Gaming the Classroom

Adding some game-like elements to the classroom can get a few more kids to lean into the learning. The idea is to get kids engaged and adding in some new elements can help.

In this post we will introduce and describe four different ways to approach gamifying your curriculum.

Gimkit

This site was developed by high school kids, it is a game within a game. Like many sites, Gimkit is freemium. The basics are free, if you want more you will need to purchase a license.

There are a number of reviews that say Gimkit is like a live game show. What I like is it takes the best features of Kahoot without the idea that faster is better. I am not a fan of games like that, it puts the false idea of those who answer fastest is the smartest, speed over thinking.

A kit is a set of questions. You build your own kit or use one of the ones already created by someone else.

Some modes, or games, are only limited to five players. For this situation you can form teams.

One great feature is this is web based, no app to download.

I added a Kit based upon economics and tried it out on my phone.

an example of what the game looks like to a student

Creating in Gimkit is very similar to many other sites. If you follow this how-to you could create your first game within minutes.

One word of advice, have a plan in mind. What are you looking for the kids to do, learn or review? If you have your questions and answer, it will make creating much easier.

For more information check out their help center and these videos.

Blooket

This is similar to Gimkit.

You choose a question set, select the name mode and begin.

To jump start, check out their three videos on youtube. There are a ton of blooket videos on youtube, but a ton of these might not be super helpful.

Similar to Gimkit, there are questions sets already built. I chose desserts and then picked Tower Defense as the game mode.

The game play is very similar to Gimkit. You answer questions to get points, points allow you to play mini games. 

There are a ton of videos and how-tos but I found this simple wikiHow article that walks you through the set up.

Classcraft

Before you get started, check out the freemium structure. Free is limited but it does offer a great change of pace if you have used the above two sites. They do have some decent YouTube videos on their channel.

I started my journey with their Getting Started video. You don't need someone to set up your account, just start by clicking here. I then started tinkering with the quests.

I am still not 100% sure how to use this but I found this Q&A helpful.

Old School

This is my all time favorite method. While I love all things tech, kids get super excited when they are the ones creating something physical.

Many of us have old school board games, or parts of a bunch of old games, somewhere in a closet. Adapting parts of these games into something new is a great way to upcycle and expand the creative thinking.

One idea is taking all the old game parts and giving the kids a challenge. Have them create a game that represents a book you just read without giving away the ending. Along the way there are spots the players need to pull cards and work through the challenges the book characters faced.

Check out this wikiHow article that will explain some of the steps of this process.

We have also used pizza boxes. When you lay the box flat it reveals the game board. The box also contains all the parts and directions. 

Plickers

A super simple way to vote on books or ideas is using Plickers. I have seen a teacher add the plicker cards to magnets and as they enter the classroom they the cards to respond to some type of prompt.