8 Fun and Educational Whiteboard Games For Children

Why whiteboard games for children are the ultimate learning tools

Engaging and interactive games play a significant role in educating young children while keeping them entertained and engaged. With a blend of creativity and learning, whiteboard games keep children interested in learning new skills and topics. This article highlights fun and educational whiteboard games to spark curiosity, boost knowledge, and make learning an exciting experience for children.

1. A Thrilling Dictation Race

• A dynamic dictation race adds an exciting twist to daily lessons or target vocabulary. Start by making a list of related sentences. Make teams of five students each and have them line up facing the board.

Here's how the game works:

• Dictate a sentence to the first two students, repeating it for clarity.
• The students have to rush to the board to quickly write down the first word of the sentence.
• Afterward, they return to their team, passing the marker to the next student in line.
• The second runs to the board to write down the word of the sentence and so on.
• Observe spelling errors and correct them on the spot to ensure accuracy and learning.
• The race continues until one team successfully writes the entire sentence.

2. An Engaging Round of Jeopardy

Jeopardy is an adaptable game that can be tailored to suit the target language and unit of study. Follow these simple steps to make the most of this interactive game:

• Make a list of 25 questions across five categories, and assign different point values to each. This can be done to strengthen vocabulary related to food, countries, history, clothing, music, trivia or for grammar and English revision.
• Make groups of three to four students each.
• Ask each group to select a category and points value (e.g., nouns for 500 points).
• Provide them with the corresponding question, giving them 30 seconds to confirm their answer.
• If their response is correct, the group earns the points. If not, the square remains open for future attempts.
• Play for a specific amount of time.
• Once the time is up, calculate the points. The team with the highest points wins the game.
• This game helps boost language skills, test knowledge, and foster teamwork.

3. Expanding Text

• Divide children into two teams and name the teams A and B.
• Choose a starting team, Team A, and explain the rules. Both teams work together to create a sentence bit by bit.
• Set a timer for three minutes. A representative from Team A comes forward and writes a single word on the board.
• Using eam A's word as a foundation, team B has to construct a short, concise, and related sentence.
• Then, team A takes the marker to make the sentence slightly more complex. This process of expanding the text continues till the time is up.
• The losing team will be the team holding the marker when the time runs out.
• The expanding text game encourages collaboration, creativity, and quick thinking, and the pressure adds a thrill to the game.

4. Tic Tac Toe

• Tic tac toe is a classic pastime known as Noughts and crosses. All you need is nine blocks arranged in a grid with two lines drawn vertically and two drawn horizontally. The game starts when participants choose noughts (O) or crosses (X). It can either be played in teams or players. The player or team who gets 3 noughts or 3 crosses in a row wins the game.

5. Hot Seat

• The hot seat is an exciting activity that boosts vocabulary and teamwork in children, whether in the classroom or at home. Divide the students into two teams and choose a representative from each team. These chosen representatives sit in front of the whiteboard with their backs turned to it.

Another student writes a word from the current lexical set behind the representative. Now, the challenge for the remaining team members is to describe the word to their representative without stating it. As soon as one team successfully guesses the word, switch the roles and repeat with new words to keep the excitement alive. Here are some variations to keep things interesting:

• Give two points to the team that guesses the word first and one point to the second team. This promotes friendly competition and engagement.
• Make it more challenging by prohibiting clue-givers from using their hands during descriptions.
• Display a list of words on the board and give teams time to work through them in any order they choose. Assign different points to each word to encourage strategic thinking and decision-making.
• Keep the excitement fresh by having both teams work through the same short list of words but in a different order. This prevents students to rely on listening to the other team's answers.

6. Name Dash

• It is an entertaining and strategic game that stimulates creativity and friendly competition. Two individuals typically play it, but it can also be adapted for a group of children in a classroom setting. The parent or teacher makes a grid using only dots arranged vertically and horizontally. Each player takes turns making a dash between any two dots, leading to an array of interconnected lines, forming angles of 90 and 180 degrees.

The excitement increases when the joining of dashes creates boxes. Inside each closed box, the first letter of the name of the person who completes it is placed. Once all dots are connected, count the first letters of each player's name within the boxes. The player with the most letters of their name wins the game.

7. Hangman

• Hangman is a thrilling, word-guessing adventure that has entertained generations of children. The origin of this game dates back to the 18th or 19th century. A word, carefully chosen by a teacher, parent, or one of the children, is selected and represented by dashes. The dashes indicate the number of letters it contains. Children take turns guessing letters to fill the mysterious dashes.

However, a part of the hangman is drawn for every incorrect guess, starting with his face or the noose. As letters are correctly identified, they are placed on the dashes, leading to victory for the one who successfully guesses the word. The hangman is drawn and dies by the noose if the word isn’t guessed.

8. The Story Game

• In this game, a student narrates a short, fictional story. Carefully transcribe the words into concise sentences, keeping each sentence separate. Ask another student or child to encircle all the nouns with a red whiteboard marker. Then, another student comes to the board and marks all the verbs with a blue marker, and so on.

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