how to make a review game

How to Make Fun Review Games to Play With Your Classroom

On the rare occasions you can get a response from a high school student about how school is going, it's usually not the best. It’d be easy to write these concerns off by blaming hormones or a rebellious phase, but sometimes, the answer isn’t that simple. The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Yale Child Study Center recently surveyed 21,678 high school students and found that 75% of students' self-reported feelings about school were negative. 

The most common emotion students experience is tiredness, with 58% of students reporting it. Similarly, another common emotion is boredom—a little less than 50% of students said they experienced being bored in class.

But these feelings aren’t limited to high school students. In general, when it comes to higher education, students feel bored a third of the time while in the classroom. And want to know why they feel so disengaged? It’s because most activities aren’t designed to interest them.

Students feel under-stimulated, disengaged, and simply aren’t interested in what’s going on in the classroom. Several studies have tried to uncover both the reasons why students are bored in the classroom, with some studies suggesting that students feel bored 1/3 of the time they’re in the classroom. - Ric Sweeney, Why Students Get Bored in Class and What to Do About it

Think about the reviews you have before exams. These activities can be the most uninteresting things for students to complete, only leading to glossed-over eyes and poor test scores. But if you care about your class’ success, you can't let this behavior continue. Instead, you must make activities like reviews more fun and engaging for every student.  This tactic will increase excitement and engagement amongst your students and create a friendly competition to get everyone really eager to participate. 

How to Create & Play a Fun, Interactive Review Game

Use Slides With Friends! It's one of the easiest ways to run an effective, attention-grabbing review game without a ton of work on your end. We offer slide decks that resemble PowerPoint presentations with a twist: They include interactive activities that are one-of-a-kind and built to engage. 

You can use a deck to build your review game whether you’re teaching or tutoring in-person or online. All you need are three essentials: 

• A computer to create your game  
• A monitor to present your game (if you’re doing a virtual review game, simply share your screen once it’s time to play)
• A mobile device (specifically, your students will need one to submit their answers)

We make things easy so that you can start engaging your students quickly. However, to make the process even simpler, here are step-by-step instructions on how to create a fun review game using Slides With Friends.  

1. Use an Interactive Slide Deck to Play Your Review Game

We recommend using Slides With Friends to create a simple, interactive, easy-to-build, easy-to-play review game for your class. It's free to build a game and play it with up to ten students!

The first step you should take is creating a Slides With Friends account here . All you need to do is enter your name, email address, and a password.  

2. Choose a Deck to Start From

We'd recommend starting off from a template, so you don't have to build everything from scratch! Here's a good option, a "Classroom Review Game Template" , that has multiple choice questions and text answer question question interactions already in place, with instructions on how to use them, for you to enter your own review content:

If this doesn't fit what you're looking for, or you want to start from something that already has ready to play content in it, head over to our Popular decks page, where you can search all of our pre-made review game decks! We offer multiple options that come with already-entered questions and prompts (that you can still customize).

Browse through the decks (we recommend a Trivia" type deck to start from).

If you want to narrow your search, click on the decks to learn more about them. Doing this will allow you to see how many people can play, how long the game will last, and what kind of questions are already in the deck. After you know which one you want, click “Duplicate & Customize This Deck.”

You can also start your own deck from scratch, but for the purpose of this tutorial, let’s say you want to choose and customize a deck. 

3. Customize Your Deck’s Style

This is the stage where you get to put your hands on your review game! The first thing you should do is customize the deck with whatever look and feel you like. Use the top menu to change the background image for your slides, the font, and text color palettes.

Use the small left side menu to change the background and text colors for just the slide you're on.

Bonus, if you want to add your school logo, you can do this by clicking the gear in the top menu, "deck settings". Once there, you can add a description or logo if you have a paid subscription .

4. Change the Title & Subtitle on the First Slide

This step is simple. All you need to do is update the copy and icon on the first slide. Ideally, you should write a catchy headline to introduce your review game. Then, to choose an icon, simply click the current one on the slide, and afterward, a list of other options will appear.

