Video Games! They have come a long way since the days of Pacman and Asteroids, whether we’re talking about graphics, story or even gameplay. However, one thing that has always remained consistent is the aspect of reward. Playing any video game of any genre today, one simple mechanic helps to drive the player forward; being rewarded for your efforts, your patience and your skill. Children and Adults alike are drawn to these types of achievements, from games on the CBeebies app to Candy Crush on your mobile phone. Apply this to a learning environment and we have game-based learning. With so many software applications out there, here is a list of our favourite five for game-based learning for use with interactive touch screens and interactive touch tables in a learning environment.
Learn Hub
Easily create themed activities on your touch screens and touch tables with Learn Hub, a leading web-based application. Accessible from any online browser, up to four students can easily interact and collaborate simultaneously. Collaborative activities are a proven method of learning and engagement for pupils and students, with a side order of fun! Designed for Early Years and Primary school settings, all activities are fully customisable with full teacher control. In addition, teachers can save, print and record student results for assessment.
Add, subtract and multiply – Through drag and drop activities, develop your students’ addition, subtraction and multiplication abilities.
Interactive Clock – Easily teach to convert between analogue and digital clock faces through this interactive clock feature.
Matching – Play a game of pairs through matching words and/or images and encourage memorising patterns in a fun and engaging way.
Number Grid Activity – Drag and drop numbers into their correct position to complete the number grid activity game.
Quiz – Create your own multiple-choice quiz! Upload images to support your questions and challenge your students’ knowledge in your very own fun and interactive quiz!
Painting – Easily paint and edit a set of images. Simply upload the image and off you go!
Spellings – Test your students’ spelling skills by uploading any list of words and clues.
Word Search – Dynamically generate your very own word search by uploading any list of words for students to complete.
Early Years Maths and Early Years English
If you are looking for a series of maths based activities to encourage basic adding, subtracting and multiplication through fun activities, or you are looking for a series of literacy-based activities, from phonics and sounds to letter forming, then Early Years Maths and Early Years English is the right software for you. Although two separate bits of software, combining both gives you the perfect package in Early Years learning with hundreds of built-in learning activities. Perfectly designed to be used as an interactive set of learning games, use this Early Years software on your interactive touch screen and/or your interactive touch table.
Kidlo Land
Kidlo Land is an award-winning learning platform for children (0 – 8 years) with over three thousand educational activities to choose from. Discover learning through songs, games, stories, nursery rhymes, early years’ activities, maths reading, writing, coding and more. Kidlo Land is ad-free and is built from the ground up with learning and fun in mind.
- Learn to read with stories.
- Practice and enhance maths skills.
- Build logical skills with coding.
- Sing along with nursery rhymes.
- Learn with educational songs.
- Play learning games and puzzles.
- Age-appropriate content.
- Accessible on multiple devices.
- Boost confidence and develop essential skills.
Darts Maths
Darts Maths is an interactive educational software, which helps children to acquire basic mathematical knowledge and helps to develop their abilities through a digital dartboard.
The aim of this program is to encourage interactive learning in a practical and stress-free educational environment. Applicable to use with children in different stages of development; it does not differentiate, provides equal opportunities and focuses on unique and individual improvement. Students do not experience failure, as the program excludes evaluation. Problems and tasks can be re-done and difficulty levels are variable, which provides new challenges consecutively for students.
Yellow Door
Developed alongside the curriculum, the Yellow Door range of apps help children to achieve their early learning goals through independent and collaborative play. Guided by hints and feedback, players are challenged, rewarded and motivated through their ongoing learning. Young children are growing up in a technologically rich world and Yellow Door is designed to help them be more confident users of digital resources from the start.
Interactive and Read-along stories: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, The Billy Goats Gruff, The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs.
Listening: Rhymes, Letters and Sounds.
Early Writing: Pre-writing, letter formation and number formation.
Early Literacy: I-Spy Initial Sounds, Initial Sound Bubbles, Find the Rhyme, Letter Recognition.
Early Phonics: Final Sounds Fish, CVC Word Builder, Match and Catch Middle Sound.
Our thoughts…
Therefore, as gaming has become so intrinsic to a rewards system, it is the ideal fit in today’s learning environment. Seeing one’s own progression and achievement as live feedback is as motivating as it is engaging. Being technological wizards and gaming aficionados outside of the classroom, children of all ages are right in their element when learning through gaming during lessons. If you would like see how game-based learning could benefit your teaching, please speak with one of our education specialists to arrange an on-site and hands-on demonstration at your school.