Let’s be honest, who couldn’t use some extra fun in their lives right now? I know I can benefit from it! But it seems like the old memories of playing games together or students having fun with classroom games are so out of reach. We know virtual games just aren’t the same, but we do have a few really fun ideas to share with both parents and teachers.
These games and fun virtual activities can be done in a classroom setting to add some joy-factor to the day or used by parents to set up friend play dates. They can also be a great way to spend time virtually with family members or friends who may be feeling isolated. Here are some of the best virtual game ideas we’ve heard of:
1. Virtual Karaoke and Dance Parties
Who doesn’t love a good karaoke party? Youtube has so many karaoke songs like this one that can be easily screenshared with friends to host your own karaoke party. You could either use it as a “sing-a-long” where everyone belts out the words together or have a solo-artist choose their own song. This may be geared towards older elementary students (4th-5th grade and above), but you can get creative with it for any age!
For a dance party addition, think about fun ways to make it interactive and a bit competitive. There could be a virtual “DJ” chosen and when they pause the music, everyone has to FREEZE! The person who moves last is “out” for the round. Kind of like “musical chairs” but you have to stop dancing. This is a great “brain break” for students during class and a way to get them up and moving. GoNoodle is another great way to get kids up, moving, and dancing!
2. Games Transitioned to Online Platforms
All of these games will be familiar and will hopefully bring some normalcy back to life. Two games in particular that we want to share to add some extra fun into life include:
- Pictionary can be played on a phone or a desktop. All you have to do is hop on a zoom call, divide your group or class into teams, choose a “drawer” for the turn, and the generator randomly gives you something to draw in a minute.
- UNO is a fan favorite and can help with number sense for children. The same game rules apply for the virtual version!
3. Trivia
There are a few ways to use trivia in a classroom or at home. Trivia can be adapted to a classroom setting where you choose fun questions specific to your content to build background knowledge or get students invested! It can also just be a fun get-together with family and friends. To play trivia with friends on Zoom, you can use this random trivia generator to start asking questions to the group. You can have breakout rooms to discuss responses with a team or just have everyone chat in their answers at the same time to play individually. Teachers can make up their own trivia questions related to their class or content!
4. Charades
What better way to get funny screenshots of people on Zoom than to play charades! Check out this charades idea generator to get ideas on words to act out. Their team can have 1 minute to figure out what the person is acting out. Again, charades can be adapted to a classroom setting and the teacher can use their own content to create words or phrases to act out.
5. Mad Libs
I vividly remember Madlibs during school with my 4th grade teacher. I LOVED when we did them in class and always laughed so hard. Little did I know, I was secretly learning parts of speech as I was having fun. Check out these online madlibs that you can use virtually!
6. For the Classroom: “Guess Who”
Some teachers are having a hard time building relationships and creating a class culture virtually. One idea that can be done is to have each student fill out a “getting to know you” inventory about personal fun facts and email their responses back to you. Make sure they have a way to “opt-out” of sharing any information. If they don’t want a fact shared about themselves, you could have them put it in a different font color or something to flag that for you. Once you get all the emails back from students, each class you can have a mystery classmate where you share fun facts about them throughout the class (it could even be a class reward to get a fun fact). At the end of the class, that person reveals themself! It’s a fun game but also a way to get to know the class better.
Reach out to amanda@possip.com if you want more ideas on this topic!
