Free Education Websites and Games for Kids
I’ve been collecting free educational games that we’ve been assigned to do from teachers as well as links that I’ve found online. Here are my categories:
- Math Facts
- Fractions
- Geometry
- Money
- General Math
- Geography
- Science
- Endangered Animals
- Earthquake Science
- History
- English Language
- Keyboarding
- Sign Language
- Foreign Language
- Personal Finance for Kids
I also list my favorite children’s book blogs and parenting blogs. What are your favorite educational sites, blogs, games?
Free Fun Math Games
Math facts take practice to master but flashcards, both traditional and electronic, are not very fun. My kids’ teachers want math facts mastery. The goal is 50 problems (1-2 incorrect) within 2 minutes. Math fact mastery — addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — means less than 3 seconds per problem.
But if math fact flashcard drilling is causing your child to meltdown like mine, it’s time to change tactics. This is where gaming apps and websites come in. I think the key is to change it up. Not only will it be more fun for the child, but he or she will also retain more by having different learning experiences. Gaming is effective!
For more fun math ideas, please follow my Pinterest Board: Math Fun.
Math Facts Free Games: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division
Learning math facts using games. This collection of math games for kids includes somewhere they race other kids. Our favorite of this group is Multiplication Race Car and Fire the Ball Add to 10. I also have fun math apps here to learn math facts.
- Add to 10 Fire the Ball
- Alien Addition (you know the answer and have to shoot down the problem)
- Jet Ski Addition (race other kids by answering addition problems)
- Dirt Bike Tug of War (comparing fractions)
- Drag Race Division (race other kids by answering division problems)
- Minus Mission Shooting (you know the answer and have to shoot down the problem)
- Island Chase Subtraction (subtraction racing game against other kids)
- Sailboat Subtraction (tug of war against another team using subtraction facts and the “muscle”)
- Alien Munch (you can choose the fact families 1-12)
- Flying High (design your own plane to fly through the correct answer. Choose the fact family you want to work on.)
- Multiplication Race Car (our favorite multiplication racing game against other kids)
- Spaceship Race Game (Multiply + & – Numbers)
- Math Facts Puzzle Game
- Ocean Cleanup (Solve multiplication problems and clean up the ocean)
Fraction Math Games for Kids
These games help kids learn fractions, ratios, and decimals and the relationships between them. It’s a concept that starts in 5th grade math and continues into middle school.
- Shoot Down Blaster (Ratios to Fractions)
- AAA Math: Fractions The Fractions portion of the AAA Math website is particularly useful because it provides visual representations and easy-to-understand instructions. You can choose from a selection of topics like basic fractions, adding fractions, comparing fractions, converting fractions, reducing fractions, etc.
Geometry Games for Kids
Some of these geometry games focus on learning terminology, but the first game requires critical thinking to solve a problem using geometry (my favorite kind of math!).
Math Money Games for Kids
Money Flashcards teaches how to count money, and once your child has that down, try the Shopping Game to solve money math word problems.
- AplusMath: Money FlashcardsThese basic flashcards will give your students the repetition they need to master the very important skill of counting money.
- Shopping Game
Math Games and Resources
These great math resources have online games for a range of grades and concepts. While this list was compiled with teachers in mind, parents might also find this useful to reinforce what their child is learning in school whether their child is behind, ahead, or just right in math.
- Math Chimp Free collection of online math games for grades K-8 organized by the common core standards.
- Math-PlayMath-Play has online math games that are organized by grade level, content, and game type. You’ll find resources for addition, subtraction, multiplication, integers, fractions, and more.
- Math Pickle Some math concepts can be tricky but Math Pickle’s videos are really good at simplifying concepts for your students.
- Math Game TimeMath Game Time has interactive math games, videos, and worksheets that are separated by grade level. Your students will be able to practice everything from counting to decimals.
- Cool Math 4 KidsThis free website looks like it may have been designed in the early ’90s, but it’s got tons of great content for addition, subtraction, times tables, long division, fractions, decimals, and more.
Free Math Apps
- Number Pieces is a great free app for iPad to have an endless number of base ten blocks at their fingertips.
- An iPad protractor.
- Geometry Pad lets children draw lines and shapes on graph paper.
- Use geoboard for different quadrilaterals and triangles or find the perimeter and area of each shape.
- Ruler turns your screen into a ruler.
- Calculate how much time has passed or learn how to read a clock.
Geography
Games are a fun way to learn about the states and state capitals. I have several games for these in case you want to mix it up. 4th grade covered states with optional state capitals for extra credit. We also have placemats at the dinner table with the globe and the United States capitals for a fun family trivia game.
