good critical thinking games

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Together with neuroscientists, our team transforms science based exercises into fun and challenging games for the brain!

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Ten minutes a day is all it takes to keep your brain in shape, just like sports strengthens your body!

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Improve your day-to-day cognitive skills like facial recognition, concentration, math, short-term memory and much more!

Brain training games for all cognitive skills

Your brain has an enormous range of abilities, which can be divided in five major cognitive skills. Our brain games challenge you to exercise these skills

All brain games are based on trusted psychological tasks and tests. So use our free brain games to improve your memory, attention, thinking speed, perception and logical reasoning!

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Nice probably the best free brain games that i've tried, i really noticed the difference since i started doing online brain training, i wanted to find games to improve concentration and found them in braingymmer, fair amount of brain games for adults that work on my phone as well, pretty good brain games for adults, 'i like the brain training exercises, it is becoming easier for me to remember names and places etc.', what people often ask us, what is brain training.

Brain training, is the usage of digital exercises, also called brain games. Those exercises are used to stimulate mental activities with the purpose of improving your cognitive abilities.

Do brain games really work?

Brain games are a very new science, and many researchers are still discovering the effects. While tens of millions of people world wide are using brain games, scientific results are still very much in the process of being discovered. Currently we support a variety of international universities in their studies.

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Games for Building Critical-Thinking Skills

Students love opportunities to sink their teeth into problems that don't have clear answers, or to tackle tough challenges that test their deduction skills and knowledge. It's often out of this challenging murkiness that new perspectives and ideas emerge. Treat your students to these terrific, fun critical thinking games and watch how they develop thinking skills and more complex understandings of the world. On this list are puzzle games that help students solve problems and think ahead, story-based games that help students understand and unpack local and global issues, and strategy games that get students to manage time and resources.

Minecraft: Education Edition

Stellar collaboration tools, controls make Minecraft classroom-ready

Bottom Line : An excellent tool to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking is now more accessible than ever to teachers.

Kahoot! DragonBox Learn Chess

Gentle chess puzzle game ideal for young newbies

Bottom Line : For kids who are new to chess but want to learn how to play, this fun intro to the game provides a well-done tutorial combined with a light overarching storyline.

Crayon Physics Deluxe

Influential physics game is still a draw

Bottom Line : Instantly engaging and super accessible to learners of many ages and abilities, Crayon Physics Deluxe fuses conceptual science learning with a brand of playful problem solving that demands creativity.

Contraption Maker

Solve problems, puzzles, brain teasers while creating wacky machines

Bottom Line : Hands-on problem-solving leads to great fun and independent learning with the right curricular wraparound to connect what kids are doing with what they need to know.

Classic logic puzzler gets a beautiful new look

Bottom Line : Promote powerful thinking skills, resilience, and decision-making through purely fun gameplay that will keep students begging for more.

Spiraling sandbox of adventure and creation gets kids to dig deep

Bottom Line : An irresistible and seemingly limitless incubator for 21st century skills that, with a little guidance, can chart new courses for learning.

WordWhile: Casual Literary Fun

Clever fill-in-the-blank game playfully promotes literature

Bottom Line : A different spin on reading the classics can engage students in the short term, but teachers should find ways to extend learning.

Little Alchemy 2

Flex alchemical muscles in amusing, discovery-based puzzler

Bottom Line : This amusing puzzle game encourages creativity, perseverance, and systems thinking, and with creative integration it can build interest in math, science, history, and literature.

Addicting gameplay jazzes up geography

Bottom Line : Game-based platform can get kids interested in world geography and expose them to different cultures on a surface level.

Slick ethics game teaches students to make tough decisions

Bottom Line : This versatile game that can teach ethics, argumentation, and civics is light on interactivity but will come alive through discussion.

Scribblenauts Remix

Vocab-building word puzzles inspire creative problem-solving

Bottom Line : Wide-open problem solving builds creativity, vocabulary, and spelling skills, but controls can be tricky.

Tyto Online

Ambitious science role-playing game has bright future

Bottom Line : Diverse characters, immersive experiences, and useful teacher tools make this life science RPG worth checking out.

Beats Empire

Music producing game balances fun with critical thinking and planning

Bottom Line : Students will have a blast with the music production and band-managing theme that carries with it some useful lessons in 21st century skills.

Refinement of strategy game formula supports historical exploration

Bottom Line : Like any consumer-oriented game, this experience will absorb and delight students far more than "educational" games, but it'll require open-minded and creative teaching.

An avant-garde journey of group dynamics sparks discussion

Bottom Line : An unusual app that will confuse and entertain classrooms, generating discussion on a number of societal and philosophical topics.

Mars Horizon

Authentic space agency sim focuses on logistics, planning

Bottom Line : This sim is backed by major space agencies, so it's a neat and trustworthy way to learn about the challenges of past and future space exploration.

NewsFeed Defenders

Social media simulation builds news literacy skills

Bottom Line : This is a great tool to kick off critical discussions about news and social media.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Brilliant, charming puzzler challenges kids' ELA and math skills

Bottom Line : It's on Nintendo DS so it's not easy to weave into a classroom, but it's worth it, bridging ELA and math in complex puzzles guaranteed to absorb students.

The Pack - NYSCI

Deceptively gentle coding game really packs a problem-solving punch

Bottom Line : This gorgeous, immersive programming game encourages novel solutions.

Think Like Churchill

Stunning visuals, thoughtful feedback bring critical decision points to life

Bottom Line : An excellent tool for studying the events and ethics that guide pivotal moments in history.

7 Billion Humans

Amusing puzzler challenges kids, teaches programming principles

Bottom Line : This high-quality puzzle game is a fun way for students to learn effective and efficient programming skills.

BBC iReporter

Spot real stories, dodge fake news in cheeky media literacy sim

Bottom Line : A refreshingly modern way for students to explore how to filter and interpret info and media during breaking news events.

Modern, minimalist fake news game has players be the villains

Bottom Line : Quick, fun, and to the point, this game gets at the social mechanics behind viral falsehoods.

Radio General

WWII game has layers of learning, novel voice-based controls

Bottom Line : This is a refreshingly new approach to a WWII game that offers students a more accurate simulation of battlefield chaos.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

Best entry in classic strategy series might not be best for classrooms

Bottom Line : As with all games in this series, Civilization VI is a great learning experience with the right support, but older, cheaper versions may be more practical for classrooms.

Provocative, first-person look at poverty builds empathy

Bottom Line : It'll need some scaffolding, but for students ready for the subject matter it's a great -- if sobering -- way to illustrate to students the daily realities and struggles of poverty in America.

Surviving Mars

Colonizing Mars is in our future, but why wait?

Bottom Line : Lots of potential and perhaps much better in a year or so of updates; use this in a class about space exploration and the harsh realities of colonization.

Political Animals

Charming political campaign sim mixes data analysis and civics

Bottom Line : It's a highly entertaining and surprisingly deep way to help students see the strategy -- as well as ethical choices -- involved in elections.

Papers, Please

Mature immigration game forces tough ethical choices

Bottom Line : It's a provocative simulation about ethics and immigration that could spark debate but might be tough to implement.

Parable of the Polygons

Dynamic interactive helps classrooms explore topics of bias, diversity

Bottom Line : A fascinating way to address how communities become segregated due to individual bias.

The Republia Times

Unassuming editorial sim elegantly exposes the business of bias

Bottom Line : What this game lacks in pizzazz it makes up for in smarts, and it's certain to get students thinking and talking about bias and media politics.

This War of Mine

Strategy game offers superb, mature take on war and civilian survival

Bottom Line : A stark portrayal of civilian life in a war-torn city that requires strategic thinking and invites repeated plays.

Related Content

Mind by Design

21 Amazing thinking games for adults | Classic brain games

Thinking games for adults is the best way to train your brain. It not only improves your intellectual capacity but also sharpens up your skills and makes you more productive.

Thinking games for adults will help you to:

• It helps you in increasing your creativity and imagination.
• It increases your concentration skills.
• It improves your memory and information retention ability.
• It builds and repairs brain cells.

It helps you in making a decision quickly. It also sharpens up your thinking process by playing with logic and challenging yourself with puzzles, games, riddles, knowledge-based games etc.

In this post we will present 21 of the best thinking games for adults , so you can see and choose which one is best for you!

1. Mind Benders

Mind Benders by Martin Gardner is a game of logic and puzzles. This game is a collection of puzzle problems that include Zen koan questions, puzzles in geometry, and magic squares.

To play this game you need to solve the problems in order starting from easy to hard. Once you are done with answering the easy ones, you can move on to the next harder ones until you have finished all of them.

Sudoku, which means “single number”, is a popular logic game. It is a Japanese puzzle of numbers in which players must fill in the blanks so that each row, column, and region contain the digits 1 to 9 and no more than four of them are used together in each row, column, or region.

3. Flip Question

This game requires you to answer the questions in a logical way, without relying on any wrong information. It is kind of a simple puzzle involving finding the right order for the numbers that are shown from 1 to 80.

4. Logic Trails

Logic Trails is a game that requires you to follow a trail of logical deductions. The basic rules are:

• Be sure to not make any assumptions.
• Always start with an assumption.
• Weave logic from the given premises to the conclusion. What do you need more than anything else is to be sure that your answer is correct and values your ideas?

5. Hinge Puzzle

Hinge Puzzle is a classic game with a lot of challenging questions. It requires you to find the ways by which the three given figures can be connected into one figure, without lifting the puzzle apart and possibly disabling it from being completed.

6. Tower of Hanoi

Tower of Hanoi is a strategy game for 2 players who are trying to get their wooden disks on top of the tower filled with discs. One person moves the disks at a time, while the other player is trying to stop them.

7. 20 November 2012 Brain Teaser

From 20 November 2012, this puzzle will keep your brain working as it asks you to solve a riddle every time you look at it. Your mission is to find out what happened on this day by solving all kinds of riddles and puzzles.

Bamboo is a classic board game that requires you to move the tokens from start to finish in order. There will be various obstacles in the way that you must avoid in order to get your token moved. You can also use logic and help other players by giving them boosts on their way.

9. Labyrinth

This is a great strategy game that requires you to move your token by using the correct path among the colored labyrinths. You will have to start from easy ones and then move your way towards harder ones.

10. Monopoly Empire

Monopoly Empire is a fun logical game that requires you to build your empire in a realistic manner just as the original game does. The only thing is that this version requires you to build your empire from scratch.

11. Moondial

Moondial is a classic logic game that requires you to follow the instructions given to get the token through a maze of obstacles. You would have to start at easy ones and then move on to harder ones until you have completed all of them.

12. Transport

Transport is a logic game that allows you to race a vehicle in a puzzle-like scenario just like the original board game. The only difference between this version and the original one is that the puzzle will be solved with a vehicle rather than with trains.

13. Hangman’s Puzzle

This is an easy puzzle game that requires you to find out the letter that can form words from the given stack of letters, without using any letters twice in the same word. It is also great for improving your memory and attention skills.

14. The Alphabet Game

The Alphabet Game is a fun game that requires you to guess the letters by making use of your logic and knowledge. This game starts from the alphabet A and it will keep on going until you cannot guess it in any other way from any other letter. The aim is to try to guess them all!

15. Sudoku meets Asteroid

Excluding the differences in the rules, it is still a Sudoku game, you must fill up all the cells on a grid so that each row, column and region has only 1 to 9 numbers. The only difference here is that instead of using numbers 1 to 9, you will be using letters of the alphabet.

16. Letter Sequence

Letter Sequence is a fun puzzle game that requires you to identify the sequence in which the letters are given. The only difference is that they are not numbers but letters of the alphabet. This game will test your memory and attention skills as it requires you to remember them all.

17. Magic Square Puzzle

The magic square puzzle is a great thinking game that consists of square blocks filled with various letters. It will test your logical thinking skills as you have to find the square blocks that consist of some letters and use a combination of them to form a whole number.

18. Jigsaw Puzzle Fun

Like the original jigsaw puzzles, this version features over 15 different puzzles that feature animals like lions, kangaroos, sharks, dolphins, elephants and more. It requires you to put the puzzle pieces together in order so that there are no overlapping or missing pieces.

19. Alignment Game

Alignment Game is a great puzzle game that requires you to connect the dots on a grid to form various patterns. This game will test your memory and attention skills by asking you to solve the pattern without looking at the given grid.

20. Rubik’s Snake

Rubik’s Snake is another great logic game that will require you to find out a snake by rotating the blocks around it until it has become a snake again. The only thing is that this version is played with a snake instead of blocks and will test your logical thinking skills instead.

21. Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune is a logic game that requires you to match the letters on the wheel so that each letter on the wheel lands on an appropriate letter in the grid. It will test your memory and attention skills as it requires you to remember them all!

Conclusion – thinking games for adults

Playing thinking and puzzle games is not just a fun activity that the kids do. It is also a great way for adults to improve their memory, brainpower and logic skills . The best thing about these games is that they are fun to play and they require a lot of thinking as well.

These games will help you increase your IQ level by giving you the ability to make logical decisions in various situations without having to worry about the outcome. They also improve your problem-solving skills by testing and training them every time you play one of these games.

Playing these games can also help you to develop your logical reasoning and become better at making decisions in a more efficient manner. The best part about playing these games is that they are very fun!

Now that you have found out the best thinking and puzzle games for adults, it is time to try one of them and see for yourself how much your IQ has improved or how much better you have become at playing them.

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15 Best Brain Games for Adults (Online & Offline) to Advance Your Cognitive Abilities

Anthony metivier.

• August 30, 2024

Yet, because we live in a society that prizes mental agility long into old age, I think you’ll love the myriad of stimulating brain games I’ve discovered for you.

As a Ph.d., I’m looking forward to continuing my many decades of research into memory and the mind for as long as I can. That’s why I have done the meticulous research into brain games that you’ll find on this page.

It’s also why I’ll tell you the truth a lot of designers of games will not.

As I take you into the realm of brain games, take note of the other activities I share that you can seamlessly integrate into your daily routines.

Brain games do indeed offer fantastic mental stimulation, but it’s important to remember this:

Your intellectual prowess requires a range of dynamic challenges, ranging from complex puzzles to strategy challenges.

And as my practical experience has shown, there’s more to the “game” of enhancing our intellectual skills than just play.

Ready? Let’s get started, or…

If you want to skip ahead, use this table of contents:

Why Brain Games For Adults? 20 Best Brain Games for Adults (by Category) Games and Puzzles (Online) Games and Puzzles (Offline) Brain Training Apps Video and Computer Games Fun and Games for the Brain

Why Brain Games For Adults?

You’ve probably seen advertising from different companies, claiming their games or brain training apps are the best way to keep your brain healthy as you get older.

Turns out, scientists are divided about the legitimacy of those claims.

In 2014, two opposing groups of scientists came out with letters arguing 1) no scientific basis for the efficacy of brain training — and 2) evidence for the “brain training effect” was plentiful .

So if even large groups of scientists can’t agree, how do we know if brain games can help you keep your gray matter fully functional?

As I researched this post, what I found over and over is this: brain training games may be effective, but so are other cognitive pursuits .

