Tiny Hands Play
Tiny Hands Play for teachers
Tiny Hands Play is free, has no ads and needs no accounts, which is why it turns up in a lot of Google Classroom links. This page is for teachers, teaching assistants and childcare educators who want to know what they are sharing before they share it.
The short version
- Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. Share the link, children open it, the games start.
- Works on Chromebooks, iPads, Android tablets and any laptop. Most games accept keyboard and touch.
- No ads, no external links inside the games, no chat, no user content. The only outward link is a small "buy me a coffee" button for parents on the homepage footer.
- No student data. There are no accounts. Best scores are saved in the device's browser only. The site uses anonymous page-view analytics and nothing else.
- Runs offline once loaded. Useful for rooms with patchy Wi-Fi: open the site once, and the games keep working.
Games by age and skill
| Game | Ages | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Kaboom Keys | 1–3 | Cause and effect, first keyboard contact, ABC mode for letters and numbers |
| Ball Bonanza | 2–4 | Aiming, tracking a moving object, emotional vocabulary |
| Memory Match | 2–10 | Working memory; 12, 24 or 36 cards for differentiation |
| Dress-Up Party | 2–3 | Choice-making, clothing and color words |
| Stack It Up | 3–5 | Timing, counting aloud, coping with a collapse |
| Melody Maker | 3–7 | Pitch, sequence memory, 30 melodies with a lion teacher |
| Spell It Out | 4–7 | Letter-sound links, missing-letter spelling |
| Tiny Town | 4–9 | Following multi-step instructions, reading short dialogue, kindness |
| Balloon Float | 4–8 | Timing and anticipation, one-button control |
| Rocket Ride | 5–9 | Two-direction steering, momentum, reaction time |
| Math Ninja | 6–10 | Number basics with ten-frames and arrays; 20 mental-math strategies taught step by step |
Math Ninja's tricks map well onto mental-arithmetic strategy work: making ten, compensation (friendly numbers), constant difference, doubling and halving, and partitioning are all there, each with a worked example, a guided attempt and independent practice.
Suggested classroom uses
- Early years free play: Kaboom Keys and Ball Bonanza on a shared laptop at a play station. Both are safe to mash.
- Turn-taking: Memory Match on a large screen, two children flipping in turn. The 12-card board finishes in a couple of minutes.
- Mental-math warm-ups: pick one Math Ninja trick, run the Watch phase on the board, then let pairs do the Solo problems on tablets.
- Music: Melody Maker's Learn Melodies mode on a class piano keyboard, with the whole class singing the note names.
- Early finishers: Tiny Town has no timer or score, so it fills five minutes calmly and stops cleanly.
Sharing the link
The homepage is tinyhandsplay.com. Each game also has its own page you can link directly, for example tinyhandsplay.com/games/math-ninja/, which describes the game and has a Play button. That is the better link for a lesson plan because parents who open it at home see what the game is for.
Adding the site to a tablet's home screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen) makes it open full-screen like an app, which keeps small fingers out of the browser bar.
Accessibility notes
Text is large and high-contrast. Every game works with a keyboard alone, and the touch games have generous tap targets. Sound is part of every game but never required: nothing depends on hearing an instruction. There is no reading required in the games for under-fives.
Questions
If a game does not suit your setting, or you have an idea for one that would, please use the feedback link on the homepage. Several of the current games came directly from teacher and parent requests, including the ABC mode in Kaboom Keys and the change-size button in Memory Match.