Printable Board Games for Children

Colors and Shapes

• Play this game, from Tools for Educators, with young children to help them learn the names of colors and shapes. Customize the board by placing specific shapes and colors on it, filling the entire board or only some spaces. Have kids state the name of any color or shape they land on, or move back a space.

Cross the River

• In this game, from the Education web site, players try to be the first to move their Mr. Frog across the river. Each stepping stone counts as one space. Kids simply roll the dice and move their pieces across, and then color the picture when they're finished.

Math Board Game

• In this game from Dr. Mike's Math Games for Kids, players move their pieces from the center of the board to the corners by solving math problems. A player draws four cards with numbers and operations symbols on them, and uses them to create a formula with a result that equals one of the cards his piece is positioned beside, as the website describes. See Math Sphere for more math board games.

Verbs

• Tools for Educators offers games that help kids to practice their knowledge of verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and other parts of speech. You select pictures that portray different actions on the online board game generator, and then print the game. ESL students will benefit from these games, as will young native speakers of English.

Crocodile

• This game, from ESL Games World, is extremely versatile, as the web site says. You can create your own rules, since the board is formatted as a grid, and pieces can thus move in any direction your rules allow. As players move across the board, they use the words in the spaces they land on in sentences, as described.

Tips

• Use coins for your game pieces, or borrow the pieces from another board game. Use a gluestick or tape to fix the game to a piece of cardboard if you want to use it in the future or need to create a hard surface.