The key to maintaining brain health as you age is to consistently learn new things.

So if you’re worried about your brain health as you age, or have a parent or loved one who is at high risk for a disease like Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, keep that in mind. You won’t necessarily find results from playing the games featured on this page. This important to understand because several studies within the past fifteen years estimate that somewhere between 11-13% of older Americans have dementia.

So how do you avoid cognitive decline? What can you do to protect your brain?

According to both the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and Alzheimer’s Association, there are a few key things you can do to maintain brain health as you age:

• Stay physically active: exercise and physical activity maintains proper blood flow to the brain and encourages the formation of new brain cells through neurogenesis.
• Eat for brain health: eating a healthy diet full of antioxidants (leafy green vegetables and fruits, for example) may help protect existing brain cells.
• Stay mentally and socially active: be active in your community to help avoid depression and isolation, and get regular brain exercise (especially learning new tasks) to help you maintain cognitive function.

So what are some of the best ways to stay mentally active? That’s where brain games for adults .do indeed come in handy.

Games for the brain can be a fun (and effective) way to keep your brain engaged. So let’s look at the best brain training games, what makes them great, and how you can even get some of these brain training games for free.

We’ll break them all down into categories, including both online and offline games, as well as our favorite brain training apps (and a few video games, too).

20 Best Brain Games for Adults (by Category)

If you want to be the next Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein, brain training games and memory improvement games won’t get you there.

However, when it comes to keeping your brain healthy as you age, mixing and matching the following games could be just the ticket.

When the game gets easy, switch to learning how to play something new — and keep your brain healthy and your memory sharp.

Let’s start with the games and puzzles you’re most likely to find online.

Games and Puzzles (Online)

The following games and puzzles can help boost your working memory. They often involve thinking a step or two (or more) ahead to your next move.

Sudoku is one of the most popular brain training games online. It’s available through a number of different sites, including both Web Sudoku and Sudoku.com (which both have iOS and Android apps available).

It’s also available at the New York Times , USAToday , The Washington Post , and The Los Angeles Times .

Tricky Test 2™: Genius Brain?

Tricky Test 2™ is a free IQ game that challenges you to find out if you have a “genius brain.”

It includes a series of brain teasers and solutions designed to trick you — these puzzles are available through both the App Store and Google Play .

Left vs Right: Brain Games for Brain Training

Left vs Right was designed to “test your awareness, adaptability, reflex, reasoning, precision, and patience.”

Free brain training games are included to help you test your brain — and the app is available through Google Play , the App Store , and Amazon. While the app is free, in-app purchases are offered, including a VIP subscription option allowing you to access all 49 of the games.

A Clockwork Brain

A Clockwork Brain is a “series of fun and challenging games, specifically designed to test memory, attention, dexterity, language, and reasoning.”

Each of the puzzles features adaptive difficulty to keep your brain engaged, and is available in the App Store and Google Play , as well as through the Microsoft Store .

Next, let’s look at some classic forms of brain training that are available in the physical world.

Brain Games for Adults (Offline)

While there are options to play most of these types of games and puzzles online or on your device, you might want to stick to the traditional forms.

Why? Because the social aspect of the games makes them more powerful — by getting together with a friend (or a few) you can boost the brain-health factor.

Let’s start with a classic game for brainy people.

When you think of mentally challenging and complex games, chess is probably one of the first that comes to mind. Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, (and even Deep Blue)… some of the greatest players of all time prove that chess is a game of strategy and concentration .

The game of chess helps train your working memory and improves your brain’s executive function as you plan and strategize. It also improves fast decision-making, while honing your concentration .

Crossword Puzzles

When it comes to minimizing cognitive decline, crosswords have been declared the go-to solution. These puzzles contribute to the development of memory and attention skills, as well as increased fluency (the ability to find words).

Like all the games and puzzles we’ll cover today, if the puzzles start feeling too easy it’s probably time to switch to another brainy pursuit. For example, if you usually play American crosswords you might try switching over to the British style (specifically their “cryptic crosswords”) to test your true riddle- and puzzle-solving skills.

No matter their difficulty level, crosswords are known to encourage cheating — but if you cheat you’re not getting the brain exercise you think you are!

Jigsaw Puzzles

Want to engage your short-term memory ? Jigsaw puzzles might be just the ticket. Your brain has to sort out the multiple colors and shapes — and the more pieces the puzzle contains, the harder your brain has to work. You even get a hit of dopamine when you click a puzzle piece into the correct slot.

To add a different kind of challenge to your puzzle assembling, flip over the pieces and try to solve the puzzle without any of the design clues.

Matching Pairs Card Games

There are virtually endless ways to play this type of memory game , including many online versions (including tile-matching games like Mahjong). Whatever variation you choose, the aim is to match as many pairs as quickly as you can — lay any number of cards face down, flip over two at a time, and try to remember where the matches are.

While most games keep the cards in neat rows, you can make the game more challenging by spreading out the cards in a less organized arrangement.

And for another level boost, here are 13 reasons you need a system for remembering cards . Just imagine the brain fitness you’ll get when you can remember the order of 52 cards after shuffling a deck!

Playing Scrabble is a great way to learn new vocabulary and improve focus and strategic thinking. Some of the best players develop a keen ability to find the anagrams amidst a jumble of letters.

A 2016 study showed that Scrabble experts often use the parts of their brain associated with visual perception and working memory. So if you get good enough at the game, you’ll be able to tap into different areas of your brain while you play.

But what about apps that were specifically designed to provide “brain training” — are they everything they claim to be?

Brain Training Apps

Turns out, maybe not.

In 2016, Lumosity paid $2 million to settle deceptive advertising charges. It was alleged that “they deceived consumers with unfounded claims that Lumosity games can help users perform better at work and in school, and reduce or delay cognitive impairment associated with age and other serious health conditions.”

Be advised that Christine Till’s research has shown that without also having regular meetings with a coach, software programs like these have limited outcomes .

No single app or game is the magic bullet for reversing cognitive decline. But the following apps, when paired with other learning games and puzzles, just might help keep your brain engaged as you age.

Post-FTC charges, Lumosity now claims to offer “daily exercise for your mind.” Their brain training helps sharpen memory, attention, mental flexibility, processing speed, and problem-solving.

Lumosity has been around for 10 years and boasts 100 million members. They offer a desktop version of the app, as well as App Store and Google Play versions.

CogniFit Brain Fitness

CogniFit includes both neuropsychological assessments and brain training programs. The assessments include 23 separate cognitive skills, and their training programs use a patented methodology that allows them to set an “optimal sequence of brain games specifically for the user.”

There are training programs specific to ages 55 and over, stroke , Parkinson’s, and more. There is a free version, as well as a paid version ($19.99 per month for unlimited training programs), and CogniFit is available through both the App Store and Google Play .

Mensa Brain Training

And last but certainly not least, the high IQ society Mensa offers exercises to help you improve your reasoning , concentration, memory, agility, and perception. Mensa claims that regular brain training can significantly enhance fluid intelligence .

Their training program includes “challenging exercises developed by puzzle experts and accredited by the definitive high IQ society.” Available on the App Store .

What might surprise you is that one of the strongest competitors in the brain training market is actually… video games.

Video and Computer Games

When you hear discussions about the impact of video games, it’s usually in relation to violence and negative impacts. But did you know video games can be very helpful for boosting cognitive function?

Particular types of video games can have positive benefits on the brain. Action games can help improve your ability to make quick decisions or focus on an important object. And racing games help improve eye-hand coordination.

There is even a 2018 study that looked at the benefits of cognitive and emotional training in healthy adults.

Super Mario 64

Playing three-dimensional video games like Super Mario 64 improves both spatial memory and recognition ability, according to a 2017 study . The game encourages exploration within the 15 worlds of the game, where the player encounters obstacle courses, hidden objects, and puzzles… as well as the enemies Mario must confront.

3D games might help stave off mild cognitive impairment, due to increases in gray matter volume in both the hippocampus and cerebellum.

Since 1984, Tetris has been challenging the brains of video game lovers. Much like the real world around us, the game “challenges players to make order out of chaos using a specific organization system.”

The makers coined the Tetris® Effect — where people who are packing their cars, loading their dishwashers, or organizing their shelves think strategically about how to fit each object into the available space.

Earlier studies seem to indicate that playing the game results in a thicker cortex in the brain, and helps improve brain efficiency. It has even been hypothesized that playing Tetris has positive results for certain spatial skills like mental rotation, spatial perception, and spatial visualization.

World of Warcraft

You might be surprised to see the world’s most popular role-playing game listed among our recommendations, but researchers at North Carolina State University found cognitive improvements among seniors who participated in the study.

You can try World of Warcraft free with their Starter Edition, which allows you to play up to level 20, or to subscribe for access to further levels.

With the 20 games, puzzles, and apps in this article, you have plenty to keep you (and your brain) busy.

Brain Games for Adults Are Fun

Getting older doesn’t have to mean you settle for cognitive decline and eventual dementia. In fact, if you use what you learned in this article, you now know 20 more ways to keep your brain active as you age… and have some fun along the way.

If games still aren’t for you, you have other alternatives you can explore, such as adult coloring books . I like using them so much, I even created my own and you can order a copy on Amazon .

At the end of the day, here’s what really matters:

As long as you stay physically active, eat for brain health, and stay mentally and socially active, you can keep your brain engaged and healthy for the long run. And if you’re ever worried and wondering if you have dementia, you can always take memory tests doctors use to diagnose Alzheimer’s.

But do remember: at the end of the day, time spent on brain training games always incurs a cost. It might not get with your learning style as an adult , for example, especially if you have to do any kind of chunking while playing the game.

But personally, I don’t think anything compares to the fun of using a Memory Palace. That’s why if you want to keep learning new things (perhaps a new language ?) you’ll also need to improve your memory skills to help you hang on to that new vocabulary.

The Memory Palace technique is actually the ultimate brain game because every time you learn, you win something far more valuable than points. You win knowledge that will soon turn into wisdom. And wisdom is the ultimate engine of engagement that lasts.

Check out these Memory Palace examples to see for yourself why this mental tool really does provide the best brain game for adults. I dare you to prove me wrong. Game on!

4 Responses

To “play the game for what counts” is good advice that I will remember!

Thanks for the insight,

Thanks for this post, Tom. I’m glad that this insight struck a chord! 🙂

I believe training root function such as visual processing speed, n-back challenges and meditation do show positive results. There’s an app that targets root function over specific skills and this generalises across applications. What is clear in playing these games is that threshold training is important in order to stimulate the brain to change. I’ve also found Harry Kahne’s Multiple Mentality course (free online) to be beneficial since it appears to ramp up brain band width. It’s very tough though.

So whilst I agree that games that focus on maths will not generalise, games that focus on spatial awareness, visual processing, facial recognition and sound recognition will. See the work of Dr Michael Merzenich. Many of the games on the market cite his studies yet don’t use the same training methodology to focus on root function.

Very few skills improve function across domains. If you play chess, you get better at chess. I don’t believe there’s much non domain improvement and it doesn’t improve GF.

Whilst I don’t believe mnemonics in of themselves have been shown to improve GF they certainly can improve the rate and speed at which we can remember data, which gives the appearance at least of greater intelligence.

With respect to language learning specifically, it’s my understanding that once one non native language has been learned the brain adapts its algorithm to make subsequent language learning more efficient. Language learning is tough, which gives a dopamine spike, which is why people can become quite addicted to language learning. It’s also a useful skill to have.

Thanks for this post. I found it interesting. I like your mnemonic and think history is particularly well suited to mnemonic devices. I generally find mnemonics make learning fun in any case.

Thanks for these great thoughts, Jon-Kristian!

It’s interesting that you mention Harry Kahne. What I find fascinating is his first exercise, which requests that you write out the alphabet backwards fifty times.

When I learned to do recite the alphabet backwards, it took precisely four minutes without writing down a single thing using keywords and a Memory Palace. I’ve never forgotten it and taught hundreds of people to do the same in similarly short periods of time.

The “Alphabet Skipping” variations are a little bit more challenging and takes longer to learn, but great brain games to be sure. I’ll have to mention them on a follow up podcast.

Thanks too for mentioning Michael Merzenich . I’m looking into his stuff now. Anything in particular you would suggest reading?

About mnemonics improving general brain functions, I think this is a matter of how we test them. For example, if mnemonics led to a measurable boost in fluency, then that would potentially lead to more social interaction, which exercises more of the brain. To take another example, abilities in math could lead to an interest in and aptitude for physics, which could then lead to other brain enhancing activities. In this way, we can perhaps see mnemonics as a “gateway drug” to bigger and better things. And as I hope I’ve suggested in the article, it’s a positive addiction that feeds itself because the more you learn, the more you can learn because you have a larger pool of associations from which to draw.

I’m glad you liked the post and mnemonics and I look forward to corresponding again soon! 🙂

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10 Best Brain Games to Keep Your Mind Sharp

Playing mind games is a no-brainer

Delmaine Donson / Getty Images

Happy Neuron

Brain age concentration training, my brain trainer.

People of all ages use brain-training games to improve mental functioning and prevent brain aging . Backing them up is research showing that brain-training games may help improve attention levels, memory, response time, logic skills, and other measures of cognitive function if played over a long timespan.

The brain is just like a muscle - it thrives on exercise! As a neurologist, I'm thrilled by the incredible potential of brain games to help people flex their mental muscles, activating underused brain circuits to sharpen cognition and skills like focus, speed, and memory.

From pen-and-paper Sudoku and crosswords to specialized brain training apps, options for brain games are plentiful. To give your brain a workout while having fun, try these games and activities that may improve your mental focus and fitness.

Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

Sudoku is a number placement game that relies on short-term memory. To complete a Sudoku puzzle, you have to look ahead and follow trails of consequences—if you put a 6 in this box, that one must be an 8 and this one a 4, and so on. This type of planning helps improve short-term memory and concentration.

You can play Sudoku online, on an app, or on paper. Look for a regular Sudoku in your newspaper, buy a book with a collection of puzzles, or download a free app for your phone or tablet.

Sudoku puzzles are available in varying degrees of difficulty. When you're starting out, play the easy games until you learn the rules. If you're playing on paper, use a pencil!

Lumosity is one of the most established brain training and mental fitness programs. You can sign up for a free account to play three games per day, or choose the subscription service for more offerings. Either way, you can keep track of your results and improvement.

One recent study showed that participants who played Lumosity's exercises for 15 minutes a day at least seven days a week for three weeks experienced improved attention and motor speed. You can use Lumosity via their website or download the Lumosity app on iOS and Android. Lumosity also has a meditation and mindfulness app called Lumosity Mind.

Carol Yepes / Getty Images

Crosswords are a classic brain trainer, accessing not only verbal language but memory from many dimensions of knowledge. There are many ways to do crossword puzzles, both online and off. If you receive a daily newspaper, you'll almost always get a crossword there. Or pick up a book of crosswords specifically suited to your skill level and interests.

You will also find many options for crossword puzzles online or via free or inexpensive apps. The AARP website offers a daily crossword that's free to everyone, whether or not you're a member of the group.