Note, this emoji icon will only show for you — it's a placeholder, and in its place will be the QR code that your students will scan to join your live event.

5. Add Your Questions and Prompts  

Now, it’s time to create questions and prompts for your review game. You have many interactions and functionalities to choose from, including:

• Multiple Choice Questions
• Text Answer Questions
• Word Clouds 
• Live Photo Sharing
• Polls and Surveys

The main thing to pay attention to here is the top menu.

As you can see, there are four steps to each question : the " Question " itself, the " Choices " of answer options your students can pick from, the " Responses ": who guessed which answer, and the " Answer ", revealing which answer was correct (and which students selected it). If you don't want to show "who guessed what" step and / or the answer, just click on the little eyeball to toggle this step "off" so it won't be displayed during your review game event.

6. Add Optional Timers and Scoring

Using the left slide menu, you can determine a number of important settings for each slide.

• Top Medal: Add a poi nt value, and keep score, for all slide types that have a "correct" answer — Multiple Choice, Text Answer, and User Votes.
• Timer: Add a time limit for this slide. You can set the number of seconds (we recommend no fewer than 20 seconds) your players have to answer the question, and when the timer starts (eg. on which step of the question, step 1 being the question itself, step 2 being when the answer options or answer entry page are displayed.
• Image: set the background image for just this slide.
• Paint bucket: Change the font color and general color palette of just this slide
• Double: Copy this slide (with all its settings and styles) to another slide right after it
• Trash: Delete just this slide

7. Add Answer and Score Summary Slides 

For your review game, you can choose to show answers to questions right away, or hide them all until the end. If you want to wait til the end to go over answers, you can use an Answer Summary Slide to display all of the right answers together in a row, if you don’t present them immediately after each question. Your students will see their own answer (and whether they got it right or wrong) on their own device, but this won't be displayed to the whole group. ‍

If you want to add a little friendly competition, you can keep score by adding a Score Summary slide. This will go through the top 10 players and show their scores, from lowest to highest.

If you want to add these slides, look at the main menu top left, above your deck. Then, click the plus sign. From there, click Answer Summary. Then, repeat the process and click Score Summary.  

Also, you can have multiple Answer Summary Slides. They will only display the answers to questions that come after a previous Answer Summary Slide, allowing you to create several rounds in your game. 

8. Play with Your Students!

Once you’ve developed your review game, it’s time to play!

Think of this as similar to launching a Powerpoint or Google Slides presentation: you're starting a slide deck presentation and moving through each slide one at a time. The only difference is that, on the first slide, your students will be able to use their phones to join in to your presentation, and send answers directly to the questions in your review game. And the tool will automatically score the answers for you.

To launch your review game, push the button in the top right corner that says “Start an Event.”

After making some "event settings" selections — like whether you want your students to be able to use the sound board that send fun emoji reactions, or to turn this option off to keep them focused — you’ll be guided to a "Join Page" that’ll allow your students to join in the game with you. This is the screen you want to display or share with your classroom on a projector, screen, or through your video call "share screen" option.

Tell your students to use their mobile devices (like a smartphone, laptop, or computer) to scan the QR code or visit the link in the box next to it. Then, they’ll be able to enter their name and choose an avatar to play: 

Once you have enough people ready to go — you'll see each student join as an avatar along the bottom of the page — you can click the arrow on the right to move through your review game. Your students can send fun emoji and sound reactions, which is great for engagement, which you can always mute during the event if it gets a little too fun by hovering over and clicking on the volume button in the lower right corner to mute the noise. 

Get Students Engaged with Review Games

School doesn’t have to be boring. With fun activities like review games, you can help make education enjoyable and exciting. So give your students something to look forward to throughout the semester. Use Slides With Friends to create review games they won’t forget. 

