Larry Ferlazzo, Teacher

(Published in the June, 2007 issue of Technology and Learning

Educator's eZine)

FAVORITE EDUCATIONAL GAME SITES

By Larry Ferlazzo

I have my own website that has quite an extensive collection of links for students. It’s also safe to say that link collections are a dime a dozen on the Internet. Those of us who have them are, in many ways, parasites (though well-meaning ones) – using the good work created by others, even if we do give them credit.

Those who create their own online activities, as far as I’m concerned, are in a league of their own. I don’t have a clue how they do it. I would like to share my favorite eight sites that offer original, free, effective, creative, and fun games for students of all ages and in all subjects.

I Know That (http://www.iknowthat.com/com) is the one I like best. It has science, math, language arts, social studies, and arts games. It is primarily aimed towards elementary students and younger, though I’ve found that high schoolers taking geography enjoy and can benefit from the great map games found on the site. English Language Learners of all ages would find this site useful. Many activities have both text and audio. The graphics are exceptional, and the ads are not overwhelming or too obnoxious.

BBC Schools – Games (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/games/) has the typical high-quality activities you can expect from the BBC. The site has games for many subjects, and they are divided into age ranges from four years old to over sixteen. Many obviously have a British flavor to them ranging from spelling to history to the names of subjects themselves (they don’t have “math” – they have “numeracy”) but the games are fun and the vast majority of content has relevancy to U.S. students.

Professor Garfield (http://www.professorgarfield.org/pgf_home.html) is a partnership between the creator of the famous cat (yes, THAT Garfield) and Ball State University. The content covers the usual subject areas, along with career exploration and activities geared particularly to students with learning disabilities. The focus is on Kindergarten to Eighth Grade. I especially like the “Knowledge Box” section of the site, which has activities too numerous to mention divided by grade and subject area.

PBS Kids/Go (http://pbskids.org/go/) is a great place to go for games geared towards pre-school, elementary, and middle-school kids. Games and activities connected to PBS favorites like “Arthur,” “Postcards from Buster,” and “It’s My Life” can all be found here.

Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun (http://www.vocabulary.co.il/) is a great site to help students learn…….vocabulary. There are many games, including word searches, hangman, crossword puzzles, etc. and some also have audio. Any age range student would find this useful, and the creator of this site also has an excellent one specifically targeting SAT words.

Mr. Nussbaum (http://www.mrnussbaum.com/index.html) is a site created by a fourth grade teacher that has many creative and fun games in math, language arts, science and social studies. It’s designed for grade 1 to 8^th.

Scholastic Online (http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/#) is from the company all teachers know. It has online games and activities in many subjects, and, surprising to me at least, to all grade levels including high school.

Fun Brain (http://www.funbrain.com/) comes from Pearson Education. It has reading, grammar, and math games that are creative and fun. Unlike the other sites I have listed, though, it also has a fair amount of games that are not particularly educational in nature, so a teacher would need to be particularly careful when having students working on this site. I have found, however, some of their games worth the added vigilance. This site is for elementary age students.

I’d love to hear about your favorite education game sites if I didn’t include them here!

Larry Ferlazzo teaches at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, CA.

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