When you're trying to improve your classroom engagement, sometimes it pays to gamify the learning environment. 

Medical studies show that brain games are proven to enhance your cognition, sharpen your thinking skills, and improve your short-term memory. By making these games a regular part of your classroom, not only will you enjoy an excited classroom, but loads of benefits for your students as well! 

Check out a quick guide on how playing can build classroom engagement (and so much more). 

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1. Classroom play breeds a healthy sense of competition

Competition is a great thing when you want your students to learn. It is a natural way for them to rise to the occasion and produce their best work. And trust us, we’re not talking about angry competition — this is the fun kind! When your classroom becomes a place of consistent, friendly competition, you can count on them always bringing their best selves to school. 

This can lead to them testing higher and getting the most from every session. 

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2. Playing games provides ample opportunity to build important skills

Games bring skills to the forefront. When you give your students the chance to improve these skills and put them to the test, you can measure how they're progressing. 

The improvements that your students get when becoming competitive during a game can carry over into everything from setting their schedules and building positive study habits. It takes a lot of the seriousness out of school so that they feel motivated and inspired to improve their skill set, rather than having it feel more like a chore. 

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3. Engagement will grow, which leads to the best learning environment 

Engagement is one of the most important things to have in your classroom. Adding play to the learning environment will create engagement like nothing else. 

Building classroom engagement leads to improvements in critical thinking skills and other important tools that will help your students for the rest of their lives. It helps some of your quieter students to find their way and gives everyone an opportunity to shine and participate. 

This way, students have more of a chance to find out what they're good at and explore a variety of interests!

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4. It gives you the opportunity to take your learning outside of the classroom

When you add play to your learning environment, it gives you the chance to get out of the typical indoor classroom setting. Try using outdoor time to your advantage, or even plan field trips that let you take the game to a completely different environment!

This variety deepens the impression that learning starts in the classroom but is used effectively out in the world. Your students will be able to picture ways they can use their education to explore exciting career paths. 

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Add games to your classroom environment!

When you'd like to build your classroom engagement, adding play can work for you more than you know. Playing and learning go hand in hand, and you can get the most of it when you strategically add games to the mix. You can even try some outdoor educational games if the weather is nice!

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