Fun Writing Games on Night Zookeeper
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My years spent teaching, in a classroom and at home, have taught me that kids hate learning when they are bored. It is like their brains just turn off when they are asked to complete educational tasks that they find dull and boring. Thankfully learning language arts can be fun. These online writing games from Night Zookeeper are a surefire way to keep kids entertained and learning!
There are quite a few benefits of online writing games:
- Games have a higher retention rate compared to learning through books
- Naturally engaging, increasing the amount of time spent learning
- Can allow competitive kids to compete against other players or against their own previous scores
- Online games are available anytime you have internet
- Games don’t ‘feel’ like learning, making them a great choice for kids who resist traditional schoolwork
Online writing games can be used in quite a few ways:
- As part of a full language arts curriculum (Night Zookeeper can be used as a full language arts curriculum)
- To supplement classroom learning to keep skills sharp
- To improve specific language arts skills
- As screen time that parents can feel good about
- At the beginning of the school day to ‘hook’ kids into being interested in their language arts assignments
Fun Writing Games on Night Zookeeper
This post is sponsored by Night Zookeeper, but all opinions and thoughts are my own. Please know that I am extremely picky about which companies I choose to partner with and only choose companies I fully support and recommend.
Night Zookeeper is a website dedicated entirely to teaching kids age 5 – 12 language arts in a fun manner. The writing lessons, projects, challenges and writing games are designed to feel like a video game. Definitely check it out if you are looking for a fun way to teach language arts!
These writing games can be found under the ‘activities’ tab of the Night Zookeeper dashboard. That is also where kids will find lessons, writing activities, and challenges.
If you would like to try any of these online writing games, be sure to sign up for a free trial! This link will also save you 50% off of an annual membership!
Grammar
Underwater Word Hunt
In this game, kids cruise through the ocean in a submarine searching for verbs. Fish swim by pulling nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Players use the mouse or trackpad to move the submarine so they can catch all of the verb fish.
Writing
Sentence Dash
Sentence Dash is a great way to practice editing skills. The goal of this game is to correctly identify all of the writing errors before any other player.
The types of errors include capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Kids just click on the word with the error as quickly as possible.
Waterfall Word Jumble
Waterfall Word Jumble helps kids put words in the correct order to make a sentence. They play using one of the animal avatars they previously created on Night Zookeeper. The game begins with the animal stranded on one side of a waterfall. Words are mixed into the falling water. Kids click on the words in sentence order. As words are selected they form a bridge for the animal avatar to walk across to find the next waterfall.
Spelling
Volcano Word Hop
In Volcano Word Hop kids choose their animal avatar and the difficulty level before beginning the game. Once the game starts they will see two potential spellings for the same word. They can also hear the word. The student needs to select the correct spelling to move on. If they choose the incorrect spelling their animal slips into the lava. I like that if they choose the misspelled word the correct spelling is shown so they can recognize it in the future.
This would be a great game to play in preparation for standardized testing. My state, North Carolina, requires annual standardized testing with a spelling section. The spelling portion of the test tends to require kids to choose the correct spelling from a list of words.
Word Void Wrecker
Word Void Wrecker reminds me a bit of a mix between Wheel of Fortune and Hang Man. Kids see a word with several letters missing and need to guess the missing letters. They earn points with every correct letter, but the void gains a part for each incorrect letter. The goal is to complete the words before the void is whole. This is a fun way to practice using spelling rules.
Vocabulary
Word Pairs
Students playing this game have the choice of finding synonyms or antonyms. After they have made their choice they see an array of vocabulary words (either synonyms or antonyms, depending on what they chose).
This game works like a game of memory, so they need to pay attention to where the words are located. The goal is to correctly match up each word with its mate before running out of time. Each correct match gives the student points, but each incorrect pairing will cause the student to lose points.
Forest Word Climb
In Forest Word Climb students try to climb as high in a tree as they can. They climb by correctly choosing the synonym for the word in the center of the tree. If they click on the correct word, they climb to the next branch. If they click on the wrong word, the branch falls away. They can choose between easy, medium, and hard levels.
Reading
Word Woods
Kids can choose any of the animals they have created to play this game. They use the space bar to double-tap and make their animal jump. They might want to jump to hit bonus points or to avoid a direct hit by a large spider.
Every few screens there is a rhyming question. A question bubble pops up and gives kids a word. Then three smaller bubbles appear, each containing a word. One word will rhyme with the word in the question bubble. If students select that word then they win points.
Typing
Torch Type
Kids can work on improving their typing skills by playing Torch Type. In this game kids see words fall from the top of the screen. They need to type the words before they hit the ground. The goal is to type as many words as possible each round.
Torch Type will not teach your child how to type but will increase their typing speed, which is a pretty useful skill.
Sign up for a Night Zookeeper free trial today so your child can start playing these fun writing games today!
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