- Name Countries of the World
- Name the U.S. States
- Name U.S. State Capitals
- State Capitals of USA Game
- Printable World Maps Free printable maps of the world’s countries. Each map is a blank outline, the better for quizzing students on cities, counties, and terrain!
- 50 States Detailed information about each of the 50 states including abbreviations and capital cities. Excellent for teaching U.S. geography!
- Where’s That U.S. State? This fun geography game times your students as it asks them to locate each state. How fast can your students locate each of the 50 states?
- State Capital Crossword Puzzle
Science
This round-up of great science websites, resources, and games covers a wide range of topics from physical to life sciences. It’s meant to help support STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) interest in your child. I especially want to introduce girls to science. Research has shown that if girls don’t find science interesting by the end of elementary school, they will reject it forever. This is a shame since there are so many great jobs in the STEM fields, an area that is currently dominated by men.
And do boys have an edge over girls with regard to science and math? The research says absolutely not! Girls just need to realize that math and science skills to be acquired are NOT a genetic inclination or gift!
- Name Elements of Periodic Table
- Elementeo Solitaire: A solitaire game for kids that’ll help them learn the periodic table in a fun way.
- Steve Spangler Science ExperimentsA searchable directory of easy and fun science experiments and science fair ideas.
- Water Cycle Diagram – EarthguideThe interactive Earthguide Water Cycle Diagram provides a visual representation of the different parts of the water cycle, including precipitation, runoff, infiltration, evaporation, evapotranspiration, freezing, and more.
- B-EYEGive your students a different view of the world, literally! B-EYE shows your students what the world looks like through the eyes of a bee. You can zoom in and out to truly experience the effect of compound eyes on one’s vision.
- Life of BirdsThe website version of PBS’ Life of Birds is a great resource for learning about Earth’s most adaptable creatures.
- InnerBodyAn interactive guide to all systems of the human body including the digestive system, immune system, muscular system, respiratory system, skeletal system, and more.
- Planet Size ComparisonThis super-cool website lets you pick two planets in our solar system and visually compare them. It’s great for a unit on space!
- The Dino DirectoryView 3D models of five well-known dinosaurs, and learn about the origins of their names, how large they were, what they ate, and when and where they lived.
- Dinosaurs Solitaire Discover different species of dinosaurs with this fun educational deck.
- Infrared Zoo GalleryUse the Infrared Zoo Gallery to “see” the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals. It also allows you to study how well feathers, fur, and blubber insulate different animals. Very cool!
For more ideas on Science, please follow my Pinterest Board: Science Fun.
Engineering
- Fidgit Game The Fidgit game gives you lots of different engineering challenges to solve. Experiment with different designs and configurations in the challenges, and then watch to see what happens.
- Engineering for Earthquakes Making structures strong enough to withstand earthquakes is one thing that engineers need to do as they build bridges and buildings. Play an exciting game that challenges you to build a new bridge that would withstand a very strong earthquake.
- Bridge Builder GameThis bridge-building game lets you choose a level and then place pieces of material onto the screen to build a bridge. Just click your mouse where you want to place pieces. If you change your mind, click the ESC button to remove a piece. You can also test your bridge to see if it will support its weight.
- Simple Machines Help Twitch do his work with simple machines in this fun game. You will need to solve challenges to create simple machines.
- Build Your Own Coaster Build a roller-coaster to send people off on a wild ride. Lay tracks until your coaster is finished. After it’s done, see how people like the ride.
Endangered Animals
Children have a natural empathy for animals. With more species than ever threatened with extinction, it’s so important to teach this generation of kids about the fragile state of our planet and ecosystems.
- ARKiveThe ultimate resource for breathtaking photos and videos of the world’s endangered species. Each entry also includes a description of the species (or region) and information about its range, habitat, biology, threats, conservation, and more.
- BagheeraLearn about endangered and already-extinct species from around the world at Bagheera. Classroom activities and resources are also available for additional learning opportunities.
Earthquake Science
- Earthquakes for Kids
The U.S. Geological Survey website provides students with information about earthquakes. They can learn about the latest quakes, watch animations, get ideas for science fairs or play earthquake-related puzzles and games. - Plate Tectonics Animations
The University of California Berkeley’s plate tectonics animations demonstrate how the plates work, and the site includes information on the theories behind the motion, as information on the history of plate tectonics and animations of how plate tectonics shaped the world in the past! - Glossary of Earthquake Terms: glossary of earthquake terms.
- Ultimate List of Volcano Teaching Resources: a collection of volcano teaching resources with an appropriate age range.
History
You might not think of apps or games to learn history! Here is a great round-up of resources to try at home or in a classroom.
- Mission U.S.
