TOP PICKS | 26 TOOLS
Learning Games That Put Play First
Top Picks
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Free and Free-ish Games

Chrome Music Lab
Irresistibly fun interactives can introduce musical concepts
Bottom line: This accessible site is sure to dazzle students, but will need some inventive teaching and a lot of support to lead to deep 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.

Toontastic 3D
Flexible tool hands kids the reins for creative animated storytelling
Bottom line: Despite some lack of variety and simple drawing tools, Toontastic 3D remains a terrific, versatile storytelling tool.

Creatability - Experiments with Google
Explore and express creativity with accessible tools -- or make your own
Bottom line: This simple way to create music has accessibility features that help engage kids of all ages and abilities.

Scratch
Creative sandbox opens the door to coding in any subject area
Bottom line: Scratch draws students of all types into coding and lays a foundation for future learning.

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.

GooseChase EDU
Digital scavenger hunts provide dynamic, fresh learning experiences
Bottom line: Students and teachers will enjoy the powerful learning of a modern scavenger hunt.

Geoguessr
"Just one more turn" gameplay jazzes up geography
Bottom line: Game-based platform is a great way to get kids interested in world geography, think critically, and expose them to cultures other than their own.

Little Alchemy 2
Flex alchemical muscles in amusing, discovery-based puzzler
Bottom line: This amusing puzzle game encourages creativity, perseverance, and systems thinking, and with creative integration it can build interest in math, science, history, and literature.

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.

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.
Paid Games

Toca Town
Kids run the world with perfect mix of fantasy and reality
Bottom line: Impressive open-play town lets kids explore and learn.

Thinkrolls Play & Code
Puzzle solving and building boosts problem-solving skills
Bottom line: Delightfully adaptive and engaging experience offers opportunities to practice important thinking skills and essential habits of mind.

Toca Nature
Create, explore, and enjoy realistic (but G-rated) virtual forests
Bottom line: Virtual world is wonderfully calm, inspiring, and strangely addictive, but the range of its exploration is limited.

Simple Machines by Tinybop
Excellent elementary NGSS engineering practices embedded in fun games
Bottom line: Fun gameplay lets kids explore important physics concepts in a solid standards-aligned context.

Breakout EDU
Physical and digital puzzle games epitomize collaborative learning
Bottom line: Students will reap multiple benefits if teachers invest the time in preparing Breakout EDU games.

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.

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.

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.

Crayon Physics Deluxe
Influential physics game is still a draw
Bottom line: Instantly engaging and super accessible to learners of many ages and abilities, Crayon Physics Deluxe fuses conceptual science learning with a brand of playful problem solving that demands creativity.

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.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Best entry in classic strategy series might not be best for classrooms
Bottom line: As with all games in this series, Civilization VI is a great learning experience with the right support, but older, cheaper versions may be more practical for classrooms.

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.

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.

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.