12 Best Free Coding Games For Kids

Looking for the best free typing games for kids? The games here are great keyboarding practice for your students. Sometimes it’s hard to teach keyboarding. These free typing games help provide keyboarding lessons, games and some even track progress!

Free Coding Games For Kids

These games are made for browsers and are mobile-friendly for iPads, tablets and even phones.

Code.org is a treasure trove of free coding games differentiated by elementary, secondary and beyond

CodeMonkey is free in the beginning, but has paid premium programs

Scratch and Scratch Jr is a browser and app coding game

Blockly uses blocks to teach coding by using code blocks to solve increasingly complex puzzles

Code Monster teaches JavaScript, likely better for old students

Code For Life has several games using things like Blockly, Python and more!

Khan Academy of course has a great step by step programming course with videos and practice screens right next to the videos. Better for upper elementary and up

Daisy the Dinosaur – A free coding app available for iPad

CodeKarts is a fun coding app available for Apple, Android and Google devices using race courses and racing to teach

Hopster Coding Safari is a pre-coding app for the youngest coders available in the Apple App Store

SpriteBox Coding is another app for the primary grades available for Apple, Android, etc.

Grasshopper – an app for Google Play Store devices that provides early JavaScript coding for older students

What is Coding?

Here’s a great video from Code Monkey that explains what is coding to kids.

Best Free Coding Game for Young Students?

Of the above listed games, the one that students and I like the best are the games from Scratch, Scratch Jr. and Code.org. Code.org provides a variety of awesome free coding games for web browsers that can prove a challenge for younger students, but it helps students begin to understand what coding actually does by needing to break down actions into their smallest parts. The Scratch browser games and apps provide 2 levels of coding practice with the Jr. edition available for even Kindergarteners to practice coding using blocks.

Best Free Coding Game for Older Students?

My favorite of the above games is again Code.org. With its desktop and mobile-friendly features to use on any web browser, it provides many games that even older students will enjoy. A favorite is the Minecraft game that allows students to see how Minecraft is actually coded.

How can you introduce coding to kids?

There are many ways to introduce coding to kids. There are many videos, but here at Picture Book Brain we really like introducing coding to kids with picture books! Take a look at some of my favorite children’s books about coding and computers.

Conclusion: Best Free Coding Games For Kids

Try a few of these free coding games, and see which ones your students like! I’m sure they’ll find at least a few that they’ll enjoy. If there are any others that you like that you’d like to add, let me know! If any games no longer work or require payment, please say so in the comments!

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