How to address violence in the news with your kids.
TOP PICKS | 31 TOOLS
Best Summer Learning Games
Top Picks
RELATED
Print | Save as PDF
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.
Grades: Pre-K–2
Price: Paid
Word Tag: Epic Adventure 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.
Grades: 2–6
Price: Free
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.
Grades: 3–12
Price: $3.99
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Paid
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
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.
Grades: 8–12
Price: $3.99
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.
Grades: K–2
Price: Free
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.
Grades: K–3
Price: Free
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.
Grades: 2–6
Price: $3.99
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free to try
GameMaker Studio 2
One of the best creation tools available for aspiring game developers
Bottom line: Provides teachers with the best choice for a full unit or class on game design, and gives students a tool to help them realize their game-making dreams.
Grades: 7–12
Price: Free to try
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.
Grades: 8–12
Price: $9.99
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.
Grades: K–8
Price: $2.99
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.
Grades: 1–5
Price: $3.99
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.
Grades: 3–8
Price: Free, Paid
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.
Grades: 3–12
Price: Paid
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.
Grades: 6–8
Price: Free to try, Paid
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.
Grades: 9–12
Price: Free to try, Paid
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.
Grades: 5–12
Price: $4.99-14.99
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: $49.99
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.
Grades: 7–12
Price: $2.99-$14.99
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.
Grades: 7–12
Price: $19.99
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.
Grades: 8–12
Price: $14.99
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.
Grades: 9–12
Price: $14.99
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.
Grades: 10–12
Price: $14.99
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.
Grades: 1–8
Price: Free to try
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.
Grades: 3–12
Price: Paid
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: $9.99
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: $19.99
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.
Grades: 7–12
Price: Free, Paid
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.
Grades: 7–12
Price: Paid
