If you're like me, you're always looking for fun games to review material with students. My favorites (like Scoot) are games that allow you to review almost any concept or subject, so they can be used again and again throughout each school year. Having an arsenal of games to keep things fresh for students is a good way to get them excited about preparing for assessment.
That's why I liked these two review games that are both fun and simple to implement for all subjects and grade levels:
- Joy in the Journey discusses the creation and evolution of a classroom game called "Silent Ball." Yep, that's right. A silent review game. A ball is tossed between students who are seated on their desks. If they catch it, they are given a vocabulary word to define, math fact or history question to answer, etc. If they are correct, they toss to the next person. If they miss the answer, they sit down and are out. If the ball is tossed poorly so that the next person cannot possibly catch it, the tosser sits and is out. If the person being thrown the ball misses the catch, they are out. Also, if anyone speaks except when answering a question, they are out! Hence, the silent part of Silent Ball. This review game gets kids active and using kinesthetic learning while also exercising their mental muscles.
- This game is one mentioned by some teachers who said their class loved it so much, it was a great motivation tool. I hadn't heard of it before and went to youtube to see it performed. It's called Mind Soccer. It appears to be associated with the Whole Brain Teaching method. All you need is a class split into two teams, and a board to keep score. You mimic Family Feud and soccer, basically, as you ask the teams review questions. Teams are penalized for missing answers or taking too long to respond, which gives the other team a chance to steal points. Watch these two classes (split in the time-honored rivalry of boys against girls) get loud and excited about reviewing their lessons with this game:
