From Painting Elephants to Polar Bear Pets: 10 Original Educational Games for Students Under 10

With iPads and other devices being omnipresent at home and more schools pushing for 1:1 technology, children become digitally savvy from an early age – often more so than parents! With so many captivating or even addictive games out there, parents will come to you looking for guidance. What kind of games is right for their age and provide added learning benefits? Parents and teachers should work together to make sure that student’s digital interactions are safe, fun and contribute to their development. We’ve prepared a handy list of educational iPad games for kids to suggest when questions about recommended apps next pop up.

1. Jumpstart Preschool Magic of Learning

Age: 3-4 years

Skills: math, reading, critical thinking

Price: $2.99

Frankie the Dog takes a child on a magical learning adventure through 15 different educational games.  For example, Bug Catcher focuses on color, shape, and number recognition, and Barnyard Fun teaches kids how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters. The app lives to its promise of entertaining preschoolers and teaching valuable math, reading, and critical thinking skills at the same time.

 2. Lightbot

Age: All ages

Skills: Programming

Price: $2.99

Getting children involved in programming at an early age can open up many doors in their future. Parents’ reviews speak for themselves: “My 8-year-old LOVES this game. So far he has continued to work through each puzzle and progress through the levels without getting bored. This is often his first choice when I allow free access to apps on his Kindle.”

3. Noodle Words

Age: 4-7

Skills: Literacy

Price:$2.99

This app teaches action words and basic iPad skills in a very original way. Instead of flash cards or drills, this app allows the little ones to learn by literally playing with words. The words sparkle, light up, can be stretched across the screen to then snap like a rubber band – playful and stimulating!

4. Habitat the Game

Age: 6+

Skills: Science

Price: Free

In this innovative game, a child will learn about protecting the environment by adopting a polar bear and keeping him healthy by performing good deeds in the real world, for example remembering to turn off the light when leaving the room. Location functionality also allows families to find real-world habitat locations and collect pins in the game for visiting them. A great incentive to encourage families spending quality time together outdoors.

5. Elephant Art! Painting Room

Age: 5 and under

Skills: Drawing, Art

Price: Free / $2.99

Art shouldn’t be an afterthought. Schoolchildren exposed to arts are often more proficient at reading, writing, and math. Studies show that interacting with art can also help connect them to the larger world, improving community cohesion. Next time parents ask for an educational game, it’s a great opportunity to suggest an art game and explain its importance to parents. This app is a guaranteed hit to spark child’s enthusiasm for drawing and creating.

6. Little Writer

Age: 5 and under

Skills: Literacy, motor skills

Price: $0.99

This app helps preschoolers practice their letters and fine motor skills with simple tasks that are fun and cute, but not overstimulating. You can customize everything, including recording your own language and adding your own words. Adding pictures and names of family and friends is a hit with every child!

7. Max & Ruby

Age: 3 to 6

Skills: Maths, Science, Literacy, Language

Price: $0.99

The adorable duo can keep a child entertained and learning, exploring the properties of liquids and the motion of objects.  This app is one of the components of an iLearn With system, which you can recommend to parents who want to get preschoolers and kindergarteners ready for school.

8. Motion Math: Hungry Fish

Age: 6 to 8

Skills: Maths

Price: $2.99

This game can keep a child company as they learn to recognize the numbers and progress to mental addition and subtraction. With over 20 levels to keep them engaged, students will be polishing up on their number skills with smiles on their faces!

Bonus: teachers can get all the levels of this game, plus student progress data, by signing up for an account.

9. Dr. Panda’s Toy Cars

Age: 3+

Skills: Soft skills, community

Price: $2.99

This game puts kids in control of a whole city of vehicles!  Driving around, they will help the citizens with tasks like putting out fires or loading boxes for work, learning about community roles and heroes along the way.

10. Sharing with Duckie Deck

Age: 2-5

Skills: Empathy

Price: $2.99

This game is great to start learning about the importance of sharing early on. Seeing kids in the app cheering when toys are distributed equally promotes empathy and supporting others. Additionally, the parent section includes a collection of ideas for teaching the child about how to share.

Lastly, what to do when parents are concerned about their children’s technology use and excessive screen time in general? One solution you can suggest is OurPact. The app helps parents to decide on and commit to limiting family’s screen time and aid in teaching kids time management. Do you know about other educational iPad games that became a hit among your students? Leave a comment below.