ELA and Typing Games for Summer Learning
Poio by Kahoot! Learn to Read
Kid-centered early reading game leans into discovery and delight
Bottom Line: This is a smart spin on phonics with a deep commitment to a kid-driven, fun-first experience.
Word Tag - Word Learning Game
Paint vocab words on walls, hear definitions, complete sentences
Bottom Line: Students may find the game fun, but teachers will need to supplement with other vocabulary activities and may object to the focus on tagging.
WordWhile: Casual Literary Fun
Clever fill-in-the-blank game playfully promotes literature
Bottom Line: A different spin on reading the classics can engage students in the short term, but teachers should find ways to extend learning.
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Practice typing by exploring and defending a world made of paper
Bottom Line: Great for practicing touch-typing skills, this adventure game draws players in with a slowly revealed backstory.
Textadventures.co.uk
Play or design text adventures, but creation can get technical
Bottom Line: Text adventures can be a blast to play and make, but the Quest game-making tool, while offering some decent support, can be tough to use effectively without coding experience.
DEVICE 6
Inventive, interactive short story puzzles, scares, and delights
Bottom Line: Utterly unique, short experience packed with exploration, mysteries, and surprises, but will take inventive teacher to wrap around.
Game Design and Coding Games for Summer Learning
ScratchJr
Drag-and-drop programming is an effective intro for budding coders
Bottom Line: With a little adult help, this is a rich platform for getting kids into programming and digital creation.
Codeable Crafts
Animate stories with accessible drawing tools and coding blocks
Bottom Line: Kids get a simple peek at computer programming principles by animating stories using their own creations.
The Infinite Arcade by Tinybop
Simple game-design app has endless creative potential
Bottom Line: Letting students design, play, improve, and share their own games opens up opportunities for learning potential in many subject areas.
Construct 3
Ideal 2D game builder supports students to create, innovate
Bottom Line: Limitless game options, reasonable cost, and extensive support make this programming environment perfect for an educational setting.
GameMaker
One of the best creation tools available for aspiring game developers
Bottom Line: Great choice for a full unit or class on game design; fuels students game-making dreams.
Garry's Mod
Complex physics sandbox is daunting but rich
Bottom Line: This physics sandbox ramps up the complexity but not the usability, leaving it up to the right teachers and students to unlock its benefits.
Science and Physics Games for Summer Learning
The Robot Factory by Tinybop
Improve designs, collect favorites in robot creation sandbox
Bottom Line: A well-made and enjoyable STEM app that leverages what's great about play -- experimentation -- to spark engineering interest.
Busy Water
Solve, create, and share puzzles that gush with STEM learning
Bottom Line: This challenging yet kid-friendly set of logic puzzles wonderfully allows kids to solve problems and experiment with light science concepts.
Contraption Maker
Solve problems, puzzles, brain teasers while creating wacky machines
Bottom Line: Hands-on problem-solving leads to great fun and independent learning with the right curricular wraparound to connect what kids are doing with what they need to know.
Bridge Constructor Portal
Engineering game is a blast to play, needs extensive teacher guidance
Bottom Line: It's a solid game not designed for education, but in the right hands it could be a great hook for an engineering unit.
Tyto Online
Ambitious science role-playing game has bright future
Bottom Line: Diverse characters, immersive experiences, and useful teacher tools make this life science RPG worth checking out.
Mars Horizon
Authentic space agency sim focuses on logistics, planning
Bottom Line: This sim is backed by major space agencies, so it's a neat and trustworthy way to learn about the challenges of past and future space exploration.
Kerbal Space Program
Design and launch a rocket into space in realistic astrophysics sim
Bottom Line: This accurate rocket sim encourages trial-and-error learning and makes for great (and often explosive) physics and engineering experiments.
SEL and Social Studies Games for Summer Learning
Journey
Gorgeous, moving adventure -- a jewel of social and emotional learning
Bottom Line: Journey is a must-play experience and a shining beacon of the good that games can do.
Humankind
Refinement of strategy game formula supports historical exploration
Bottom Line: Like any consumer-oriented game, this experience will absorb and delight students far more than "educational" games, but it'll require open-minded and creative teaching.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Unique cooperative adventure with lasting social and emotional impact
Bottom Line: With good support, an extremely powerful game to build empathy.
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Slow but alluring game uniquely depicts how folklore shaped America
Bottom Line: While it's not perfect, it could serve as a nice complement to a unit on American folklore or as a way to inspire students to write their own tall tales.
Political Animals
Charming political campaign sim mixes data analysis and civics
Bottom Line: It's a highly entertaining and surprisingly deep way to help students see the strategy -- as well as ethical choices -- involved in elections.
Gone Home
Compelling narrative game fosters empathy, self-reflection
Bottom Line: If you're searching for a unique way to analyze storytelling from a social and emotional angle, look no further.
Svoboda 1945: Liberation
Poignant WWII investigation game plumbs a town's dark past
Bottom Line: An excellent game that could complement any curriculum on World War II.
Everything
Philosophical game invites students to ponder everything's existence
Bottom Line: Meaningful and humbling take on interconnectedness, but in that existential sort of way that's highly individual and potentially hit or miss.
Critical Thinking Games for Summer Learning
Kahoot! DragonBox Learn Chess
Gentle chess puzzle game ideal for young newbies
Bottom Line: For kids who are new to chess but want to learn how to play, this fun intro to the game provides a well-done tutorial combined with a light overarching storyline.
Minecraft
Spiraling sandbox of adventure and creation gets kids to dig deep
Bottom Line: An irresistible and seemingly limitless incubator for 21st century skills that, with a little guidance, can chart new courses for learning.
FTL: Faster Than Light
Failure is frequent and fun in this strategic starship sim
Bottom Line: This starship simulator isn’t easy, but gritty kids will learn from failure and practice systems thinking.
SimCity
Exciting city simulator great for online play
Bottom Line: SimCity does a great job teaching kids about cities by putting them in control of designing them, but this game needs a constant Internet connection.
Geocaching
Leave and locate hidden packages in a real-world treasure hunt
Bottom Line: Kids learn problem-solving, teamwork, and mapping skills, but the site doesn’t provide instruction or explanations for most of those topics; educators will have to fill in the gaps.
Surviving Mars
Colonizing Mars is in our future, but why wait?
Bottom Line: Lots of potential and perhaps much better in a year or so of updates; use this in a class about space exploration and the harsh realities of colonization.
