play them with your class. You can use them to review vocabulary or spelling words, or simply to share a fun message with your class!

6. Bingo

Bingo is another game that can be played on Zoom as well.  You can find my free math Bingo here.  I also have other versions of Bingo here.

7. Trivia

My students love answering trivia questions.  You can play this Jeopardy style version or just ask questions from your curriculum. 

There are also a ton of fun trivia questions that you can ask your students here.

8. Pictionary

Have your student use the whiteboard feature on Zoom to draw pictures for their classmates to guess what they are.  You can use vocabulary words as the clues. Just as much fun as the Pictionary board game!

9. Scavenger Hunt

Send your students on a scavenger hunt to see who can find the most items on your list.  You can make it academic by asking them to find things that relate to your content standards.  For example, I teach 4th grade, so I might ask them to find examples of right angles, or arrays.

10. How Well Do You Know Your Teacher?

When I saw this post on Betsey Jenning's Instagram, I thought it would make the perfect end of the year game!  Make a PowerPoint with questions about yourself to see how well your students know you!

I hope these games give you some ideas for fun things to do with your students during your Zoom classes as we finish up the school year on-line!

Virtual Teaching Must Haves

Here are some ideas for educational resources that could be helpful for elementary teachers or tutors to use during virtual learning on Zoom:

Document Camera

This document camera hooks up right to your computer and allows you to share game pieces, writing, and so much more!

Magnetic Tabletop Easel

This magnetic tabletop easel is also perfect for displaying game pieces, writing, and so much more

More Classroom Games to Play on Zoom

If you're looking for some more fun games to play with your students on Zoom, you're in luck!  This blog post features even more engaging games that will keep your students excited about learning! From word jumbles to memory games and even quiz shows, these activities are perfect for virtual learning or connecting with your students on Zoom for snow days, sick days or guest speakers.  

Before you go, make sure you enter our current giveaway!

Making Our Own Kaboom Games

I really want my students to start motivating themselves to study and learn.  I decided to have them make their own Kaboom Games as a way to do this.  They each told me what skill they wanted to work on (from spelling, to multiplication, to fractions) and they partnered up with another student with the same goal.  Each duo got twelve index cards.  I asked them to write Kaboom!  on two of the cards and to make flash cards for their particular challenge using the other ten.  They had a blast!  I will definitely be doing this again!

Can You Poke a Stick Through A Balloon Without Popping It? Learning About Polymers

During our morning meeting I asked my kiddos what would happen if I poked a bamboo skewer through a balloon.  Of course they said it would pop.  Are you sure? I asked them and then showed them the balloon above. Oohs and Ahhs abounded along with, "Mrs. Malloy, how did you do that?"

So... in my best teacher bribery way I told them that if they worked really hard and productively all day, I would teach them how to do it (of course I planned on teaching them how to anyway since it was in my lesson plan, but they didn't have to know that right?).

When the time for science finally came around, I told them that we were going to practice their skills of observation.  I was going to SHOW them how to do it, but I wasn't going to TELL them how.  I silently demonstrated and then handed out supplies.

Balloons were blown.

And then they attempted to poke.  A few balloons popped, but most of the students were successful on their first try.

And once they tasted success, they had to add a challenge - let's see who can poke the most sticks into the balloon without popping it!

 

Eleven was our class record!

 

 

The trick? Put vegetable oil on the stick to make it a little easier (optional) - then insert the stick at the bottom part (where the balloon is tied) and exit through the strongest part at the other end.

 



We then watched this video to learn about what polymers are:


And finished the lesson by making our own human polymer chains!

 

We will be learning about how scientists use polymers to clean up oil spills using a kit from Steve Spangler soon, but I wanted to give them a brief introduction before.  They loved it!