Elevate's games center on reading, writing, speaking, and math, and you can customize your training to focus on whichever areas you prefer. As with most other brain games, you can track your progress to see how your skills are improving.

You'll need to download an app to play Elevate 's 35 (and counting) different brain-training games, which have a strongly educational feel. It's free (with in-app purchases) and both iOS and Android versions have tens of thousands of five-star reviews.

Peak is another app-only option (available for iOS and Android) that provides brain games to help you work on focus, memory, problem-solving, mental agility, and more cognitive functions. If you're a competitive person, you might be motivated by seeing how you perform against other users. The app is free to use, but an inexpensive subscription unlocks more features.

Happy Neuron divides its games and activities into five critical brain areas: memory, attention, language, executive functions, and visual/spatial. Like Lumosity, it personalizes the training to fit you, tracks your progress, and the games are based on scientific research.

You must pay a monthly subscription fee to use the site, and its simplified app version is available for Android users only. Happy Neuron does, however, offer a free trial offer so you can see if you like the approach.

Claiming to have the world's largest collection of brain teasers, Braingle's free website provides more than 15,000 puzzles, games, and other brain teasers as well as an online community of enthusiasts. You can even create your own puzzles to give your brain a super workout. Braingle has a wide variety of offerings, including optical illusions, codes and ciphers, and trivia quizzes.

Queendom has thousands of personality tests and surveys. It also has an extensive collection of "brain tools"—including logic, verbal, spatial, and math puzzles; trivia quizzes; and aptitude tests—for you to exercise and test your brain. If you'd like to save results and scores, you'll need a free account. Some tests give you only snapshot results for free, and charge a fee for full reports.

Brain Age: Concentration Training / Nintendo Life

Brain Age Concentration Training is a brain training and mental fitness system for the Nintendo 3DS system. It includes a huge number of games to hone your concentration, memory, calculation, and other brain skills. It's fun, portable, and challenging. Brain Age is also available for the Nintendo Wii U, but not for the Switch, Nintendo's most up-to-date gaming system.

My Brain Trainer calls itself an online "brain gym." It is similar in format to, although less stylish than, Lumosity and Happy Neuron. It's also less expensive; a three-month subscription costs the same as a month on the other services. The annual subscription is an even bigger savings. You can try a challenge for free as well.

This website is full of games, puzzles, and other challenges designed to improve your mental fitness. The website recommends 10 minutes of brain training twice a day for the best effects. It also has a basic training program that claims to improve your mental speed.

This web-based puzzle game from The New York Times exploded in popularity in early 2022 and now counts millions of users worldwide. The premise is simple: Users get six tries to guess a five-letter word. Wordle's combination of problem-solving challenges and easy-to-use interface makes for a satisfying mental workout.

Keep in Mind

Remember, brain training isn't limited to games and puzzles; staying socially engaged, maintaining creative hobbies, and even working out can help to flex your brain and improve cognitive functioning. Find what feels good and works for you.

Make brain training a daily habit and build the mental reserves to delay cognitive decline!

Al-Thaqib A, Al-Sultan F, Al-Zahrani A, et al. Brain training games enhance cognitive function in healthy subjects .  Med Sci Monit Basic Res . 2018;24:63-69. doi:10.12659%2FMSMBR.909022

7 Fun Critical Thinking Activities to Train Your Brain to Think More Clearly

• Post author: Sherrie Hurd, A.A.
• Post published: August 9, 2018
• Reading time: 8 mins read
• Post category: Brain Power / Personal Development / Self-Improvement

Critical thinking activities not only help us develop a sharper mind, but they also help us develop a consistent mindset and way of thinking.

While thinking is easy, critical thinking, on a consistent basis, takes some skill . Improving it helps us develop a healthy way of reasoning, analyzing and empathizing that helps us take the right actions and perform the right deeds.

Yes, we can think about helping someone make a decision, but can we truly help them make the best one for their given situation ?

How to Improve Your Critical Thinking with These Activities

And what about our own issues? Can we clearly and concisely make the best possible decision each and every day according to the experience we have? This is where critical thinking comes in.

There are actually ideas which can vastly improve our critical thinking skills and help us create a better long-term outcome .

Maybe we can try these fun critical thinking activities to train our brain to be the best it can be.

1. stay on topic.

How easy is it for you to lose your concentration during a discussion? For me, it seems pretty easy, but the truth is, sometimes when you communicate, it’s easy to take, what I call, “tangents”.

For example, if I’m planning a way to complete a task, but yet I start talking about something else that needs to get done, I am going off topic . Every time I go off topic, I take the focus off the present issue.

One of the best activities to improve your critical thinking is practicing the incredibly hard objective of staying on task . Try it and see just how difficult it can sometimes be. It will be challenging to stay focused , but it will also be fun learning how to train your brain on a thinking “tightrope”.

The good news is, it does help improve the quality of your thought patterns.

2. Understand true motives

This is just smart thinking if you ask me. There are times when, during a conversation, someone will present an idea that supports their cognitive bias . It’s not easy to catch sometimes, but if you are good at critical thinking, you will notice the indicators. Pay attention to the details of the argument and understand how these details apply to the ones who are talking.

Unfortunately, some people have selfish motives and you will want to become familiar with the telltale signs. As you practice filtering out the true motives, it will become easier overtime to do so. Here’s the interesting part: you will also notice biases in yourself as well. Practice seeing things from a neutral position instead.

3. Character improvements

Now, take a look at your good and bad traits. When arguments arise, how often do you admit you’re wrong? How often do you turn to introspection? It’s important to regularly do an inventory of your own character . It’s also important to gauge just how much you are willing to learn from others .

Maybe you are truly right most of the time, but is it wise to remain steadfast in your beliefs ? Could it be more important to bend toward someone else’s opinion of the situation at hand? These are good questions to ask yourself as you examine who you really are.

After a rather heated argument , rehash the debate and come from your partner’s standpoint instead. Try to understand things from their point of view and decide to agree the next time to see what transpires. Maybe change is good for you.

4. One thing at a time

It also benefits you to take one problem at a time when working through various life circumstances. A good way to do this is by taking steps. First, identify the problem. Then decide whether you have a solution or not. I found out long ago that some problems require a number of steps instead of one big solution.

Sometimes these steps turn into smaller problems which must be solved before tackling the larger problem. This has to be discovered by careful analyzation of each step.

Practicing this technique of solving problems will help you stay patient in the future instead of getting irritable and overwhelmed when things take a turn for the worst.

Here’s a fun twist. Take a simple problem, for practice, and break it down into increments. Make different decisions on smaller portions of the problem to see where those decisions lead you.

5. Review your day

Wasted time is one of the biggest obstacles to productive thinking, and another culprit is procrastination, as you already know. So, first off, you must try to perform better during the day. Then, you need to practice doing a recap of what you’ve accomplished.

At the end of your workday, instead of watching television, try going back over all the things you got done. Think of your conversations , your errands, and even your thinking. Was it time well spent, or did you procrastinate and worry most of the day? Maybe you thought too long on the past.

Each evening, take time to recap your day and take note of any wasted time. This will help you improve in that area .

6. Journal your actions and reactions

At the end of each day or week, write down certain notable happenings in your day to day life. Write about the event and how it made you feel. Talk honestly about how you reacted to the situation. Do you feel good about what you said or did?

Now, analyze your response in this way. If you feel as though you could have reacted differently, then how do you plan to do that? Keep these journal entries so you can learn how to better respond to situations and eliminate instances of making rash decisions.

7. Illustrations

When debating something, it can get hard to convey a moral or standard that’s important to you. Illustrations can provide a story that helps the other person see how your argument works.

For instance, if you’re trying to help someone and they refuse to accept or understand your gesture, then talk to them about how your offer is similar to saving someone from having a physical accident (like an illustration of you pulling them out of the way or a speeding automobile.)

Maybe your gesture of help will eliminate a bad consequence by sharing an unrelated illustration or story. So, in your mind, practice placing ideas in story form for better understanding. When real problems come, you will have easy to understand illustrations in case you’re struggling with a solution.

Final words

The reason why improving critical thinking is so important is that activities like the above ones help us train our brain to stretch to new limits. Our simple thinking can be transformed into a well-informed intellect, paired with the ability to feel and reason productively. Critical thinking can actually improve our quality of life and the life of the ones we love.

To take advantage of the best the world has to offer, you must activate your brain’s powers. Once you start to practice the above activities, you will be surprised by your own critical thinking skills. Let’s do this together and enjoy the process of learning.

References :

• https://www.lifehack.org
• https://www.thebalancecareers.com

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Fun critical thinking online games for adults

Critical thinking can be a difficult skill to hone, but with some practice and a fun incentive, you can be thinking deeper in no time. That’s where online games for adults come into play, challenging players to rely on their abilities to analyze, reflect, use emotional reasoning, consider multiple interpretations, and more.

In today’s guide, we’ll be sharing some examples of these online critical thinking games that are enjoyable to play, in addition to being enriching. Keep reading along as we explain the reasons why these games exercise the brain so well and what they entail.

How Online Games Improve Critical Thinking

They call upon problem-solving skills.

In many puzzle-style games, critical thinking is needed to figure out possible consequences of the next move or moves. For example, when completing a Sudoku puzzle online, the next number you place must avoid overlapping with the same number elsewhere in its row, column, and 9×9 cube.

This requires players to imagine different solutions to the problem (i.e. cells that a number could fit into) until the best one is achieved.

They Rely on Evaluation

Evaluation is an important part of being a critical thinker. Online critical thinking games often present a set of information that the player must identify and evaluate in order to make certain decisions.

They Promote Open-Mindedness

They make you reflect.

Online critical thinking games are also useful in teaching one the value of self-reflection. In order to think critically, you have to be able to slow down and assess (sometimes re-assess) the information you have.

Online Games for Critical Thinking

Online chess.

Chess is one of the oldest critical thinking games that both children and adults can enjoy, and nowadays you can easily access a virtual board online. Sites like Chess.com provide free one-on-one chess games that you can play against a computer or another online player of similar skill level to you.

Some of the games involve numbers and shapes, while others present questions.

Tangram Puzzles

Websites such as Freegames.org have free selections of puzzle-style games such as tangrams that adults can play. Tangram puzzles go back roughly 1,000 years in human history.

Sudoku Online

We couldn’t mention number-oriented critical thinking games without mentioning Sudoku. Many people are familiar with sudoku puzzles, as found in Sunday newspapers next to the crossword puzzle.

From mining resources to building infrastructure, fighting off your enemies, and completing menial tasks like chopping down trees, you must rely heavily on logic and critical thinking skills to advance.

EyeWire 3D Puzzle Game

The EyeWire 3D Puzzle is essentially a way to map your own brain. Throughout the puzzle, players get to learn intricate skills and laugh at funny videos. The game is a 3D puzzle and powered by AI technology.

Final Thoughts – Online Critical Thinking Games for Adults

[PC] Games that will push critical thinking from gamingsuggestions

10 Engaging Online Games To Test Your Critical Thinking Skills

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7 Games for Critical Thinking that Add Play to Your Day

Let’s talk about the importance of PLAY and games in our classrooms today. Do you agree with the following?

Learning should be fun.

Learning should be engaging.

Learning should be JOYFUL!

I thought so! For children (and adults) play is a key the way the brain learns. When our students complete puzzles, they are working on problem-solving skills. When they play a game with rules to follow, they are learning how to cooperate and interact with others. When they play against an opponent, they are learning how to develop strategies, predict outcomes, and use logical thinking skills.  What a better way to squeeze in play than with critical thinking games in the classroom? In this post, I’ll share seven of my favorite critical thinking games for primary students.

For your convenience, I’ve added links to the materials I talk about within the blog post. These are Amazon Affiliate links. This just means Amazon tosses a few cents my way if you make a purchase with the links – at absolutely, positively, no extra cost to you! These little links help me to continue sharing ideas, freebies, and giveaways with you on the site. 

Finding Time for Games in the Classroom

Time. It’s a four-letter word that teachers across the world have a love-hate relationship with. “There’s not enough time!” is a phrase one will frequently hear from a kindergarten teacher as much as a middle school teacher. We know that our students need time to play and have fun in school. We know that games promote SO MANY wonderful skills and brain-friendly challenges for our students.  In addition to Pinterest, teaching blogs, IG, and educational websites, I like to turn to the shelves of stores such as Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us for critical thinking games that my students will love to play! There are TONS of educational and high-quality games that you can find pre-assembled and ready to go- for a great price! So, when can we squeeze games into the classroom? Below are some of my favorite times to add board games and mind-challenging games into our schedule:

• Morning Work
• Small Groups
• Indoor Recess
• Friday Game Days (Use small group time or morning work time for games!)
• Math Centers
• Literacy Centers
• Word Work Centers

Teaching Students How to Play

It’s important to model how to play each game with your students. The critical thinking games I am going to share in this post take a lot of brain energy! They are designed to be fun- but challenging- for your students. As a result, don’t expect students to pick up how to play instantly and be able to independently play the games right away. I like to model and play the games with my students at the small group table. For example, every time I introduce a new Brainamin short or long vowel game as a word work center for my students, we play it at the small group table. I do this for math and literacy centers, too.  In this way, I can correctly show students the materials, the rules, and I can even play with them to model my thinking and let them hear what I am thinking as I strategize my next moves and make decisions throughout the game. When students have had ample time to play and see how the game works WITH you, they will be more confident and have more fun when they play with their friends and classmates.

Organizing Your Games

Whenever possible, I like to get rid of the boxes the games come in and put them into plastic tubs. The boxes just seem to deteriorate over time, and the lids on the plastic bins help us keep everything tidy and organized. I use many of my critical thinking games during morning work time on Mondays and Fridays and during math and literacy centers. (On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays we use my See, Think, Wonder, Write routine for morning work .) I will be sharing more about my morning tub time (or what I like to call, Brain Bins) in future blog posts. For now, you can find the bins I use to store my critical thinking games in the links below. You’ll find two sizes of bins. For games that have a board game to them, I like to use the larger, flatter bins. For card games or other critical thinking materials such as the toys and activities I mentioned in this post , I use the medium bins because they take up less space and are really deep!

Medium Bins:

Now, let’s get started learning about seven really fun games that you can use for centers in your classroom. These games will challenge your students’ minds, while encouraging them to use problem-solving, critical thinking, logical thinking, deductive reasoning skills, and most importantly, have fun learning!

Hoot Owl Hoot

If you teach little ones, Hoot Owl Hoot is a MUST. Hoot Owl Hoot is designed by a company called Peaceable Kingdom. This is an award-winning game that focuses on cooperative play. (The game won the  Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award.) The object of the game is to help the owls fly back to their nest before the sun comes up. Students use color cards to move the owls closer to the nest. If they draw a sun card, they are one step closer to daylight. The BEST part of this game? EVERYONE wins! That’s right. The students must work together to get all of the owls to their nest. Whether you have a preschooler at home or teach kindergarten or first grade, this is a great game for kids! On top of the cooperative play, students have to use problem-solving skills and shared decision-making skills to be successful. It’s truly a wonderful game that challenges little ones’ thinking skills while having fun with friends!

