12 Best Free Online Educational Games

Educational games are games that are used to improve teaching and learning. This article explores the best free online educational games to enhance traditional education methods and teach additional skills to students and kids.

I strongly believe learning shouldn’t be monotonous. As a university student, I often get extremely burned out from studying that I start to feel like if I didn’t get my whole body straightened out on a bed the next minute, I might wake up in a hospital.

But then, the moment I pick up my phone to either play a game or watch videos on Tiktok, all those feelings disappear in a flash. Why is this?

Teachers and parents have learned to incorporate games in the teaching and learning process for a variety of reasons. Research has shown that some children learn better through educational games and game-based learnings. I can tell you how this is true.

I have an almost 2-year-old nephew who hasn’t learned to speak yet. Last September, he was enrolled in a school just so we could get some time to rest and do other stuff in the house before he comes back and starts throwing his signature tantrums.

At school, he learns numbers and poems. At home, he watches Cocomelon videos. What I have observed from these, however, is that he picks up quickly from Cocomelon more than he does from school. Cocomelon videos keep children engaged and entertained while educating them on things that they are most likely not going to learn in classrooms.

Bringing it back, educational games are created to serve this very purpose. To improve the learning process through games that assess the participant’s brain by helping them think outside the box.

Educational games are often logical, and they help kids and students build their problem-solving, critical thinking, rule-following, and strategic thinking skills. These skills prepare them for real-life situations.

As a parent, making educational games available to your kids will not have negative effects on their learning. It would, in fact, help them learn better. These games are designed to improve learning in any subject. If your kid is struggling with math, introducing games that are based on mathematics would definitely do them good by helping them understand some concepts through stories and tasks.

You should get started with the free online educational games listed on this post as they have been carefully picked for this very purpose.

What are Educational Games?

Educational games are games designed often with educational goals in mind. They are used by students to improve their soft skills, and also used by parents and instructors to teach kids at home and in classrooms.

Some instructors have made game-based learning a routine in classrooms. They are leveraging children’s interest in technology to teach them skills that will be beneficial to them.

Educational games have been made easily accessible to anyone online. You won’t have to stick to one game in an app or even pay money to play them. With free online educational games, you or your kid will have free access to a massive collection of different kinds of educational games all on one website.

Benefits of Free Online Educational Games

Free online educational games have numerous benefits. They are one of the best methods that can be used to learn valuables skills that are highly sought-after in the corporate world. Let’s explore some of their benefits.

Student Engagement: Let’s be honest, some subjects can get really boring that you cannot help but doze off. It doesn’t really matter how pumped the teacher is, if the student is not flowing with the topic, they are most likely going to get bored and lose interest. Games are often significantly more effective in promoting student involvement in the lesson. The drive to win keeps them engaged throughout the session.

It Helps Kids Who Struggle with Attention Disorders: Free online educational games can help children who struggle to pay attention or focus. Introducing these games to such children will help them practice how to stay focused and eventually become good at it.

Better Retention: Free online educational games provide a hands-on approach to learning. Students are not just memorizing new concepts, they are trying them out. Experiential learning makes it easier to retain information such as the methods that have been used while these playing games.

It Improves Problem-Solving & Strategic Thinking: To succeed in games, one has to be smart and fast. free online educational games require participants to think and act quickly. This builds their strategic thinking and problem-solving skills as everyone is striving to come up with tactics to earn higher points and win their opponents.

12 Best Free Online Educational Games

  1. Dino Bones: Using Figurative Language in Sentences
  2. Capital Penguin
  3. Candy Typing
  4. Sarah & Duck Memory Game
  5. Skill Games
  6. LawCraft
  7. Two-Digit Subtraction with Borrowing Mountain Game
  8. Coconut Vowels
  9. Counting Shamrocks Memory
  10. Alien Addition
  11. Convene the Council
  12. Short A Photoshoot 2

1. Dino Bones: Using Figurative Language in Sentences

The first game on free online educational games is Dino Bones, a fifth-grade grammar game. In this game, players will read and write sentence prompts and then choose which word best completes the phrase. This is a really fun way to learn and master Figurative Language like it were a piece of cake.

One exciting thing about it is that it can boost children’s language and vocabulary knowledge as they familiarise themselves with figurative language techniques and language.

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2. Capital Penguin

Capital Penguin is a geography game that provides practice in learning states and their capital cities. The target capital appears under the penguin. The student must jump to the matching state, in the form of an iceberg, that floats toward the penguin.

This game is suitable for kids in grades 3, 4, and 5. On the game dashboard, players will be able to see other players from different countries across the world who have made the top scores for the day.

