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Kids constantly want to know how things work and why rules exist. Critical thinking games help answer all their questions in ELA, math, social studies, science, and other subject areas. Nearly any game can be leveled for your elementary learners by adding pictures, prompts, or analysis tasks.
Level up language skills with ELA critical thinking games
Critical thinking activities for kids help students dig deeper into stories, strengthen reading comprehension, and tackle research with curiosity while aligning to CCSS reading, writing, and research standards. Younger learners can stay engaged with movement-based activities like sentence sorting or acting out text clues, while older students benefit from discussion challenges and strategy games. Woven into your ELA block, these games turn reading, writing, and research into active, standards-based experiences students love.
- Engineer a Word Rule: Pair students and have them create a list of words that follow a hidden rule, such as a word type or spelling pattern. Have another team try to identify the rule and generate new words that follow it. Play until all rules have been identified.
- Predict the Missing Word: Create a worksheet with several missing words in sentences. Group students and have them use the context of a sentence to suggest what the missing word might be and explain their reasoning. The first to finish wins.
- Design the Perfect Clue: Teams create challenging but clear clues for vocabulary words and have others try to guess the words for points. The highest points win.
- Create a Word Trap: Partner students and have them design three multiple-choice word options that nearly fit a sentence and one correct option. Each pair tries the word traps to see who gets the most correct for points. However, pairs can try to argue their choice if they got it wrong to redeem points.
- Rescue the Misused Word: In timed groups, students must identify the word used incorrectly in a sentence and replace it with a better choice.
Animal Inferencing Games | Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking for Kids
By Educating Abroad
Grades: K-3rd
Subjects: Vocabulary, Science
Standards: CCSS SL.K.2, K.3; SL.1.2
This no-prep, digital resource includes 10 whole-class games perfect for a brain break, a Fun Friday activity, or a classroom reward. Each game is designed to help students sharpen their critical thinking, reasoning, and listening skills as they work together to solve a mystery. The games feature real photos and are equitable for all learners.
Twistle- Critical Thinking Word Game by Time Saving Tools
By Time Saving Tools
Grades: 3rd-6th
Twistle is a twist on a classic word game where students will be challenged to complete word puzzles with a twist. Each page asks students to complete a word puzzle in a different way. The PDF includes 18 pages of word fun.
Fact and Opinion “I Have, Who Has?” Game – Print & Digital | Critical Thinking
By Deb Hanson
Grades: 3rd-5th
Subjects: Literature, Reading
Help your students sharpen their critical thinking and reading comprehension skills with this engaging Fact and Opinion “I Have, Who Has?” game! This cooperative classroom activity challenges students to identify and distinguish between factual statements and opinions across a variety of high-interest topics. With 28 interactive cards, students must listen carefully, analyze content, and determine whether they have the correct fact or opinion to keep the game going.
Crack the math code with logic-building games
Board and dice games like Yahtzee, Qwirkle, Blokus, and Proof! are powerful tools for building logic, number sense, and probability. If you don’t have those on hand, a blank board, dice, and cards work just as well. Use critical-thinking games during centers, small-group instruction, intervention, or review days to boost engagement while reinforcing key math skills.
- Have a Fraction War: Players flip two cards to create a fraction and decide how to position the cards to make the lowest possible fraction. Opponents may challenge the fraction, requiring proof that it is the lowest.
- Battle with Equations: Paired students flip two to four number cards and use strategic decision-making to create an equation with the largest possible sum to win the round.
- Verify the Truth: Give students several cards with good and bad operations, and teams must classify operations as true, partially true, or false. They must correctly classify all the problems to win.
- Prove to Move: On a game board, players roll a die and flip operation cards. They must solve or prove the operation false to move forward on the board toward the winner’s circle.
Make 24 – Critical Thinking Arithmetic Math Game!
By Ryan B’s Classroom
Grades: 2nd-8th
Subjects: Arithmetic, Basic Operations, Mental Math
Standards: CCSS 2.NBT.B.9; 2.OA.B.2, 3.OA.B.5
The 24 game is a great math game for students to work on their arithmetic and basic math operations skills. Each “round” will start with one card, and on each card, there are 4 numbers. Players must use each number only once to create an equation that equals 24!