SEQUENCE LETTERS

Sequence Letters is a game designed for ages 4-7, making it the perfect literacy and word work center for the kindergarten and first-grade classroom. To play, students name the letter on their card, say the sound for that letter, and then match it to a picture on the board that begins with that letter sound. The object is to get five of your game tokens in a row on the board. Can we talk about how perfect this game is for an intervention group or kindergarten small reading lesson?! What I love even more is that the letter cards feature the letter in both uppercase and lowercase, so students are seeing both forms every time they play. Sequence Letters is a game that every primary teacher needs to add to their classrooms!

SEQUENCE FOR KIDS

Sequence for Kids is another version in the Sequence games line-up. This is a great critical thinking game for students who cannot yet read, and it makes the perfect indoor recess game for strategy skills! At first, the initial concept of the game seems TOO easy: Students simply place a token on the picture on the board that matches the picture on their card. When a player gets four tokens in a row, he or she wins. Don’t let this game fool you! There is a lot of thinking-rich strategy skills involved when playing this game. You see, in addition to the picture cards, there are also unicorn and dragon cards. A unicorn card allows you to place your game token anywhere on the board. A dragon card allows you to remove an opponent’s game token. Now, you’ve got a game that involves some “if this…then that” thinking! Which, my friends, are the games I love for kids! You can find Sequence for Kids below:

Brain-Freeze

If you don’t own Brain-Freeze , RUN and get it! It is not only engaging, fun, and child-friendly, but it is the perfect strategy game for young students ages 5 and up. Brain-Freeze reminds me of a cooler version of Guess Who for kids. It also builds mental skills such as memory, deductive-reasoning, and strategy skills. It received multiple awards for children and only takes about 15 minutes to play. That amount of playing time makes it an ideal game to place in a literacy center or math center for kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. To play, one child chooses a sweet treat off of the “menu” and circles characteristics of the treat on their game board. The other child guesses and asks questions about what the sweet treat is, just like in the game, Guess Who? Using a dry-erase marker, the player who is guessing crosses out and eliminates different choices based on the clues and the answers the first player gives. The object is to correctly guess the sweet treat the first player secretly chose at the beginning of the game. This game is also wonderful for asking questions and using inference skills! Find it here:

Let’s move on to some more challenging games. These next few games are great for second-grade and up. On the Dot is a challenging puzzle game that requires focus, creative thinking, and an ability to look at things from new perspectives. It’s a true brainteaser that students will love! To play, students choose two transparent cards. The cards have colored dots on them. The student must rotate, flip, turn, or overlap the cards in order to get the dots on both cards to match up. This game is great for building and practicing logical thinking, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving. With 60 different puzzles to match up, On the Dot is a game that can stay in your bins for a long time!

Swish is a game designed for ages 8 and up. It reminds me of On the Dot with transparent cards and colored hoops, or circles. Players take turns stacking and matching up the colored cards. When a match is made, the player keeps both cards. The player with the most matches wins. After playing this game a few times, I decided the Swish Junior game would be the best version to start with in the primary classroom. The pace would go faster and kindergarten and first-grade students would feel more confident and successful. In the Junior version (ages 5+), players layer or stack two or more transparent cards to make a match. The cards have shapes on them in various colors and sizes, making it a much better game for primary students! The Junior version would be great for building spatial reasoning skills and promoting shape recognition. You can find the Swish Junior version below:

For my last critical thinking game, I can’t get enough of my Brainamin games! In this post, I’ll feature the CVC-e and long vowel edition , but I also have a Brainamin Short Vowel Bundle and a B rainamin Vowel Teams Bundle available, too. This is one of the best games to add to a morning tub or literacy center, and it’s certainly fun to use as a small group warm-up game! If you have students who are struggling with  decoding and phonics skills, these games also make a nice change of pace for an intervention group. To play, students flip over two cards: a word card, and a picture card. The students will scan the cards and find the matching word and picture, as shown below:

There is only one match, so the students must think fast and be the first person to find it. The student who finds the match first gets to keep both cards in his or her pile. The student who has the most matches in his or her pile at the end of the game wins. (You can also just play for fun and not keep “score” using the matches.) Let’s play again. Can you find the matching word and picture in the cards shown below?

SO fun, right?! What I love MOST about Brainamin is that you can play with a group of students, or with just two students. In fact, students can even play against themselves as an independent game as they race to find the matches among the deck of cards. Brainamin not only improves phonics skills but it also works on visual discrimination skills, critical thinking skills, deductive reasoning, decoding, and fluency for word recall. You can find the different Brainamin bundles and games that I have available by below:

• Brainamin Short Vowels (cvc words)
• Brainamin Long Vowels (cvc-e words)
• Brainamin Vowel Teams
• …more to come in the future!

Try Brainamin for FREE!

You can learn more about critical thinking AND get a FREE Brainamin Short A game pack in a blog post I wrote by clicking HERE or on the blog post image below:

I hope you enjoyed learning about these seven games for critical thinking in the primary classroom! I know they will add fun, play, and lots of great thinking skills into your classroom routine. In order to save this post for later or share it with a colleague, feel free to use the image below to PIN IT on Pinterest !

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Loved all the games which you have shared with us. Perfect way to engage kids in such fun games for long hours which helps to nurture their overall growth. In this world of technology. where kids are inclined more towards playing online or video games, which affects their physical as well as mental growth. I think it the responsibility of parents to involve kids in games or activities which helps to improve their overall development. Saved your entire list of games to incorporate these in regular kids play. Thanks for sharing such an awesome list of games with us.

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15 Fantastic Logic and Critical Thinking Games

Games are wonderful additions to any homeschool. In fact, we typically play at least one game a day – sometimes even gameschooling for an entire day!

Not only do games bring joy and lightheartedness to the school day, they can help teach new concepts and practice old ones.

One of the most important reasons I include games in our homeschool frequently is because they are amazing for building logic and critical thinking skills!

This post includes affiliate links.

If you’ve read any of my blog posts about brain training , you’ll know that I place a lot of value on building logical thinking skills in kids. Luckily, games are one of the best ways to do that – and they don’t even require much effort on our part!

While almost every game has logic and critical thinking value, some games are made specifically to give those skills a workout. I’ve included 15 of my favorites here for you!

Logic and Critical Thinking Games

Invasion of the Cow Snatchers – A creative, single player game that uses magnetic playing pieces as you maneuver a flying saucer around obstacles on a farm to beam up all the cattle.

Domino Maze – In this hands-on, single player game, you create fun domino mazes with a critical thinking twist as you set out to build based on challenge cards.

Thinking Putty Puzzle – This is another hands-on, single player game that “stretches” your thinking skills as you complete mazes with Thinking Putty.

Qwirkle – A family favorite, this game is kind of like Scrabble with shapes & colors. Your goal is to rack up as many points as possible as you work to complete symbol combinations.

Battleship – Coordinate graphing and logical thinking are required to sink all your opponent’s ships in this classic game for two players.

Mastermind – Another classic game for two players, Mastermind is truly a top pick for practicing logical thinking skills as you deduce a hidden code.

ZooLogic – This is such a cute single player game. You must figure out how to organize dogs, cats, and mice on puzzle cards so that no fights ensue between the animals.

Guess Who? – This is the perfect game to teach beginning critical thinking skills as you ask pertinent questions to figure out your opponent’s mystery character.

SET – Get ready to work logic skills faster than your opponents as everyone races to put together the next combination of cards based on shape, color, shading, and number.

Clue – A good, old-fashioned game of Clue is perfect for sharpening logic and critical thinking skills since the goal is to use deductive reasoning to solve the mystery before anyone else.

Cat Crimes – In this hands-on, single player logic puzzle, you place cat characters on the board based on clues you are given in order to determine which one is to blame for an oopsie that has occurred.

Codenames – While this game can be played with as few as four people, it’s great for a crowd, too. Spymasters use word clues to help their teams logically consider which cards on the table will locate friendly spy agents instead of foes.

Rover Control – This creative, single player coding game teaches basic programming skills through critical thinking puzzles in which a rover must go through various start to finish challenges.

Rush Hour – A classic, single player game, Rush Hour utilizes logical thinking as you work to get an ice cream truck out of a rush hour traffic jam.

Rook – This four player card game is another family favorite that is won by logic and critical thinking between teammates (as well as a little luck.)

Gameschooling

There are so many wonderful games available these days! I’ve written about favorites for other subjects plenty of times. Feel free to click on any of the images below to see a different list of games.

P.S. Games make great gifts for any holiday or birthday. They also make great family gifts or for people who are hospital or homebound. Games are one the most frequent things we give when a gift is in order!

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10 Engaging Online Games To Test Your Critical Thinking Skills

Last Updated on October 4, 2023 by Editorial Team

To define it in very simple terms, critical thinking refers to the overall analysis of all the facts and figures you have at your disposal and using them in an organized way to make a judgment or a decision.  There are a lot of interactive ways that can help develop your critical thinking abilities. However, what better way to do it than playing games and having fun? 

Conventional learning methods mainly demand a longer attention span which is at times difficult for young individuals. In such cases, using online games to ace the skill can be a wise choice. This post includes a list of ten online critical thinking games to develop critical thinking skills while keeping you focused and occupied in learning new things.  

Online games to improve your critical thinking ability

Various game developers have launched games that require the player to use their deep critical thinking skills in order to play and win. From matching numbers to presenting the player with real-life situations, these online critical thinking games come in myriad forms. 

1. Spent 

The first game on the list is Spent, based on the concept of budgeting and the various challenges one has to face in day-to-day life. While playing the game, the player will face multiple difficult scenarios and has to make crucial decisions that will directly impact their income (in the game). The kind of problems and challenges that you will face while playing the game include:

• Issues related to your health concern
• Getting correctly educated
• Trying your best to provide the basic amenities for the members of your family

This game will get one’s mind racing as it requires making quick and critical decisions that will have an impact on the growth of the decision-making process. This game plays with planning, summarizing, decision-making, and information-synthesizing skills. In addition, they get to learn about poverty, unemployment, the Affordable Care Act, etc.  

2. Air Traffic Controller Game 

As the name might suggest, the air traffic controller is an online simulation game that lets a player direct and guide various aircraft on the ground, on runways, and via the medium of controlled airspace. The main purposes of the game are to manage a popular airport, ensure there are no delays in the landing or the take-off process, and see to it that there are no collisions. 

In short, the player is responsible for maintaining the air traffic of that particular airport. In addition, the game also offers three levels of difficulty. At level one or Gate 1, the player needs to manage one airstrip where the difficulty level is very low. Once they are comfortable with the first one, they can move on to the second and third levels to stimulate their critical thinking skills. 

3. Sudoku 

Sudoku is a familiar and common game. The game is based on the concepts of basic logical thinking and a combinational number placement puzzle where a player needs to fill a 9×9 grid with digits ranging from 1 to 9. But the catch is that they need to fill in the blanks so that all of the columns, rows, and nine 3×3 subblocks present within the 9×9 grid contain all the digits, as mentioned earlier. 

For example, if a player places ‘1’ in the first block of the first row, they cannot put it anywhere in that row and column again. They must use numbers 2-9 to complete that specific row and column. The game (or puzzle) requires one to stimulate their brain in a manner that involves their critical thinking skills and enables them to think logically while taking aid from numerical skills. 

4. Good Game Empire

Similar to various other RPG and strategy games you will find online, Good Game Empire is based on an MMO strategy style, and the setting of the game is in Medieval times. The central theme of this game is that you need to build a thriving empire worldwide.

But, you will start the game with only a castle to your name, and you have to develop and make your empire strategically and fight opposing nations. This game pushes you to think critically and expand your strategic ideals to the best extent to make your empire spread throughout the world. The game will also offer you various choices from which you would need to select the option that works the best for you. 

5. Chess 

Chess is one of the board games played across the globe that requires analytical skills . There are always two players in this game, and the primary objective of the game is to capture the opponent’s king. However, it is not as simple as it sounds. White and black checkered board (64 squares) with different pieces (each piece symbolizes different positions like King, Rook, Bishop, Queen, Pawn, and Knight) arranged on it in specific positions- this is what a player gets on the screen while they choose to play chess. They can move one piece at a time, and each piece has a set pattern of movements that they must follow. 

The same applies to the opponent too. Using specially designed and designated moves, the players are supposed to check their opponents (also known as Checkmate) and capture their king to win the game. It needs the players to practice critical thinking, for one cannot randomly move pieces and win the game. Well-calculated moves and timely yet quick decisions are what they need. Thus, chess highly stimulates the players’ brains, allowing them to think critically.  

6. Minecraft 

The objective of the game is to freely explore the Minecraft world, explore infinite possibilities, and create new setups. Starting from building a block to making an entire city as they see fit, one can do it all in this game. This game allows you to freely exercise your imaginative and creative side of the brain. 

The game is an ideal option for students to practice math concepts and give them the experience of how those concepts are used in our day-to-day lives. Players critically analyze situations and draw conclusions all the while building and planning the entire city. The game not only offers the experience of endless fun but also helps individuals to use and practice their critical thinking abilities.

7. Brainstorm 

Critical thinking is all about making decisions based on analytical observation and this game allows individuals to brainstorm and find answers to challenging questions. In this game, the players need to answer questions that come on the screen by choosing the correct answer from the given options. The game starts from a basic level named “Newborn.” Answering all questions enables the player to move to the next level. For example, this Newborn level has 18 questions. 

A maximum of four players can join and compete with each other to complete small tasks and objectives ahead of every other player. The players would need to push their brains to their limits which means that this game will stimulate their brains and let them exercise critical thinking skills. In addition, this will allow them to improve their decision-making process. 

8. 2048 game

2048 is a sliding puzzle video game where the primary objective is to slide the numbered tiles within the puzzle setting until the players have combined them to form a tile with the number 2048.  Even though it sounds easy, the game requires one to think before moving a single tile as it could determine the outcome. One needs to actively think of the moves ahead of making to ensure a proper flow of movements. This game is ideal for stimulating one’s brain and keeping it on its toes. 

9. Unolingo 

Unolingo is an online crossword puzzle game where you need to fill in a 10×10 puzzle box. The player needs to fill the boxes by placing the words and letters precisely and completing the puzzle. Unlike a regular crossword puzzle, there are no clues as to which letter the player should put in to make a complete word. 

They can ask for a hint but that will add 30 seconds to the elapsed time. Clicking on the “Solve” tab will show the solved puzzle. This game requires the players to think more critically and stimulate their brains further. It is a fun alternative to regular crossword puzzles and will keep a player occupied for longer as they have to think more critically as to what letter to put and what word to make. 

10. Tangram puzzle 

The Tangram puzzle is a fun game that helps one to exercise their brain. There are seven geometrical shapes in the game. Each level comes with a diagram where the players need to position the shapes such that it matches the diagram. There is a provision to rotate the shapes and place them wherever the player sees fit. 

There will be 25 puzzles to solve with these seven shapes.  The faster the player solves the puzzle, the faster they get access to the next puzzle. It requires creative and critical thinking for they have to recognize which shape will fit which part of the puzzle. Also, how to rotate it to match the puzzle needs deep thinking. It pushes the player to think creatively and use their critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking refers to understanding a piece of information, analyzing it, applying it to practical application, combining the information with other prior knowledge to draw conclusions, etc. Critical thinking is essential in all aspects of life, personal or professional.