Mission U.S. is home to two free, interactive, immersive U.S. history games. One focuses on the American Revolution, the other focuses on a slave’s quest for freedom, and both bring history to life around the student, giving events of the past an immediate and highly personal appeal. - Online Hieroglyphics Translator
Type in a phrase and see what it looks like when it’s translated to Egyptian Hieroglyphics. This is a cool activity to do if you’re covering Ancient Egypt. - iCivics
Free lesson plans and interactive games for learning civics. Some of the topics covered by materials at iCivics include citizenship and participation, separation of powers, branches of government, and budgeting. - The Underground Railroad
Scholastic’s interactive Underground Railroad activity provides an in-depth and honest look at what life was like for slaves. It’s got audio, slideshows, videos, teacher’s guides, and more. - The Seattle Times: Martin Luther King Jr.
An invaluable resource to teach the incredible story of Martin Luther King Jr. This website includes a biography, timeline, seven teaching exercises, a photo gallery, a quiz, and more. - Electoral College Calculator
Teaching your students about the Electoral College? Using the Electoral College Calculator is a great activity to show how winning certain states can put a candidate on an easy path to the White House. - Plimoth Plantation: Thanksgiving Interactive Activity
Yes, it’s spelled “Plimoth”! Trust me, I double-, triple- and quadruple-checked! This fun, award-winning activity has students role-play as history detectives who investigate what actually happened on the first Thanksgiving.
For more ideas on History, please follow my Pinterest Board: Social Studies, Election for Kids, Best Historical Fiction for Kids.
English Language
Do you ever guess how a word is pronounced and even if it’s wrong, it’s how you want to say the word forever? I do that. As the designated read-aloud parent, I am still guessing at how some words are pronounced. I will be utilizing Forvo for assistance in the future!
There are other great games to get kids to learn English Language skills.
- Fun Phonics Games
- Learning Games for Kids – Vocabulary
- Grammar Ninja GameThis fun game helps your students learn the different parts of speech! There are three levels of difficulty that can behttps://www.tvokids.com/school-age/games/amazing-spelling-fleas assigned to your students.
- TVOKids: Spelling Fleas GameThis game plays just like a real spelling bee. Students hear the word and get one chance to spell it. They can have the word repeated and can also read a definition.
- ForvoForvo is the world’s largest pronunciation dictionary.
- Vocabulary.com is dubbed one of the “50 Best Websites of 2012” by Time
- Clean Up Your Grammer game. Put nouns vs verbs into the right trash receptacle to clean up the beach.
For more ideas on Reading and Writing, please follow my Pinterest Board: Reading and Writing Fun, Sight Word Fun, and Reluctant Readers.
Keyboarding
Typing skills or keyboarding is a skill that is more important than ever. This game teaches touch typing. I also have a post on the best sites and apps for learning to keyboard.
- Learning Games for Kids – Keyboarding
- Sky Chase – Keyboarding
- BBC Dance Mat Typing
- Fun to Type
- Free Training Tutorial
- Big Brown Bear
- ABCya
- Super Hyper Spider Typer
Sign Language
If your child attends school with a classmate who is learning impaired, learning sign language is a helpful skill that might also be reinforced at school.
Personal Finance Games for Kids
• Bite Club: Save for retirement while running a vampire nightclub.
• FarmBlitz: Manage farm resources to build savings and survive financial emergencies.
• Financial Soccer: Financial Soccer is a fast-paced, multiple-choice question game, testing players’ knowledge of financial management skills as they advance downfield and try to score goals.
• Practical Money Skills, a site that works to help consumers and students learn the essentials of personal finance, offers games, and other educational resources.
• OnGuardOnline offers educational resources and games to teach teens how to keep personal information safe and secure online.
• Budget Challenge, a personal finance simulation tool. Students can learn how to manage a checkbook and maintain a budget, among other skills, using the program.
*Bonus: My 30 favorite game and scenario-based learning programs
Turn-key lessons
• BizWorld: This nonprofit inspires children to be innovative leaders through the teaching of business, entrepreneurship, and finance. (Lessons must be ordered online.)
• EconEdLink: EconEdLink is a leading source of online economic and personal finance lessons and resources for educators, students, and afterschool providers.
• FEFE: Provides more than 25,000 educators nationwide with free, ready-to-teach classroom materials for grades 7-12.
• My Classroom Economy: The program has the same overall objectives for all grades — to instill basic financial responsibility and teach the value of delayed gratification.
• MyMoney.gov: MyMoney.gov is the U.S. government’s website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics of financial education.
• NEFE: The nonprofit national foundation is dedicated to inspiring empowered financial decision-making for individuals and families through every stage of life.
• PwC’s Earn Your Future: The curriculum is composed of easy-to-follow lesson plans accompanied by interactive handouts and dynamic multimedia components. The modules span grades 3-12.
• St. Louis Federal Reserve: Free classroom resources for K-16 educators to teach about money and banking, economics, personal finance, and the Federal Reserve.