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3. Candy Typing

The next game on free online educational games is Candy Typing. This game offers a really fun way to learn how to type on keyboards with much ease.

At the beginning of the game, the student will choose the level they want to play in. Each candy has a number, letter, or a special character appearing on it. players collect the candies by pressing the key on the keyboard as fast as they can until they have collected up to 25 candies which complete a level. There are bombs that players are to avoid, this makes the game both challenging and interesting.

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4. Sarah & Duck Memory Game

Another game on free online educational games is this memory game by Cbeebies. This game is designed to test players’ retentivity as they try to match elements behind closed windows.

The player starts by tapping on a window so that it flips around and reveals what is hidden behind it.  Then the player will have to find a match by flipping other windows. This game is a really nice way for kids to exercise their memory and improve their retentivity.

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5. Skill Games

Kids World Fun is a hub of free online educational games in numerous categories. Kids learn strategic and logical thinking by playing these free skill games. This collection of free skill games for kids is presented with very colorful graphics, interesting subject matter such as animals, colors, sports, and vehicles, and an easy-to-use interface that will not pose any difficulty for children.

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6. LawCraft

The next game on free online educational games is LawCraft by iCivics. This game teaches students about the different branches of power in government and how bills become law.

In LawCraft, players select a district to represent in the House of Representatives. They will then review letters from constituents, dig into survey data, and select an issue that is important to them and the people that live in their district. They then take that issue to the House and start crafting their bill as they jump into the law-making process.

This game is suitable for teens.

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7. Two-Digit Subtraction with Borrowing Mountain Game

Another game on free online educational games is this two-digit subtraction with borrowing game that helps third graders scale subtraction. A new and inventive way to practice two-digit subtraction and regrouping online, kids can solve equations and help CuzCuz bust through the mountainside, using rocks to represent the borrowed numbers.

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8. Coconut Vowels

Another word game on free online educational games is Coconut Vowels, a creative beach game that teaches kids in grades 3, 4, and 5 important skills like spelling and concentration to name a few.

Coconut Vowels is a language arts game that provides practice in spelling. Coconuts with incomplete words fall to the beach, and the student must match missing double vowels to the correct incomplete coconut.

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9. Counting Shamrocks Memory

In this free online math game, kids practice their counting skills in a very fun and entertaining way. They find the matching cards by counting up the shamrocks shown and finding the cards that show the same number.

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10. Alien Addition

Another math game on free online educational games is Alien Addition a game that aims to teach kids in grades 1, 2, and 3 to demonstrate fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.

Alien Addition is a math game that helps students with learning addition using an alien invasion theme. Invading spaceships with additional problems move down from the top of the screen toward a laser cannon on a platform at the bottom.

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11. Convene the Council

Another game on free online educational games is Convene the Council. Step inside the White House Situation Room, as you take on the role of president of the United States and make foreign policy decisions with the support of your National Security Council.

In Convene the Council, you will:

  • Address international crises through strategic action
  • Engage with members of your National Security Council
  • Weigh the pros and cons of various policy options
  • Delegate action to appropriate government agencies and departments
  • Work to improve core metrics of U.S. prosperity, values, security, and world health.

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12. Short A Photoshoot 2

Officer Ice Cream is enlisting your first graders in a photographic mission to locate all of the images in a scene that represents short A words. With each correct photo taken, students are one step closer to completing this unique activity that looks at how letters affect the pronunciation of real-world objects around us.

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How to Find Educational Games Online

Educational games are pretty much the easiest things to find online. There are tons of websites that are dedicated to developing, designing, and uploading games online. When you search for the games you want to play, several search results are going to come up and you can choose any game of your choice.

Here are a few websites you might want to check out for free online educational games.

  1. PBS Kids Games
  2. National Geographic Kids
  3. FunBrain
  4. Kids World Fun
  5. Happy Clicks
  6. Education.com
  7. Primary Games
  8. Turtle Diary
  9. Cbeebies
  10. ABCYa.com
  11. BBC Schools
  12. ICivics
  13. Airport Manager
  14. Arcademics
  15. Common Sense Media

Free Online Educational Games – FAQs

Are free online educational games ad-free?

Unfortunately, you can hardly find any free online educational game that you can play without ads popping up here and there. But not to worry, the ads are not that disturbing. You can just immerse yourself in your games and keep the ads aired!

Can I download free online educational games?

These games are called free online educational games because you get to play them online for free instead of having to download or pay for them. So no, you cannot download these games on your phone or laptop. But, in some rare cases, the game providers will have app versions of their online games. This is up to you to find out then.

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