These online games can help an individual use them in practical scenarios and draw effective conclusions. The games mentioned above help one to think critically and also to keep their brain active by stimulating it to its limit. These enjoyable games will keep a player occupied for longer, allowing them to explore and learn new things freely.

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of  Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

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30 Best Games For The Brain to Unlock Your Potential (2024)

Find the 30 best brain games to maximize your brain help and minimize cognitive decline.

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75% of adults report they are concerned their brain health will decline and are looking for ways to enhance their brain health, according to Positive Neuropsychology 1 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-11389-5_11 . The good news: building brain health may be easier than expected—by playing games!

Our brains are amazing organs because of their ability to change and form new connections over time. This concept, called neuroplasticity, tells us that our brains can be exercised in specific ways, just like muscles, to become stronger. Games of all types can improve mental function 2 https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jgs.13304 and prevent brain shrinkage 3 https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jgs.12607 .

And playing these games over a longer time span may also improve focus , memory 4 https://basic.medscimonit.com/abstract/index/idArt/909022 , response time, and reasoning, all measures of cognitive function 5 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00221/full .

What Are Brain Games?

Brain games are games played online and offline, on your own or with a partner or team, that stimulate your brain. Brain games are sometimes differentiated from brain training, which is described as more intentional, like going to a class at the gym instead of simple play. For the purpose of this article, these terms are used interchangeably.

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Do you set the same goals over and over again? If you’re not achieving your goals – it’s not your fault! Let me show you the science-based goal-setting framework to help you achieve your biggest goals.

Best Brain-Training Games and Activities to Play On Your Own

While there is a benefit to the social interaction of playing games together, individual games can be played anytime to get an immediate brain boost, provide a break from a complex task or calm the mind.

• Crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles have been gracing newspapers around the world since 1913. And for the 50 million people doing them regularly, they build memory and attention skills and increased fluency 6 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6191832/ .

A recent study 7 https://evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/EVIDoa2200121 showed that crossword puzzles are useful for people with mild cognitive impairment, resulting in even better outcomes than web-based games. The beauty of these types of puzzles is that, like jigsaw puzzles, you can attack more difficult ones as you get more proficient.

Crossword puzzles and books are widely available, and many print publications still offer them daily. AARP also publishes a free online puzzle each day.

• Jigsaw puzzles

From young children to older adults, puzzles can help develop short-term memory as your brain looks for matching colors, shapes, and patterns. The more complex the image, the more pieces, and the size of the pieces all add to the difficulty. You even get a hit of dopamine when you find a correct match.

To make a puzzle even more complicated, flip over the pieces to try to solve the puzzle based solely on the shape rather than the colors and design.

This classic card game played with a deck of cards can help improve your strategic thinking as you move cards in ascending order, from ace to king, by suit. It’s a quick game that can be played with a 52-card deck or online.

And while employees playing Solitare at work has been mocked by comedians and TV shows, it’s actually a good way to give your brain a mental break from more complicated work. Plus, it’s a more positive way than doom-scrolling to refresh your brain.

If you haven’t played before, watch this 5-minute tutorial and learn to play.

Sudoku might be the game for you if you prefer numbers to words. Here’s how to play: A 9×9 grid of squares must be filled in with numbers from 1-9 with no repeated digits in each row or column. Additionally, there are 3×3 squares marked out in the grid, and each of these squares can’t have any repeat numbers.

Sudoku is available online and as an app on iOS and Android. It’s also available on many news sites, such as the New York Times , USA Today , The Washington Post , and the Los Angeles Times .

• Concentration/matching games

Nearly anyone can play Concentration, also known as Memory, Shinkei-suijaku (Japanese meaning “nervous breakdown”), Matching Pairs, Match Match, Match Up, Pelmanism, Pexeso, or simply Pairs. In this game, cards are laid face down, and players take turns flipping two cards over each turn. The objective is to find the pairs of matching cards.

To make the game more challenging, add more cards, set a time limit on each round, and lay the cards out in a random pattern.

Sometimes when you’re having trouble concentrating, it means you need a short break to refocus your attention. Enjoy one of these 10 short videos to recharge your brain.

Games to Play With A Partner or Group for Brain Health

Socializing with others is beneficial because isolation 8 https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/how-isolation-affects-memory-and-thinking-skills is associated with cognitive decline. So plan a game night and pick up a classic game or try something new to keep your brain as healthy as possible.

Boggle is another fun game where players try to find as many words as possible from a grid of dice with letters within a set time limit. Words must be at least three letters in length and must be made from the adjacent letters. The goal is to find more unique words than the other players.

Boggle is an excellent game for children and adults and can help people connect socially while working out. It is available as a board game online , in the App Store , and on Google Play .

Like Chess, Bridge is a game that requires concentration, memory, and collaboration. In its basic format, four players in two competing pairs sit opposite their partners around a table. Each team bids and attempts to win hands. The brain is engaged with the card counting and noting the information gathered in the bidding.

Research 9 https://bridgemindsport.org/home/research/ found that playing Bridge keeps people brighter, happier, and more social as they age. Its social environment has implications for good health through increased positive cognitive, social, and quality of life outcomes. Many communities offer freeBridge lessons at a community center, or you can learn the basics at the American Contract Bridge League .

Chess ranks as one of the more challenging games because it requires you to plan, concentrate and execute your strategy on a 64-squared chessboard arranged in an 8×8 grid. The objective of the game is to capture the opponent’s king. 

Chess greats like Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fisher, and even the fictional character Beth Harmon of The Queen’s Gambit represent brilliant strategists at work. Casual games can take up to an hour, whereas tournament-level games may take from 10 minutes (fast chess) to more than six hours. Learn to play online for free.

Scrabble helps players increase their vocabulary and improve strategic thinking by making words using tiles with letters on a 225-square board. The words must connect like a crossword, and bonus points can be collected using high-value letters, such as Q and Z, on squares with a double and triple word or point values.

Usually played with two to four people, Scrabble can be more or less challenging depending on the players’ expertise. The person with the highest score wins, but everyone wins with a positive brain workout. If you work up to a Scrabble expert status, your visual perception and working memory may also be enhanced, as was demonstrated in one study 10 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26026707/ .

Scrabble is available as a board game on the App Store, Google Play, and online . 

Video Games to Boost Brainpower

Video games have often gotten a bad rap for being a waste of time, particularly for young people and teens. But a 2018 research study 11 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6234876/ suggests the benefits of video games for cognitive and emotional skill-building for healthy young adults.

Let’s look at a few options for people of all ages—from youngsters to older adults—for increasing logic, reasoning, memory, and strategic thinking.

If you’re between 55 and 75 years old, Super Mario 64 (or other modern-day Mario platformers) may be the prescription to delay mild cognitive impairment due to increases in gray matter volume in the hippocampus and cerebellum. A 2017 study 12 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171206141648.htm found that playing  Mario improved spatial memory and recognition ability for adults in this age group.  

In this game, offered in various formats on Nintendo gaming systems, players take Mario through various levels, navigating through obstacle courses, hidden objects, puzzles, and other enemies.

• Nintendo Wii

You might be surprised at the benefits of using the discontinued Nintendo Wii gaming system. Its Wii Sports offers physical and mental components such as your box, bowl, golf, baseball, and tennis. Combining physical and mental activity and turning it into a social experience with a partner or group will undoubtedly boost your brain power.

Tetris has been a favorite game of many since its release on Nintendo in 1984. In it, gamers are challenged to move various-sized puzzle pieces around to organize them to fill spaces on the screen. Since then, it has moved to numerous platforms and apps to accommodate the changes in the video game landscape.

Some research 13 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/mnt/releases/162599#1 indicates that playing Tetris results in a thicker brain cortex, improving brain efficiency. Another study showed that playing Tetris could reduce the impact of painful memories or waiting for important news.

It’s so popular that there is even an effect called the Tetris® Effect 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect which describes how people think about strategically and efficiently organizing their personal space.

• World of Warcraft

It might be a surprise that this highly popular online multiplayer fantasy game made the list of brain-building video games. World of Warcraft, or WoW, has players create characters who overcome quests and challenges in the fictional world of Azeroth. As they conquer new lands, they reach new levels and earn gear that propels them even further.

So how does this connect to brain health? One study 15 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563212000143 asked participants aged 60-77 to play WoW on their home computers for approximately 14 hours over two weeks. The control group did not play WoW.

The test scores of the WoW players showed a much greater increase in cognitive functioning, and those who scored lowest on the baseline testing saw the most improvement. Among the advances were increased attention and spatial orientation.

• Brain Age Concentration Training

Nintendo offers a brain training and mental fitness game, Brain Age Concentration Training, for several of its game systems. The training includes numerous games and activities to improve your memory and concentration. Because it can also be played on portable devices, you can mentally work out anywhere.

Online Games and Apps That Are Good for the Brain

With computers and mobile devices, almost anyone can take advantage of brain training through apps and online games, almost anywhere, with a few moments of idle time.

• Braingle 

This website claims to have the world’s largest collection of brain teasers—over 15,000+ puzzles, games, and other brain teasers, free for your mental workout. You can even create your own puzzles to give your brain a more strenuous challenge. 

• CogniFit Brain Fitness

CogniFit offers neuropsychological assessments and brain training programs that evaluate 23 cognitive skills. Once the initial tests are completed, CogniFit’s patented methodology sets an “optimal sequence of brain games specifically for the user.” The programs are specifically designed for individuals 55 and over and those who have had a stroke, Parkinson’s, and other illnesses.

This app, initially touted for those learning English and preparing for the SAT, helps users build their communication and analytical skills by reading, listening, speaking, and writing. With over 40 personalized games, you are sure to find ones that pique your interest and boost your brain simultaneously. The app is available through both the App Store and Google Play .

Can you get over a bad mood with a game? Yep! Happify’s activities help you conquer negative thoughts, cope with stress, and empathize with gratitude—all components for a happier and more fulfilling life.

Using the basics of positive psychology, Happify’s quizzes, polls, and gratitude journal—combined with a nurturing community help you learn life-changing habits.

• Happy Neuron Happy Neuron focuses its games on five critical brain areas: memory, attention, language, executive functions, and visual/spatial activities. It creates a personalized training plan to fit you and tracks your progress, so you can be sure to get the most from your time online or on the Android app.

KenKen is an online grid-based numerical puzzle that uses the basic math operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—while also challenging your logic and problem-solving skills. The daily challenge allows you to customize the grid size to increase the difficulty as you progress. And it was, not surprisingly, developed by two men named Ken.

With something for everyone, Lumosity has games to improve your math and problem-solving skills, flexibility, attention, memory, and processing speed. Their word games also increase vocabulary, reading comprehension, and more.

One study 16 https://www.lumosity.com/en/science/ broke people into groups that either used Lumosity or did crossword puzzles five days weekly for 15 minutes daily. After ten weeks, those who played Lumosity improved more than twice as much as the control group did and showed significant improvements in subtests of working memory, arithmetic reasoning, and processing speed.

Check out what it can do for you on the desktop version or the app available in the App Store and Google Play .

22. Left vs. Right

Left vs. Right tests your awareness, adaptability, reflex, reasoning, precision, and patience through an app available on Google Play and the App Store . It includes 51 mini-games that test and train your brain in one of six categories to give your brain a workout while having fun.  

23. Mensa Brain Training

Mensa may be known as the high IQ society. However, those who may not fit that description can still benefit from the exercises to help improve reasoning, concentration, memory, agility, and perception. Their research shows regular brain training can significantly enhance fluid intelligence 17 https://www.simplypsychology.org/fluid-crystallized-intelligence.html , which aids your ability to reason, detect patterns and learn.

24. Peak Brain Training

With more than 35 brain games designed around research from Cambridge, Yale, and King’s College London, Peak Brain Training uses short, intense workouts to test your focus, memory, problem-solving, and mental agility. Their app, available through the App Store and Google Play , coaches you as you work on improving your cognitive skills over time.

25. Personal Zen

Personal Zen uses the journey of two animated characters to reduce anxiety by training your brain to focus more on the positive and less on the negative. It uses a neuroscience-based technique called Attention Bias Modification 18 https://personalzen.com/science/ to re-train emotional and attentional patterns that cause anxiety and distress. 

Players report reduced stress and anxiety even by using the app a few minutes a day, several days per work. Find your Personal Zen on the AppStore ,

26. Queendom  

This website offers thousands of personality tests and surveys to help you better understand your mind. Their test section lets you determine your emotional intelligence, IQ, analytic reasoning, and more. Additionally, there are logic, verbal, spatial, math puzzles, and trivia quizzes.

27. SmartCards+  

SmartCards+ helps you memorize anything from significant phone numbers to interesting words or a new language using spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is a memory technique that involves reviewing and recalling information at optimal spacing intervals until you can recall it sufficiently.

In SmartCards+, you make your own flashcards using text, images, and sound or import pre-made decks from popular apps like Anki and Quizlet. It also tracks your progress with beautiful reports so you can retain the information for a long time! Download it from the App Store for iOS devices.

Thousands of people play Wordle, a web-based word game where players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. After each attempt, colored tiles indicate if the letters are correct and in the right position. This game keeps the brain active and engaged as your mind sorts through possible letter combinations to find the right answer.

Wordle can be played in the New York Times Crossword app or the New York Times News app in the Play tab. A new challenge is released each day.

29. Word to Word

Another word game option is Word to Word, in which players match associated word pairs to complete the online puzzle. This game tests your knowledge of English synonyms, antonyms, crossword puzzle clues and answers, fun trivia facts, idioms, riddles, popular sayings, history, movies, hangman, word search, and more. It is available on the App Store and Google Play .

Brain-Building Activities for Kids

30. Pediatricians, child-health organizations, and the Centers for Disease Control 19 https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/early-brain-development.html#:~:text=Parents%20and%20other%20caregivers%20can,their%20child’s%20skills%20and%20interests promote the importance of brain development in early childhood through public service announcements 20 https://www.first5california.com/en-us/videos/former-la-galax and materials targeted to parents and family members. If you have a young person in your life, you can contribute to their healthy future.

Many of the previously referenced games can be played by all ages. Find 20 additional ideas such as I Spy With My Little Eye, pretend play, and other activities specifically targeted to those earlier in their brain development here .

Best Practices for Brain Health 101

As you age, you can protect your brain by staying physically active, eating a healthy diet, and staying mentally active. Adding in brain games offers an excellent workout for the mind and can help you maintain your cognitive function.

