Educational Games

Educational Games
            The website I decided to look into is called ICT Games. It has a bunch of different games for both math and literacy. I found out about this website because of my practicum. My cooperating teacher sometimes will have the students play a game that can be found on ICT Games called Shark Numbers. In the game, the students work with place value. They see a set of blocks on the screen and they have to pick the correct number. If they get it right, a dolphin will jump across the screen. If they get it wrong, a shark will take a bite out of their boat. The kids have so much fun with it, so I decided to look into it a little bit more. As I did, I found ICT Games and saw all the different games that it had for a variety of topics.
            I think that these games are best used as a bit of practice, rather than the initial instruction of the concept that the students need to learn. Some of the students in my cooperating teacher’s classroom have troubles with place value so when they are waiting for the some of the kids to get back from reading groups at the end of the day, she will put Shark Numbers on the Smart Board and have them practice. It seems to be helping them get the practice with place value that they need in order to succeed well enough for the next year.
            If I was teaching place value in my class, I would probably use the Shark Numbers game specifically. From what I’ve seen, it helps the students practice what they need to know about place value.


http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html



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