Free learning games for 1st grade

Set it up for a first grader

In the free parent app, create a child profile and choose Grade 1 as the age group. Pipalo then suggests games and levels that fit, and you can adjust any of them. You can also mark learning areas as more important, so those games are suggested first.

A game can move up a level on its own, but only after steady success without hints on at least three different days. Feelings games never level up automatically.

Math: addition and subtraction within 20

The Math game shows cars meeting or driving away, and your child types the answer. At the first-grade level, rounds include make-ten pairs, sums within 20, and problems that cross ten, such as 8 + 5 or 14 − 6. You choose addition, subtraction, or both. Number Tower and Treasure River add quick, game-like practice with the same facts.

Reading: longer words and trickier rhymes

Build a word moves from three-letter words to words like frog, hand, and duck, and then five-letter words like train and clock. Rhymes has a challenge set (moon and balloon, cake and snake), and First sounds can add an extra set of sounds.

More about the phonics games →

Listening, thinking, and feelings

Learning in first grade isn’t only reading and math. Pipalo also includes:

• Listening games (Pipalo Cafe, Word Delivery, and Surprise Claw), where your child hears a word and finds its picture. In Pipalo Cafe, the hardest level drops the written labels: listening and pictures only.
• What’s missing?, a memory game with three to five toys on a shelf.
• Complete the pattern, with colors, shapes, or arrow directions.
• Help a friend and Friends Clinic, which ask how a character might feel and what could help.

Following along as a parent

The parent app shows what your child practiced: completed activities in each area, rounds and level for each game, active time in the learning games, and practice days. It also explains how each game relates to Common Core-style grade 1 standards. It describes practice, not test scores.