• Get enough sleep. Brains need quality rest 21 https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-deprivation/lack-of-sleep-and-cognitive-impairment to operate well; without it, the neurons become overworked, leading to fogginess and a reduced ability to function and focus. Give your neurons some love by getting 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night if you’re between 18-64 years old and 7-8 hours if you’re over 65. Click for a sleep calculator to help you with an optimal sleep plan.
• Fuel your brain . Studies 22 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805706/ have shown that good, nutritious fuel is critical for maintaining brain health and preventing atrophy 23 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9071484/ . Foods to look for include vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Watch this 
• Move your body. Numerous studies have identified benefits from aerobic exercise 24 https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2021/07000/Spontaneous_Eye_Blink_Rate_Connects_Missing_Link.13.aspx for memory, focus, and comprehension. And this benefit isn’t just for adults. In a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study 25 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331183800.htm , scientists found that physical activity also improves children’s ability to pay attention.
• Play mind games. Brain games are an excellent workout for the mind because they constantly force you to create new pathways as you solve puzzles, remember clues, and learn new things. The brain thrives on regular challenges. And a little bit each day goes a long way toward brain fitness. One study saw a positive impact on attention and memory function after three weeks of playing a brain game for just 15 minutes daily.

Your Brain Workout Plan

Understand how your brain works . The thinking brain and the feeling brain are two different animals, and knowing how to herd them can make a huge difference. Learn 15 actions you can implement for better overall mental health.

Use it or lose it. Staying mentally fit is important to overall well-being, and setting time aside each week for it can improve your quality of life over time. Experts 26 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext?inf_contact_key=779905f3c1735bf89533cbb79fb3e8eaf651f238aa2edbb9c8b7cff03e0b16a0 say it’s never too early, or late, to make a difference.

Find a brain health buddy. Having an accountability partner is a strategy that can help you be successful in many areas of your life, so why not get a brain health buddy? It could be as simple as someone who shares your love of Wordle that you can text your daily score. Or it could be identifying a consistent bridge partner to join a league with. Find whatever works best for you to stick to your commitment.

If you liked this article, consider these 14 amazing benefits of meditation that can actually rewire your brain.

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Games That Help Kids Think Critically

When gamers pick up a controller, they're frequently placed in the role of the hero or the protagonist that always wins. But that doesn't always challenge them to think critically or examine all sides of a situation rationally. In fact, what can help some incredible games and apps stand out from other titles is that they don't simply ask kids for RIGHT or WRONG answers. Instead, they encourage them to experiment and consider the shades of gray in problems. Players interested in testing their emotional responses may want to check out our list of the Best Empathy Games, Apps, and Websites as well.

Tozzle - Toddler's favorite puzzle

Drag-and-drop shape puzzles made especially for toddlers.

Montessori Geometry - Recognize and learn shapes

Amazing starter geometry app is fun and comprehensive.

BoxBoy! + BoxGirl!

Think outside the box with this charming, fun puzzler.

Super Mario Maker 2

Fun, accessible editing tools expose kids to game design.

The Last Campfire

Utterly charming, brilliantly made puzzle game.

Mass transit simulator is simple, marvelous, hard to master.

Mystery Math Town

Great math practice with fun story, entertaining characters.

Savings Spree

Kids learn financial literacy through game-show action.

Co-op puzzler is violence-free and promotes teamwork.

BrainPOP Featured Movie

Daily films from educational group provide tons of learning.

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics

Collection of classics promotes friendly social experiences.

Office-themed puzzler rewards creative and logical thinking.

Lumines Remastered

Classic puzzle game buzzes with new immersive play feature.

Maggie's Earth Adventures

Save the planet with these terrific learning activities.

Fun co-op sim is appropriate for all ages, skill levels.

Clever pinball-esque puzzler has a bit of mild combat.

The Path of Motus

Adventure tackles bullying with positivity and mild combat.

Untitled Goose Game

Don't let your goose get cooked in feathered fun puzzler.

Journey to explore big questions only gets you so far.

Marble Math

Marble mazes make for fun math practice.

Other great lists from our editors

• Learning Tools for Out-of-the-Box Thinkers
• Apps and Websites with Lots of Problem-Solving
• Free Educational Apps, Games, and Websites
• Here's the Secret to Raising a Safe, Smart Kid
• How to Raise a Lifelong Learner

10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking

Students may improve their capabilities in critical thinking and other skills that will help them be successful in the contemporary job by participating in Team-building games for critical thinking. Students who value collaboration (and who will go on to become employers!) have higher levels of motivation and creativity.

It is common knowledge that kids like collaborating in groups very lot. Why don’t we make it into a game instead? Games are often a better option than brain training activities for helping children develop lateral thinking. However, brain training activities may be employed. Implementing these strategies in your classes can help students become more critical thinkers and more successful collaborators.

Here are 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking;

1. minefield.

Minefield Team-building games for critical thinking is a time-honored exercise that has been shown to foster better communication and a sense of trust among participants of all ages. It requires the construction of an obstacle course as well as the grouping of the students into different teams. Students take turns navigating the “minefield” while wearing blindfolds and relying only on the support of their classmates to find their way. You might also encourage kids to use certain terms or hints in order to make it more challenging for them or to utilize information that is related to the topic in order to make it more interesting to them.

2. If You Build it

This exercise in establishing teams may easily be adapted to fit your needs. To get started, separate the children into teams and give each group an equal quantity of a certain substance. Some examples of this material are pipe cleaners, bricks, dried spaghetti, and marshmallows.

After that, you should assign them a project to work on. The challenge may take on a variety of forms, such as “which team can build the biggest castle that is also structurally sound?” Which side has the capacity to build the greatest number of castles in the least period of time? You may recycle this exercise throughout the year by modifying the challenge or the resources to correspond to other subject areas in the curriculum.

3. It’s a Mystery

Since many children, especially younger ones, like a good mystery, why not challenge them to solve it in a way that encourages them to collaborate with one another? It would be helpful to offer each child a numbered clue. The youngsters need to cooperate in order to find the answers to the clues in order to allow themselves enough time to solve the mystery, such as the case of the missing mascot. It’s possible that in order to solve the “case,” they’ll need to go about the room and look in other areas for additional clues.

Zoom team-building games for critical thinking is an old standby when it comes to games for constructing teams, and the many advantages that come with playing the game make it even more interesting. The children are seated in a circle, and one child gives each child an image of an item from Zoom.

The game begins with one child relating a story based on the image that they are holding, and the next student continues the story from where the previous student left off. The game helps youngsters improve their creativity, critical thinking, and communication abilities by compelling them to create the tales on the spot and challenging them to think critically about what they’ve written.

5. Save the Egg

During this team-building games for critical thinking, each team of three or four persons will have the opportunity to drop their egg from a certain height. They need to devise strategies that will prevent the egg from cracking while it is in the air. They are free to use whatever items or apparatus of their choosing to effect a soft landing for the egg or to guarantee that it settles in an unharmed state.

Because this one has the potential to get ugly, it is essential to choose a site that is risk-free and where no one will be worried about hurting valuable school property.

6. marshmallows-game

7. Go for Gold

The teams compete to achieve the same objective in this Team-building games for critical thinking, which is similar to the game “If you create it,” but rather than having the same resources, the teams have access to a huge quantity. For instance, the objective may be to construct, consisting of pipes, rubber tubing, and cardboard, a machine that, with the only assistance of gravity, can move a marble from point A to point B in a certain number of stages.

Although learning through textbooks is essential, teachers also have a responsibility to ensure that pupils can interact effectively with one another. Exercises that focus on fostering a sense of teamwork are an effective way to do this, and there is no sign that this fad will ever die out.

8. Keep it Real

Because it is founded on a straightforward concept that encourages conversation and problem-solving, this open-ended model functions as an efficient examination tool for students. Give the students the mission to identify and address a genuine issue that exists in their own schools or communities. For the purpose of assisting youngsters in defining their own boundaries, some restrictions, such as time limits, material limits, and physical limitations, might be put on them.

9. Shrinking Vessel

Critical thinking may be tough to understand after undergoing brain training, but after participating in exciting Team-building games for critical thinking like the shrinking vessel, it quickly becomes second nature. The participants will first be split up into smaller groups to begin the exercise. Every group is going to have to coordinate their efforts so that they can fit into a smaller and smaller area until there is no more room. Cones or a rope might be used to define the perimeter of the area. Playing this game will teach you how to collaborate with others to find solutions to challenges.

10. The Worst-Case Scenario

Students are split up into two or more groups, and each of those groups is given a tough scenario to solve. Some examples of these scenarios include being abandoned on a barren island or becoming lost at sea. They are then given the instruction to collaborate with one another within their teams in order to find a solution to the challenge and ultimately emerge triumphant. The children have to come up with a strategy in order to guarantee that everyone will live through the worst-case scenario.

In this particular situation, the students may be quizzed about the things that they will need in order to do the task, in addition to any other passages that they may come across. The fact that youngsters are required to cooperate with one another helps in the development of their ability to solve problems and teaches them the importance of working together as a team through Team-building games for critical thinking.

Bottom line

To achieve the highest productivity at work, Team-building games for critical thinking are conducted in distinct corporate games. However, these games can boost efficiency in the study if undertaken in a classroom atmosphere. They help students to break the monotony in the learning environment. We hope our blog helped you to get new ideas regarding Team-building games for critical thinking. You can implement them in your next session within the classroom.

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Critical Thinking Games & Activities for Kids

Critical thinking skills are essential to succeed in everyday life, and there are ways to enhance these abilities for children of all ages.

But what is critical thinking for kids? It means being open to new ideas, arguments, and information. Children with strong critical thinking skills are rational and look for alternative ways to solve problems.

We've collected together the best critical thinking games and critical thinking exercises for kids to make them become critical thinkers!

Online Critical Thinking Games

The most effective way to improve your children’s thinking skills is to engage them with educational games. Here are critical thinking games for kids to support their school success

Critical Thinking Game

This fun critical thinking game for kids is all about reasoning as fast and accurately as you can. Let’s try!

Puzzle Critical Thinking Game

It’s important to use your critical thinking skills even when you play with puzzles! Discover Tangram to develop it.

Math Critical Thinking Game

Critical thinking exercises and math can be the best friends! Here is a great critical thinking game with them.

Collaboration Game

Collaboration games are the best, and now it’s time to collaborate these numbers to find 10! Hurry, time is ticking!

Online Critical Thinking Game

Here is a fun critical thinking activity with candies! Attention and critical thinking skills make you eagle-eyed.

Basic Critical Thinking Game

In this critical thinking activity for kids, they need to select the image that is appropriate for the given condition.

Easy Critical Thinking Game

These fun critical thinking questions for kids are perfect for students in the early grades of school to sharpening their counting and math skills.

Cool Critical Thinking Game

It’s a critical thinking test for kids! Use your thinking skills to find out the correct answer!

MentalUP offers 150+ critical thinking games besides attention, concentration, logic, language, visual intelligence, and memory games ! 🚀✨

The best part of the multi-awarded app is all these gamified exercises are developed by pedagogues , academicians , and game designers . 🎓🙌

That’s why kids enjoy playing these games a lot; meanwhile, they boost their cognitive skills. 🤩

As parents, you can track your kids’ development with different report tools . These analyses are helpful to you in determining your kids’ strengths and the skills that need to be improved according to their peers ! 📊🎯

PLAY MENTALUP

Critical Thinking Activities for Kids

Now, let’s take a look at some fun activities that can help you encourage younger children to improve their critical skills! These exercises can help them to think critically whether they are at home, at school, or in online classes. Critical thinking in classroom can make them more successful even in their exams, such as the Kangaroo Math Competition .

1. Encourage Thinking

Children are full of questions, aren't they? So, to encourage their thinking process, you can ask them to try answering their questions or want them to answer would you rather questions for kids . And in the process, you can help them arrive at the answer using logical thinking instead of providing them with a direct answer.

It is possible to improve critical thinking skills even for preschoolers; one of the key elements of high-order thinking is making rational choices and justifying kids' own decisions.

Let's help your preschooler analyse the objects to make a logical decision themselves using critical thinking worksheets for preschoolers.

2. Play Sorting Games

Critical skills include the reasoning ability to solve real-life problems. And, of course, one of the great ways to support children’s reasoning and classification skills is sorting games that also function as strategy games for kids .

This activity will help children see the differences among various groups and enhance their understanding of the objects.

To play, you can simply ask your children to sort the same kind of objects using different features like colors, shapes, or sizes. Or if you would like to have an online solution here it is: Educational Games for 4 Year Olds

3. Solve Brain Teasers Together

To trigger brain activity, you can always benefit from brain teasers. Solving any kind of brain teasers together will allow your children to learn from you and challenge their problem-solving skills at the same time.

Also, brain teasers are one of the greatest and fun critical thinking games for adults!

4. Ask Them Riddles

Riddles are also an excellent way to help your children become critical thinkers, not to mention how fun they actually are. Asking riddles as team building activities high school are great examples of critical thinking in the classroom!

So, let your children promote their reasoning, problem-solving, and many other skills with a critical thinking activity as simple as riddles!

5. Create Games from Real-life Problems

Since critical skills are absolutely necessary for our daily lives, then why not apply them to some educational activities ?

You can take real-world problems like recycling or water scarcity as an open ended questions game and ask your children to think of solutions.

These kinds of pretend competition games for kids will not only boost their problem-solving skills as they focus on creative problems but also help them learn about their environment and develop their good sense.

Critical Thinking Questions and Answers for Kids

These fun critical thinking questions and answers are perfect for students in the early grades of school to sharpen their critical thinking, counting and math skills. It is also a very good alternative for kindergarten math games .

Critical Thinking Test for Kids

Bip bip! Can you tell which scooter will reach the gas station? 🛵

The answer is B!

If you follow the road path, you will see that only B can reach the gas station.

Want to solve more puzzles? Let’s try MentalUP Brain Teaser for Kids

Click to Try

Critical Thinking Example for Kids

Can you guess who is left-handed and why? 🧐

It’s irregular to serve drinks with left hand for a right-handed person. So, the answer is 5.

You’re good at hard riddles! Let’s continue with MentalUP to see your detailed performance reports.

Critical Thinking Activity for Kids

What am I? 😋

Tip: You’re using this magic word every day!

The answer is easy. It’s a plate!

Use the app for more questions and exercises.

Play for free

Critical Thinking for Kids

Which way is the bus going? 🚌

Here is a tip for you: This is a bus in the U.K

The bus is moving left.

Because we cannot see the door of the bus in this picture!

Couldn’t find the answer? You can always do brain exercises and improve your visual attention easily with MentalUP!

get Brain Teasers App!

Critical Thinking Question for Kids

What colour was the bear?

The bear was white!

The only place you can hike 3 miles south, then east for 3 miles, then north for 3 miles and end up back at your starting point is the North Pole.

There are only polar bears in the North Pole, which are white.

Can’t find the answers? Do brain exercises and improve your problem-solving skill with MentalUP Brain Teasers App!

Get the app

Critical Thinking Game for Kids

Which shadow corresponds to the image on the left? 🐓

The correct answer is D.

For more visual brain teasers for kids, download MentalUP and test your visual intelligence skills. You can see your detailed working reports and even compare your results with your peers!

Download MentalUP

FAQ About Critical Thinking For Kids

How to improve a child’s thinking skills.

The most effective way of improving a child’s thinking skills is to support them with educational games. If you are looking for the right games to develop critical skills, you can jump right into MentalUP games specifically designed for your children. Also, don’t forget that MentalUP provides kids with lots of different options such as Math Kangaroo problems , math riddles , and puzzles to empower their critical thinking abilities.

