Simple and Fun Games to Inspire Class Participation

Mayfair Games has cataloged its games by what skills you can learn from them

http://mayfairgames.com/skills.php

I know this isn't exactly what you’re looking for because most these games are not simple but it does go to show if you look closely at most games there is some skill you can learn from them.

For example my sister teaches very young children. I gave her a copy of 10 Days in America. As soon as she open it she started coming up with a list of things the kids could learn from it like shape & color recognition even though the kids were much too young to play. If you look at even simple games, I think you’ll start to recognize the related skills.

I've made ~120 free print-and-play games available for download at my website:

http://www.invisible-city.com/play/521/list-of-all-gameslist-of-all-games

I'm not 100% sure of what your pedagogical goals are, but the following games may lend themselves to "educational tailoring":

* 16 Memories: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/479/16-memories -- You could make your own tile sets to support the educational goal for the day's lesson.
* Alien Abduction: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/52/alien-abduction -- The game is entirely verbal, so it's good for English class, but it's conversationally "deep", so it may require too much mastery of the language.
* Up-N-Over: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/24/up-and-over -- A simple trick-taking game that uses numbers from about -10 to 30. Good for practicing numbers in that range.
* Fact Party: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/55/fact-party -- Independent research, disguised as play. Good (and tough) for the same reasons as Alien Abduction.
* Jam Doodle: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/92/jam-doodle -- Another game with a strong verbal component and a strong emphasis on shape and geometry words.
* Diner Chess: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/85/diner-chess -- A deduction game with a strong verbal/conversational component.
* 1000 Blank White Questions: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/6/1000-blank-white-questions -- A trivia game where the players make up the questions. The potential pedagogical value seems self-evident to me.
* Tumblewords: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/119/tumblewords -- Scrabble meets Connect Four. Good for practicing familiarity w. the English alphabet and vocabulary words.

There are many more, but those a good ones to check out first.

Enjoy!