The Best Games to Engage Students on Zoom

Posted by Erica Warren on May 02, 2021

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog entitled, How to Use Zoom in 2020 for Video Tutoring, but this week, I wanted to share with you five, fun, educational games I created for my students that you can play while conducting lessons or tutoring online with Zoom!

What are Five, Fun, Free Learning Games for Zoom Sessions?

Here are some fun, educational games I created to be played with the Zoom group chatbox.

Category Race: One person comes up with a category such as Superheros. A timer is set for 1 to 2 minutes. Players type in as many superheroes as they can in the chatbox, while hitting the return or enter key after each one. The first one to type the superhero's name is the only one that gets the credit, so players have to make sure to read what others are typing, while they are typing themselves! When the timer goes off the player with the most answers wins.
Inference Detective: One player (the leader) has to think of a person, place or thing. They then write one clue and the other players (the detectives) have one guess each to infer the answer and write it in the chatbox. The leader keeps writing clues (up to three times) until a player infers the correct answer. If a detective gets it, they earn a point. If no one guesses the correct answer after three rounds of questions, the leader gets the point. After ten rounds, the player with the most points wins.
I Met the Most Unusual Creature! This game allows players to use descriptive writing in the chatbox to describe the most unusual creature. After writing 10 descriptive sentences, all the players get to draw the creature and share it with the group.

Oh no! Yes! Oops! Whoa! Yuck! One player starts a story with a single sentence to define the setting and characters. Then players take turns using an interjection that is defined by a spinner: Oh no, Yes, Oops, Whoa, and Yuck. I like to use an online spinner: CLICK HERE. You can also add your own interjections! The spinner is spun for each player, and they must begin their sentence with that interjection and then type their sentence into the chatbox. Players continue the story and taking turns writing sentences until the story is finished.
Draw My Words: All the players make a drawing out of no more than two to six simple shapes. They keep this drawing hidden from the other players. The shapes can be any size or color. In addition, they can be a solid color or just an outline. Finally, the shapes can be situated anywhere on a piece of paper. When the drawings are finished, each player types a very detailed description of their drawing, so that the other players can recreate the drawings. They should consider the orientation of the piece of paper, the sizes, the locations of the shapes on the paper, the distance the shapes are from one another, and whether they are colored in or not. When everyone has created a drawing from the written descriptions, all the players compare their drawings and discuss how they can make their descriptions better and how they can be more attentive to the written details.

Ready-Made Games and Activities:

If you want to use ready-made games and activities on your Zoom calls, you may want to check out o these publications! They can all be used by either sharing your screen and using the annotations tool, utilizing the chatbox, or discussing the content. For more details about this, check out, How to Use Zoom in 2020 for Video Tutoring.

Now, more than ever, it is important that we make the learning process fun for students. I hope you found this blog helpful!

Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren

Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.