Last Updated on August 27, 2025 by Tracey Kmosko
If you’re looking for ways to keep learning lively, flexible, and engaging, one of the best ways to do that is with educational games.
Games can do double duty. They’re fun for kids, but they can also reinforce important skills like math facts, reading comprehension, and logical thinking. That means you can build in review and practice without (hopefully) turning learning time into a battle.
Review activities aren’t just for summer or breaks. They work great:
- At the start of a new school year as a refresher before diving into new material.
- During the year as a way to strengthen tricky skills without more worksheets.
- On lighter school days when you still want purposeful learning going on.
With the right approach, review becomes something parents and kids actually look forward to.
Mini Units with Game–Book–Activity Bundles
Educational games are effective on their own, but pairing them with a book and hands-on activity creates a mini learning experience that can hit multiple learning styles. In each bundle below, you’ll find:
- A game that builds academic skills
- A book that reinforces the same theme or concept
- A simple activity (free and hands-on) to bring it all together
Check out this clickable chart of highly rated games, matched books, and activity ideas.
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| Game | Grade | Skills Practiced | Learning Benefits | Related Book | Free Hands-On Activity |
| Sum Swamp | 1 – 3 | addition; subtraction | fun, fast-paced adventure-themed game builds early math fluency | The Grapes of Math playful riddles and illustrations encourage creative math thinking | Tape a number line on the floor; jump out math problems. |
| Prime Climb | 3 and up | multiplication; division; prime numbers | visually engaging and excellent for developing number sense and fluency | The Number Devil math adventure explores number patterns and concepts | Prime Factorization Math Monsters Coloring Sheet |
| Money Bags | K – 5 | counting coins and bills; money skills | real-world math practice through game play | Lemonade in Winter kids running a lemonade stand with real money lessons | Run a pretend store or lemonade stand to practice making change. |
| Zingo Sight Words | PreK – 2 | sight word recognition | bingo-style game great for early readers | Bob Books: SIght Words simple, decodable readers that use many Zingo sight words | Build sight words with magnetic letters or letter tiles. |
| Qwirkle | from K | color/shape recognition; strategy; logic | promotes pattern recognition and planning with simple rules | Mouse Shapes mice using shapes to create pictures helps reinforce visual thinking | Build patterns or designs with colored paper or blocks. |
| Outfoxed | K – 3 | deductive reasoning; cooperation; logic | cooperative mystery game that builds logic and teamwork | Detective Gordon: The First Case reinforces investigation and clue-finding, like the teamwork in Outfoxed | Solve some free math mysteries. |
| Ticket to Ride | 2 – 8 | geography; planning; critical thinking | U.S. and world geography | Locomotive brings the history and excitement of train travel to life | locomotive coloring sheets and paper models |
| Bananagrams | from 2nd | spelling; vocabulary; word formation | boosts literacy and quick thinking with fast-paced word play | The Boy Who Loved Words celebrates word discovery and vocabulary | Many hands-on activities for building words |
| Rat A Tat Cat | 1 – 5 | memory; addition; probability | encourages mental math and strategic thinking with simple rules | Math Curse humorous story shows how math pops up everywhere | Subtraction Memory Match |
| Math Dice Jr. | K – 3 | addition; subtraction; mental math | quick, portable math game perfect for reinforcing basic operations | One Hundred Hungry Ants playful story about dividing ants into groups supports addition and subtraction | a variety of dice games with printable game boards |
Reviewing doesn’t have to be all drilling and worksheets. Try a mix of games, books, and activities for keeping skills sharp anytime of year.