How to raise critical thinkers?

Whether you are a parent or a teacher, you can do activities with your children to help them become critical thinkers. Some of these activities include encouraging their thinking process, playing sorting games, solving brain teasers and riddles, and creating pretend games from real-world problems.

What are the 5 critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking skills are a combination of various abilities, including analysis, evaluation, explanation, problem-solving, and decision-making. There are more elements to be included, but most people accept that these are the 5 most important critical thinking skills.

At what age does critical thinking develop?

They start developing around the age of 2 since a two-year-old can communicate, recognize objects around them, and comprehend the differences between them.

Does critical thinking increase with age?

Critical abilities are related to one’s age and education. But it can be improved with practice at all ages. For example, the list we’ve created “ Best Apps for 11 Year Olds ” offers a huge help for that.

Is critical thinking taught in schools?

It is a part of most educational programs, such as solving math word problems requires critical thinking skills. However, critical thinking in school must be especially encouraged by teachers to help children develop and upgrade these skills. It is possible to improve it by using suitable back to school activities .

What activities improve critical thinking?

Playing critical thinking games for kids like MentalUP, doing puzzles, and solving riddles are the most important thinking activities.

Which game is the best for thinking?

It would be wrong to choose only one game to develop any skills. Instead of looking for the best game, playing beneficial critical thinking games for kids and adults would be more helpful. MentalUP offers 150+ critical thinking games, so the brain keeps being active with different kinds of games all the time.

Is Sudoku good for critical thinking?

Sudoku is suitable as a critical thinking game that both kids and adults enjoy to play. It stimulates other types of cognitive skills like attention and concentration too, so playing Sudoku is always a good choice.

MentalUP Educational Games are designed by academicians, game designers, and scientists to support the mental development process of your children. Because they are in the category of best safe kids games , you can be at ease! 🌈 You can benefit from MentalUP, which is among the best funny apps for kids to boost their skills. 💪

Try MentalUP

Problem Solving Techniques – Best Methods with Examples

How To Succeed in School

What Is Logical Thinking? 8 Tips to Improve Logic

Left Brain and Right Brain Development: Activities & Exercises

The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking

What’s The Question Game? A playful way to help students learn to ask the right question at the right time–with a paper cube.

Teaching Critical Thinking With The Question Game

contributed by Sophie Wrobel ,  geist.avesophos.de

Big idea: Teaching kids to ask smart questions on their own

A four-year-old asks on average about 400 questions per day, and an adult hardly asks any.

Our school system is structured around rewards for regurgitating the right answer, and not asking smart questions – in fact, it discourages asking questions. With the result that as we grow older, we stop asking questions. Yet asking good questions is essential to find and develop solutions, and an important skill in innovation, strategy, and leadership. So why do we stop asking questions – and more importantly, why don’t we train each other, and our future leaders, to ask the right questions starting from early on?

In A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, Warren Berger suggests that there are three main questions that help in problem-solving: Why questions, What If questions, and How questions.

Regardless of the question, the question needs to be phrased openly and positively in order to achieve positive results – a closed or negative question only raises bad feelings against each other.

Why questions help to find the root of a problem

What If questions open up the floor for creative solutions

How questions focus on developing practical solutions

So, perhaps, this lesson can be adapted to help trigger young children to start to solve problems early too and stop accepting whatever the kindergarten teacher says to be fact? And perhaps, continue to keep up these inquiring and probing abilities later on in life?

Learning Goal: A Pattern Of Critical Thinking

The Question Game focuses on teaching children a kind of thinking which is particularly useful in creative problem-solving–a focused approach to get from a problem to the most effective solution. It is most effective when combined with regular repetition, which solidifies the thought pattern, and with groups, which encourages contributory exploration of alternative responses and creativity.

Thinking strategies are just one of many strategies that are necessary for imparting charisma and leadership skills to the next generation. Many of us would claim that we don’t have the ‘natural gift’ that charismatic leaders like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Ghandi had. However, charisma and leadership are qualities that, to a large extent, can be cultivated and trained. With soft skills becoming more important in today’s job market, cultivating these skills early on can provide children with an additional edge in becoming effective, active citizens in our society. These skills can be broadly grouped into four logical skills and four emotional skills:

Logical skills: risk-taking, thinking strategy, creativity, and negotiation.

Emotional skills: persuasion, emotional connection, body language, and dealing with vulnerability.

Of these eight skills, the Question Game focuses on thinking strategy and creativity and aims to solidify the critical thinking thought pattern from an early age onwards.

Introducing The Question Game

Preparation: print out the figure in the illustration, cut it out and glue the tabs together to form a cube.

One simple idea is to pick up your favorite illustrated fairy tale book–the kind of book you’d read a two-year-old for bedtime stories. (This also works with most fictional works; the natural ‘breakpoint‘ for questions is at the end of plot development or paragraph for older audiences.)

On each page, roll the cube and answer the question together. I’ll bet you’d be surprised by what turns Little Red Riding Hood can take. And more importantly, after a while, you and your child will both start asking these questions reflexively.

Evaluating Learning Progress In The Question Game

My personal experience introducing the game to my two children (aged Pre-K) is a gradual acceptance of the game and associated learning goals:

Initial excitement: Rolling the cube puts the child in control and made a fun addition to reading their picture books; they couldn’t wait for their turn to roll the cube.

Distress: The questions are hard, especially when they aren’t used to this sort of thinking pattern and are accustomed to the ’teacher knows everything’ thinking pattern. Here, my children often asked if we could read ‘without the cube‘, or ‘I don’t want to roll, but ___ can roll and answer the question.’

Acceptance: As they start to recognize that there isn’t a single correct answer, and they begin to understand what each question is trying to achieve, they begin to enjoy the game and insist that we read ‘with the cube‘.

Application: During more abstract conversations, discussions, or observing how the children go about solving day-to-day problems during play. Example: a particular lego construction doesn’t quite work, even though it was‚ built according to instructions‘–and the child goes about investigating what is wrong and fixing it himself. Another example: When they ask me questions and I give them answers that obviously don’t make sense, I get more pointed questions than just ‘why?’ as a response.

Sophie Wrobel is a mother of two and independent information consultant with no pedagogic background. She runs a technology-oriented blog at avesophos.de and a self-improvement blog at geist.avesophos.de; The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking; image attribution flickr user usarmycorpofengineers

TeachThought is an organization dedicated to innovation in education through the growth of outstanding teachers.

Best Brain Games

There is nothing worthwhile doing when you are bored to death, than to occupy your mind with games that will make you think, think, think!

Brain exercises are just as important as physical exercises. Solving mental problems through logical thinking sets our minds to be always on the go. While playing and thinking, brainwaves are in full power, thus awakening dead brain cells!

In the modern world, we can play brain games not only through board games and physical games we play but also online! There are a lot of apps we can download on our phones and computers that will let us play the best games for our sleepy brains.

We have prepared a list of the best brain games that will definitely rejuvenate your brain and sharpen it!

This game was released last March 9, 2014, and was designed by Italian web developer Gabriele Cirulli. This is a single-player game that is all about addition and numbers. To date, it has more than 17 million downloads and millions of active users! Not only that, but it also has more than 120,000 5-star ratings!

It is fun and addictive to the point that even if you already reach the objective of obtaining a tile with a value of 2048, you still can’t stop playing! Everyone really enjoys a simple number puzzle which is still tricky.

How to play 2048

The object of the game is to slide together adjacent slides with the same values. Sliding them together adds value to the tiles. The ultimate goal is to obtain a tile with the value 2048, hence the name of the game.

You can still continue to play and increase the value until there are no more valid moves. Meaning, there are no empty spaces and no adjacent tiles with the same value. When this happens, the game ends!

So what are you waiting for? Follow this link and have some 2048 fun! Play 2048 now!

10. Four Pics, One Word

This game was released last February 4, 2013, by its publisher, Lotum GmbH. This is a simple word game that needs concentration and a vast vocabulary. All you need to do is download the game apps then start playing. By just reading its title, you will already have an idea on how to play this.

4 Pics, 1 Word a hit game that has 250,000,000 players worldwide! There is no need for registration fees and there are no complicated rules. What’s more, is that this game is available in nine (9) languages to cater to its growing number of players. In October 2020, 70,000 people downloaded its app.

Countless puzzles ranging from easy to tricky are waiting for you! New puzzles are added continuously for endless word fun! Find out what it is about this game that makes everyone so hooked and join the fun now!

How to play Four Pics, One Word

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, so goes the old English adage. For each round, this game will give you four words (which translates to four thousands!). Using your wits, your concentration, and your vocabulary, you need to find the common thing about the four pictures and use that to find the correct word.

Your hint would be the number of letters represented by the number of empty boxes below the four pictures. If the game gets too hard and you’re out of ideas, you can click the hint or help button that will give you a free letter!

9. Treasure Hunt

Treasure hunting is a game that involves physically searching for a treasure by following a series of clues and sometimes riddles to ultimately find the treasure or objects. It is also known as scavenger hunt which is a game wherein organizers give the players a list of objects to look for and collect. Players must complete the list or find the treasure, without purchasing them, of course!

Treasure hunting or scavenger hunting was more popularized during the 1930’s in the elite New York Society. Currently, it is played worldwide during school activities, campings, and even during holidays and parties. You may be familiar with Egg Hunting during the Easter season wherein participants look for hidden eggs. Some people also hide goodies during Halloween and have the kids find them to replace the traditional trick-or-treating.

How to play Treasure Hunt

A game like this needs to be very organized. Organizers must prepare a series of clues. Some use riddles to add a dramatic effect to the hunt. They will give the participants the first clue which will lead to the next clue, and so on, so forth. The clues have to be very smart, precise yet not so obvious so the participants will have to really concentrate and think in order to decipher the clues.

🤓 Suggested read: Brain Games Apps

You can play this game by teams. You can use teamwork, resourcefulness and wits to finish the hunt and find the treasure. Like any other game, it would be much more exciting if a nice prize awaits the winner at the end of the hunt or race. The organizers can declare the treasure, itself, as the prize!

8. Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles are word searching games which usually take the form of a square or rectangle grid. There will be clues for each word and you will just have to follow the legends in order to complete the puzzle. Crossword puzzles are usually found at the back of most newspapers as a sort of entertainment to readers. There are also various books that are filled with crossword puzzles that you can complete.

Of course in the modern world of technology, there is no need for newspapers and books, as long as you are connected to the internet. With just one click, you can download loads of gaming apps that will give you unlimited crossword puzzles to solve to your heart’s desire!

How to play Crossword Puzzles

To play this game, all you need to do is use your logic and vocabulary to decipher each word that each clue is pertaining to. The words are literally connected to each other in the puzzle itself. The direction of each word could be diagonal, across (left to right) or downwards. Follow the instructions and legends properly.

👉 Suggested read: Brain Games For Adults 🧠

The more words you correctly find, the more clues you answer, you will find that it’s easier to complete the puzzle. This is because you can already see some of the letters that will give you hints for the next words you need to find!

7. Rubik’s Cube

Puzzle lovers just adore this 3D puzzle that was invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. It was originally a toy called “Magic cube” and was first distributed by Ideal Toy Corp. six years after it was invented.

Since it hit the shelves in Budapest in 1980, there is a record of 350,000,000 Rubik’s cubes sold to date! This game also launched its own competition. As of now the fastest “cuber” in the world is Yusheng Du who finished the puzzle at a record-breaking 3.47 seconds! He beat Feliks Zemdegs by 0.75 seconds. According to most people it is the best puzzle game and the best-selling toy in the world.

It doesn’t stop there because solving the Rubik’s cube is very good in activating your brain cells and improves your brain’s cognitive mapping skills!

How to play Rubik’s Cube

There are 26 cubelets in each Rubik’s cube. To solve it, you need to twist the cubes and make sure to solve each face of the cube. Meaning, you should be able to to start with some randomized, shuffled, messy configuration of the cube and, by rotating the faces, get back to the original solved pattern with each side being a single color.

There are 40,320 ways to solve the puzzle of the Rubik’s cube. At first you will be content to just solve it but as you get better and better, you will want to improve on your speed. You just need to familiarize yourself with the patterns and figure out the fastest way to solve the puzzle! Can’t wait to play Rubik’s cube? Follow this link and start the fun NOW! Play Rubik’s Cube Now!

6. Murder Mystery Games

As the name suggests, this game is all about solving a crime and finding out who the killer is. There are a lot of games that solves murder mystery. Right now, you can find numerous variations online. They can be scripted or turn-based games that work by releasing information over the course of the game. As the game progresses, each character learns something new about the plot and their involvement.

You can play a character, search for clues, study all the evidence, solve the crime, uncover the murderer. Playing this type of game is a truly original way to entertain friends, family and people you work with.

Not only that, murder mystery games also improves your reasoning skills, logic, deductive reasoning and your gutts and instinct! You might someday grow up to be the next Sherlock Holmes!

How to play Murder Mystery Games

Murder Mystery games usually start with a story plot that explains the scenario. The players randomly pick a card or piece of paper that will give them their roles to play. Among all of you, there will be at least one killer. The group can decide what the killer should do to be able to make a kill. You can all agree that winking on someone can kill that person. Those who are killed will be out of the game.

Among the players, there will be at least one detective who should catch the killer. Given a certain time, the killer can do his or her killings. The detective should catch the killer before time runs out or before everyone gets killed.

This is just one example of a murder mystery game. You can add to the rules and make it more exciting! The more players, the better!

5. Bookworm Adventures

This word puzzle video game revolves around the adventures of Lex, an actual and literal bookworm, in the Great Library. It was invented by Popcom and it has three books namely Oedipus Lex, Arabian Knight and Lexonomicon! This game has 5 different modes: Adventure Mode, Arena, Mini-games, Tome of Knowledge, and Clips and Giggles. It will introduce you to about 150 enemies. Each book has a boss battle which you should conquer in order to proceed to the next book.

This is mainly a very fun word game that has awesome graphics. Your strategy, logic and vocabulary are tested while playing this game as you maneuver each move that Lex will make.

How to play Bookworm Adventures

In each level, you will be given your set of turns to fight back against your enemy. In order to make your move, just form a word using your given set of letters. The longer the word, the bigger the move, and the more points will be deducted from your opponent!

A little tip, give your longer words first before time runs out and your opponent has made big blows on you that could diminish your health and lives.

Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena mode for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne. It is a series of strategy video games developed and published by Valve. Everyday, millions of players worldwide join the battle as one of over a hundred different heroes.

This game will test your knowledge of the game, strategies and techniques in order to outwit, overpower and defeat your opponents in the game!

How to play DotA

First of all, you need to familiarize yourself with the plot of the game and its heroes, character strengths and capabilities and how to activate them. You’ll need to know the use of items and how to access said items. Play the tutorial. For many, DotA is already considered an online sport. You wouldn’t play a sport with a bunch of strangers without knowing how it works.

You can find a coach or play against game bots. If you want to avoid criticism, play the artificial intelligence bots. AIs tend to be very aggressive so you will be in for a challenge. There are in-game guides that you can use, too. They are not rulebooks but they can be your starting point so that you will know your heroes’ abilities and you can test stuff.