Think like a historian with social studies strategy games
Step into the shoes of explorers, leaders, and everyday people from the past with critical thinking games for kids. Younger students can play with visuals and guided choices, while older learners tackle complex decisions and evidence-based reasoning. Add movement, like placing scenarios around the room, analyzing classroom maps, or acting out events, to boost engagement.
- Evaluate the Evidence: Teams must evaluate several sources to support a claim and rank them strongest to weakest before time runs out.
- Decide the Verdict: Provide elementary students with a famous claim and have them analyze historical documents to try to reach a verdict. The strongest arguments take the win.
- Trace the Impact: Separate students into teams and give them a geographical area and an event, such as a drought. They must use their systems thinking to hypothesize the effect it will have on the area’s society and economy, and how it could be fixed before time runs out.
- Balance the Power: Give teams a scenario, and they must decide which level of government should act and why. The team with the strongest reasoning wins.
Logic Puzzles Worksheets Brain Teaser Activities Critical Thinking Games States
By Catch My Products
Grades: 4th-6th
Subjects: U.S. History
Standards: CCSS CCRA.R.1; CCRA.W.7, CCRA.W.10
This 22-page bundle includes 12 logic puzzles and two Sudoku puzzles. Topics cover everything from celebrities and family dogs to Pacific regions, and all puzzles have an answer key.
Investigate the world with science-based critical thinking activities
Short, purposeful critical thinking games can turn everyday science time into meaningful opportunities for reasoning and discovery. Games can be differentiated for early or late elementary students by going from basic observing and predicting to analyzing data and defending conclusions with evidence. These NGSS-aligned games fit seamlessly into the science block as a morning “wake-up” challenge, a low-prep transition from math to science, or a brain-boosting review at the end of a lesson.
- Defend the Claim: Split the class into two teams and have them race to figure out whether a simple claim is supported by evidence.
- Fix the Problem: On a game board, students advance by solving simple science scenario cards, like what happens if you forget to water a plant for a week. Add movement for younger kids by making the classroom the gameboard.
- Decide If It’s Real or Not: Split the class into two teams, give each team a science scenario, situation, or problem. They must decide together if it’s real or not in 60 seconds or less.
Spark creative reasoning with artful thinking
Art class becomes a thinking playground when students solve, create, and reflect through critical thinking games. Even simple assignments can be turned into games. For example, students might redesign an object in multiple ways or compete to spot differences in artworks. Younger learners can explore with guided prompts and hands-on materials, while older elementary students analyze techniques and justify their artistic choices.
- Create the Design: Pair students and give them nontraditional supplies to create a mask within a specific timeframe. Best of show wins.
- Fix the Piece: Teams of students are tasked with fixing an unbalanced piece of art to become the top artists.
- Invent a New Art Technique: Students must work in pairs to invent a new art technique and create a piece with it. The winner is the first to finish their masterpiece.
- Change the Rules: Everyone starts painting a sun scene together, but then the teacher changes the picture. Students need to figure out how to change their picture without starting over before the clock runs out.
Click your way to deeper thinking
Online games make critical thinking engaging and interactive for students. Games include brain teasers, logic puzzles, and problem-solving challenges that help students reason and reflect while practicing core skills. Knowing how to teach critical thinking is easy when you add a little online fun to the mix.
- ABCya: Includes brain teasers and logic interactive online games for grades K-6th that work to build critical thinking, problem-solving, and metacognition.
- IXL Language Arts Games: Features online ELA games for grades PreK-5th to build reading comprehension and research skills.
- IXL Math Games: Offers interactive online games for grades PreK-5th that challenge students to think critically, solve problems, and apply math reasoning.
Discover critical thinking games on TPT
Turn everyday games into logic challenges and watch elementary students stretch their critical thinking. Ready-made games from TPT Teacher-Authors take the work out of problem-solving and make thinking feel like play. Help students stretch those metacognition muscles by enjoying more elementary games for critical thinking. Skip the prep and print your way to fun with engaging games designed to make critical thinking irresistible!