• The Griffith Foundation: Provides teachers with a classroom-ready product so teachers can spend less time preparing lesson plans and gathering material and more time teaching.
• VISA’s Practical Money Skills for Life: Educator-developed and educator-approved, the program has reached millions of students across the nation.
My Favorite Children’s Book Blogs
Solitaire as a game to practice counting
p.s. Related posts:
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Science Fun on Pinterest.
To examine any book more closely at Indiebound or Amazon, please click on image of book.
As an Amazon and IndieBound Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
My books:
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
This is such an awesome list!!! 🙂 I was wondering if you could put an image on it so it will be easier to pin to pinterest?
Thank you for your great suggestion Becky. I just created one. I have no idea why I never did before. Maybe because the links were all off my footer but it got so messy that I finally moved it to a “Page.” Somehow, I don’t think “Pages” count as “Posts”. That’s silly, right? I need to add images for my other pages. Thanks for your help!!
Awesome- pinning right now!:) It is such a fantastic list!!!!
Thanks so much Becky!
Excellent list Mia!! And great image – pinned (and we’re already using the geography links because we have a big test on the southeastern states this week 🙂
Hi Jacquie,
Thanks so much for pinning it and I’m glad it helped your kids out for their test!
wonderful! sharing it on my FB page! thx ~mari
Thanks so much Mari!!
Hi,
Chould you guys have a look at my relatively new yet densely packed and informative website and include it in this list. A description for it would be: Revision Universe has worksheets, revision notes, programs, videos and tutorials for Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History and Computing KS3 and GCSE.
Thanks
Arnav
Hi Arnav,
Thanks for the heads up about your site. Sounds great!
Hi,
Does that mean I get a slot on the list above? If so, would you like a reciprocal link on my useful links page?
Hi Arnav,
What is your best game? Let me check it out.
I am truly excited about this list. I had fun playing the games well searching to see if they would be a good fit for my family. Thank You, Pinned It.
Thanks so much Trina. I’m glad you find the games helpful!!
Wow! This is an awesome list – thank you! Also thank you for including Story Snug 🙂
My pleasure Catherine! You have a really great blog and I’m really enjoying it!
Really a great article…. I think educational games can be a very useful tool in teaching any skill to the children. We should play games with them and never say that kids common we are going to study. This is the perfect example of learn with play.
Thanks so much Zeeshan!
Wow free educational Games, this web is so good for me to choose for my kids. My kids like play too much. Thanks for this post!
Hi James,
Glad you like the list! I’ve been collection these for a few years. Everytime I come across a good one, I add it to the list.
Wow! These are awesome! I have used some of these in the past, like learninggamesforkids.com, but some are totally new to me 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Hi Keri,
Glad you like them. I’ve been collecting them for the past few years; especially the ones our teachers assign us to use. The games really work for us and they are all free, which is nice!
Nice sharing Pragmatic Mom, but hope to see some images to have at least a bit idea how the game looks like or some video post from youtube. However, every information was awesome sharing. Lot of Thanks!
Thanks Andkon!
Great list! Thanks for sharing. I’ve used several.
I would encourage you to check out VocabularySpellingCity as well. They have a free & premium site, and free app for K-12 literacy.
Joyfully,
Jackie P
VocabularySpellingCity
Hi Jackie P,
Thanks so much for the heads up on Vocabulary Spelling City! I’ll check it out for a spelling post in the future!
I read your post and thanks for sharing such a useful educational games for kids. Every parent has bothered about the education of their child and they are always searching educational sites, Apps, Books, etc. for better education and I think these 70+ educational games are awesome. I have also got a new educational app for kids, which is numbered puzzle and its really great app where your kids can learn numbers every easily with fun.
Hi Morna,
Thanks for sharing your new app!
Wonderful resources and games! Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much Maysaa!
Thank you for sharing these links! I spent couple of hours having fun with my kid thanks to you!
Hi Jen,
That makes me so happy! I’m glad your kids liked these educational games!
Thanks for the list Pragmatic Mom! I would really love to see the list of games related to Halloween, Christmas or other holidays though. We have big family and lots of kids, I’m sure we could have wonderful time playing some games then.
Great suggestion Cynthia! I’ll try to add some!
Glad to find a person who is working on educational apps/websites for kids. I know some websites where they focus only on educational games for kids. I’d love to share some of them if you allow. But you can take a look one of them personally. Just search “Koikiwi” in your browser and you’ll find it. If you want to know more, feel free to ask me.
Thanks for sharing Sabbir!
Have you ever thought about publishing an ebook or guest authoring on other blogs?
I have a blog centered on the same information you discuss and would really like to
have you share some stories/information. I know my viewers would enjoy your work.
If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an email.