🤓 Suggested read: Fun Brain Games 🧠

Above all DotA is about teamwork, strategy, camaraderie and wisdom. You need to train, study and master your skills then you can try working it out with your teammates.

3. Scrabble

Scrabble is a classic and very known word game worldwide. It is played on a board of 15x15 squares. The game is played and sold in 121 countries and is in more than 30 languages worldwide. As one of the best-selling classic games, more than 150,000,000 scrabble sets have been sold to date.

This stimulating game has entertained friends and families during pastime and a third of the families in the US owns a scrabble set per household. This game tests one’s vocabulary and strategy as your words must be carefully placed in order to block an opponent’s move and earn more points for you.

How to play Scrabble

The goal and objective of the game is to earn the most points by forming words using the letters on the tiles given to you. Each letter/tile has a corresponding number of points to it. The game contains 100 tiles, 98 of which are marked with a letter and a point value ranging from 1 to 10. There are also two blank tiles with zero points but can be used as a wildcard letter by the players (meaning they decided on what letter it stands for).

The words must be read across (left to right) or downwards. The words must also be found in a standard English dictionary for it to be valid. Some of the squares on the board are premium squares because once they are used, they could triple or double the points on the letter or word for which it has been used on.

🤓 Suggested read: GTA 5 Cheats: List of all GTA V cheats for every platform.

Scrabble is played by two to four players. Each player will draw seven tiles and will keep refilling their set of seven tiles until all tiles are drawn. Each player will have his or her turn to form a word on the board, the next player should connect his word to the words on the board.

The game ends when one player manages to use all of his tiles. You each tally and total your scores (minus the points of your unused tiles) and the player with the most points wins!

Another classic board game, chess is all about strategy. It is played by millions worldwide and has recently been the main sport attraction of the recently released hit Netflix show, The Queen’s Gambit (named after a famous chess opening).

Chess players are known to be those people who can win battles. Their minds can predict the next moves of the opponent and can block those moves before they can even say “checkmate!”. It might be a very complicated game but once you learn it, your brain will be exercised in ways you could never imagine.

How to play Chess

This game is played between two players. A play has no hidden information. Everything is laid out on the board. Each player begins with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each piece type moves differently. The most powerful is the queen and the least powerful is the pawn.

The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king by cornering it under an inescapable threat of capture. To this end, a player’s pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent’s pieces, all at the same time supporting one another.

During the game, play typically involves the exchange of pieces for the opponent’s similar pieces. It also involves finding and commandeering opportunities to trade at your benefit or to get a better position in the game.

Other than checkmate, a player wins the game if the opponent resigns, or when time runs out. There are also instances wherein a game will end in a draw.

Sudoku, meaning “single number”, is a numerical puzzle which was introduced by the Japanese Nikoli in the newspaper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984. At first, it was called “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru” which literally means “the digits must be single”. Later it was shortened to Sudoku by Maki Kaji.

Studies show that playing sudoku can do wonders to a part of human cognition called our working memory. They say that older people who play sudoku tend to improve their working memory compared to those who don’t.

Play Sudoku online

How to play Sudoku

The objective of a game of Sudoku is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits wherein each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 subgrids that compose the grid contains all of the nine single digits which are 1 to 9. When you think about it, it may seem easy at first but as you progress into the game, you’ll realize that it is tricky.

It is when you are almost done that you finally notice the mistakes you make and you will need to retrace your steps. Sudoku requires patience, focus, and strategy. When you get the hang of it, it is actually a very fun game that will give your memory the boost it needs!

In playing these games, you need to remember that with each level or round you finish, win or lose, is a step closer to improving yourself. Playing these brain games will enhance your memory, logic, critical thinking, strategy, vocabulary, and more cognitive skills that you don’t even know about. Other than that, you are also improving your self-confidence which is very important for self-development.

What are you waiting for? Gather your friends and family for a brain game night that you will forever cherish!

It's all about gaming!

Pokémon Type Chart

4 Games That Can Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills

Games can be more than just fun time-wasters. The right game can also stimulate your brain and teach you problem-solving and logic skills. These types of games, whether they be physical board games, online games, or video games, can allow you to think outside the box and strengthen your mind when it comes to thinking several steps ahead. The following is a list of four puzzle games across different media that, with enough practice, can improve your critical thinking skills and sharpen your mind. If you want to figure out which game is best for you try this personal strengths test .

Mine Sweeper

The classic computer game about numbers and bombs, Minesweeper is a great way to teach yourself to analyze a board and think carefully before making your move. The object of the game is to clear the board of deadly mines by deducing where each mine is placed. By left-clicking a square on the board, you will be given numbers that will indicate how close you can find a nearby mine. Right-click a square where you suspect a mine is hidden to flag it; flag all mines to win the game. The game can be played at varying difficulty levels, and once you have mastered the basics, you will make it your personal goal to clear each round as fast as possible. This game will teach you pattern recognition and reasoning, and the better you get at understanding the patterns, the quicker you will be able to solve deduction-based problems.

Mancala is an ancient two-player board game suspected to date back thousands of years. It is typically played with marbles or stones on a board with twelve pits. As dozens of games with this board exist, there is no single officially-trademarked game of mancala, though the goals of a typical game usually tend to be the same: capture your opponent’s pieces. If you do not have access to an official mancala board, you can make your own board with household items like an empty egg carton and bowls. A commonly-played version of mancala requires each pit in the board be filled with four pieces, in which the players take turns gathering pieces. Mancala is a game about strategy, and is great for teaching players to visualize their techniques and think several steps ahead.

Picross, also known as a nonogram , is a single-player logic-based grid puzzle. The game can be played digitally or on paper, and, similar to sudoku, involves filling in a grid with deduction skills. The player is given an empty grid in which a picture must be uncovered by filling in blank squares as instructed by a series of numbers on the left side and the top side of the panel. You are required to reason which squares can be filled based on the numbers given, and if completed successfully, you will have filled in a picture. This game is another example of a logic puzzle that teaches you to analyze the board and make calculated moves based on what information is given to you. Once you understand the basics of how the game works, you will find it difficult to stop playing until you have completed a board, as the puzzle will test your mental strength and will satisfy you by filling in the blanks.

A widely-known strategy board game, chess is one of the quintessential games about teaching how to strategize and plan moves accordingly. Understanding the rules of the game and the basics of how each piece moves is only the first step, as chess can take years to master. However, you will find very few logic puzzles that will challenge your mind in quite the same way. Take your time to strategize and think, and you will be fully immersed. Whether playing against a partner or just examining the board alone to plan your moves, chess is great at building critical thinking skills.

Of course, these four games are fun. However, you will find that not only are they entertaining, they are also intellectually stimulating and can improve your thinking skills. Enjoy!

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Playing technology games and making science fun helps young kids solve visual problems and grasp ideas better

Lecturer, North-West University

Disclosure statement

Dr Moleboheng Ramulumo is affiliated with the North West University, School of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education

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As I watched my sons, Wavhudi and Rivhavhudi, play games on my phone before bedtime, I was captivated by their enthusiasm and how deeply they were engaged – especially when the games involved maths or science. Both boys experienced speech delays and I hoped the games would help them develop their language skills. It worked.

What I saw at home has been repeatedly underscored by research: early engagement with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts through interactive tools can profoundly enhance children’s visual literacy (reading, writing and creating images) and conceptual understanding (grasping ideas).

For my Master’s degree, I’d examined how molecular biology students’ lack of visual literacy made it harder for them to grasp complex scientific concepts. This academic foundation, combined with the newfound spark in my boys, inspired my PhD research : investigating the effects of early STEM education on young children’s visual literacy and ability to grasp scientific concepts.

In a recent, related study , I explored how different types of preschool education influence children’s understanding of science and their ability to interpret visual information. The study involved children aged 4 or 5 years who were in Grade R (the year of schooling before Grade 1) from various private schools in Bloemfontein, South Africa. I observed that those exposed to STEM education were better at spatial visualisation than their peers. These children excelled in tasks that required them to recall and manipulate visual details, such as accurately reproducing elements from images, while their non-STEM counterparts often struggled.

Some people may question why all children should be exposed to STEM concepts, given that not everyone will go on to further study or careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields.

But teaching these skills at a young age is not just about preparing children for specific fields. My findings underscore the profound effects of early STEM education on cognitive development, such as fostering critical thinking, problem-solving skills, creativity, innovation, logical reasoning and adaptability. These qualities are beneficial in many facets of our lives, no matter our career paths.

Testing children’s skills

In South Africa, private schools often have more flexibility than government-run (public) schools to incorporate specialised STEM curricula and innovative teaching methods tailored to early childhood education. This might include hands-on experiments like mixing colours or observing plant growth, problem-solving tasks and interactive learning through, for example, counting games and shape recognition.

Public schools, meanwhile, follow a national curriculum set by the Department of Basic Education. While this includes foundational STEM concepts, not all schools have the necessary resources, so the extent and depth of STEM instruction can vary significantly from school to school.

Though they were private institutions, the non-STEM schools in my study followed the national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement set by the Department of Basic Education for Grade R. This does not explicitly emphasise STEM subjects. The STEM schools involved in this study, which were also private institutions, had developed their own curricula that emphasised scientific and related learning.

Drawing from study methods used elsewhere in the world , I created a special test with two main parts to measure my participants’ skills.

One tested their content knowledge. This part assessed how well the children understood basic science concepts, such as distinguishing between living and non-living things. The second evaluated the children’s ability to interpret visual information, including understanding spatial relationships and solving visual problems.

The differences between those who were STEM-educated and those who weren’t were immediately clear.

For example, I showed the children a picture of some blocks and asked them how many blocks they saw. One STEM-educated child said there were nine blocks “because some are hiding behind the others in the picture”. A non-STEM child saw “six blocks because I counted them.”

The child with STEM knowledge used advanced thinking skills to imagine where the hidden blocks might be, while their peer only counted the blocks they could see directly.

In another exercise I showed the children a picture with a dog, ball, tree, desk, boy, school bag, book and chicken and asked them to identify which ones were living things.

STEM child: “The boy, the dog and the chicken are living because they can breathe and need water to grow.” The child understood what makes something alive, using ideas like breathing and needing water.

Non-STEM child: “Only the boy is living because the dog and chicken can’t talk.”

This is a more basic, less accurate concept of what constitutes a living thing.

Game-changing learning

Based on my findings, I encourage educators to integrate STEM activities into early childhood curricula to cultivate spatial thinking, visual literacy and scientific understanding. Digital educational games and interactive learning experiences can be incorporated into lessons.

Policymakers should prioritise early STEM education, recognising its long-term benefits in preparing children for academic and professional success. This involves investing in resources, training educators, and developing curricula that embed STEM principles from the start of formal education.

My PhD research was born out of my personal experience with my sons. This journey of love, learning and relentless determination reflects my deepest aspiration: to ignite the same passion and curiosity in others that I have witnessed in my own children.

• Mathematics
• Engineering
• STEM education
• Critical thinking
• Problem solving
• Digital games

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• INNOVATION FESTIVAL
• Capital One

09-04-2024 WORKPLACE EVOLUTION

Why gamers are the best hires to lead teams into the future 

Gamers spend hours learning intricate details of different games and perfecting strategies and skills to overcome various challenges.

[Source Photo: Matilda Wormwood /Pexels]

BY  Rodrigo Samwell 3 minute read

One of the most significant misconceptions about gaming enthusiasts is their work ethic. The stereotype of gamers as lazy people lounging in front of a screen all day unfortunately persists, but couldn’t be further from the truth—and farther from the reality, which is officially the new norm, not some far-off distant idea for future generations to tackle. 

Gamers are dedicated, spending hours mastering their skills, learning intricate details of different games, and perfecting strategies to overcome various challenges. They are committed to their craft. And what leader wouldn’t want the very same from their employees? 

They may be one of the most misunderstood workforces. So let’s fix that.  

This unwavering commitment translates to a notably strong work ethic in the professional world. Gamers are also adept at working under pressure, dealing with complex problems, and persevering through repeated failures to achieve their goals—all skills that transfer seamlessly to just about any real-world business role. 

Problem-solving and strategic planning

Games, especially strategic games like Football Manager 2024, require players to analyze situations, devise plans, and adjust tactics on the fly. This mirrors the strategic planning needed in business to navigate market challenges and optimize operations. 

It was tackled head-on in one of Cannes Lions’s most-awarded campaigns this year, “ The Everyday Tactician,” courtesy of Xbox, Bromley Football Club, Sega, and McCann London.  

The long-form documentary on TNT Sports details what happens after Nathan Owolabi lands a five-month contract with Bromley Football Club as their new tactician, having successfully demonstrated his gaming prowess and achieving the Championes milestone in Football Manager 2024. The campaign wasn’t just a marketing stunt, but an opportunity to show that gamers possess distinct, worthwhile qualities that can help organizations punch above their weight and win. 

Patience and resilience

Success in competitive arenas often comes after numerous moments of trial and error—and at times, failure. Just like athletes, the strongest competitors are patient and built by resilience, qualities that are crucial in any professional setting where long-term projects and iterative processes are the norms. 

Social skills and critical thinking

Contrary to the belief that gaming is a solitary activity, many games require teamwork, seamless communication, and critical thinking. Multiplayer games and esports competitions require efficient collaboration (often remote) and strategy, mirroring the dynamics of effective business teams that can be scattered across time zones. 

Digital savviness

For starters, gamers are inherently analytical and positively data-driven—two core competencies every gaming enthusiast can potentially bring to the business table. Their familiarity with digital platforms and online communities gives them an edge as it applies to both understanding and reaching target audiences. Their critical-thinking skills further allow them to analyze data and consumer behavior to craft campaigns that resonate, every time. 

Inclined toward innovation

Last but not least, consider just how core innovation can be when engaging with a community—any community, whether that includes stakeholders, customers, fans, or a mix. Gamers don’t shy away from innovation; they embrace it as a necessity. They know that it leads to progress, even when it presents hurdles in the immediate. 

As a smaller club with fewer resources, Bromley realized that, if they wanted to catch up and climb the ladder, they needed to think outside the box—something every business around the globe needs to be mindful of. Yes, the campaign won Bromley a promotion, but it also demonstrated in no uncertain terms just how transferable gamers’ skills can be toward generating real-world success, and why businesses should be game (pun intended) to tap into them.  

With 3.3B gamers worldwide, businesses have a vast pool of potential employees who are passionate and skilled in ways that can be applied beyond the virtual realm.  

While the lines between the virtual world and the physical world are blurring, there’s nothing virtual or fuzzy about the impact of one on the other. When you review your next set of CVs or résumés, look at the details and the whole person—not just their most recent employer. “Gamer” isn’t something to shy away from. It could be a badge of honor that just might clue you into the sort of asset an individual can be—if you let it.  

Apply to the Most Innovative Companies Awards and be recognized as an organization driving the world forward through innovation. Final deadline: Friday, October 4.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rodrigo Samwell is the chief commercial officer at ESL F ACEIT Group.   More

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