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9 Engaging Review Games that are Quick & Easy and Aren’t a Waste of Time

January 26, by Michelle Leave a Comment

Looking for ideas for engaging review games for your class that work? Read to find some quick and easy review games for primary students that won’t waste your time!

Old ideas for revision

Revision or review of learned classroom work can be a pretty boring task for kids.

N.B. In Australia, we call it revision, but if you are used to the word review, I can use these phrases interchangeably.

Yes, you can give them a revision sheet or you could put revision questions on the board.

Both of these types of activities have value. They give you opportunities for monitoring their learning while guiding you on what to reteach before assessment time.

But for kids, these activities all the time are BORING!

New ways of looking at reviewing class work

Why don’t you use some engaging games that are quick and use more of a collaborative approach to help your students review their learning?

From time to time, I try to change up my revision/review activities in my class, especially for my grade 5 students.

This age group has so much stimulus from technology in their every day lives, that we definitely need to make learning more engaging for them.

Have you noticed how competitive they are at this age? This can work well for revision and review games.

I’ve compiled a list of some classroom review games for kids at the middle primary age, that are quick and easy to set up and implement into your revision routine.

I use them regularly and they work a treat!

It will change things up, not waste your time and make revision a bit more fun for your students.

Engaging Review games and ideas

The following revision ideas include some more active review games, including the well-known ‘around the world’, plus other revision activities that I use regularly to revise classroom work.

1. Group contests/table points

Group contests are an engaging way for students to collaborate in their revision of school work. (If you’re clever with the groupings, it will also help students to learn from their peers in the process.)

For these group contests, you will need to explicitly teach your class how the contest will work ; plus include information about their discussions while deciding on their responses.

Groups are numbered and each will gets to give their answer. If they get it right, every group will get a point.

A good way to run this is to designate roles in each group . For example, a) a student who records responses, b) ideas people, c) scorekeeper etc.

Group contests work best with no more than 4 or fewer students in a group.

2. Around the World

This is a very classic and well-loved game . Many teachers use ‘Around the World’ for many quick-response types of questions. It works well for number facts, particularly, but it can be used for any other short answer types of questions.

How it works –

• One student stands behind another student. These two, verse each other for a question.
• If each child answers the question correctly at the same time, another question will be asked of them. If the student who’s standing answers the question correctly first, this child moves to the next student and continues around the class.
• If the student sitting down answers the question correctly, before the student standing, they will take the place of the standing student and move to the next.
• The student who got the question wrong sits in the place of their opponent.
• The winning student answers the most questions correctly and moves the farthest around the class -“Around the World.” (The students will help you keep track of the most wins)

3. Personal Whiteboards

I use personal whiteboards for students and their dry erase markers in my room every day.

These small whiteboards are a quick way for students to respond to answers in a written way. Plus helping me, as the teacher, to easily monitor their learning and offer help and suggestions, where needed.

Students can also share their responses with the student next to them and get timely feedback.

Personal whiteboards are an engaging way to revise work instead of having the students write answers into their exercise books. (I think it just a novelty way than pencil and paper, but it works!)

4. Paired challenges

As the name suggests, paired challenges are another way to review content.

When students get to collaborate with a partner, it’s more valuable than just reviewing on their own. This allows them to learn from each other and help them make connections that they might not have previously made.

Tip: By cleverly pairing up students, it enables a strong student to support a weaker student, which benefits them both. Firstly, the stronger student gives explanations to their peer (which gives them a deeper understanding of the content) and secondly, the weaker student may understand his peer’s explanation in a different way. Win-Win!

5. Game Shows

Games Show formats are such a fun way to revise work.

Constructing your game show in a PowerPoint presentation, I must admit is a lot of work, but after it is made, you can continue to use it year after year.

Construct your game show to follow popular shows on television, like ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This is a great format because you can set up multiple-choice questions and it really gets the student thinking.

They love the fact that they are earning ‘money’ in the game too! which they can track through the game and share their totals at the end.

6. Catch the Fish

I have a very larger, colourful fish puppet that adds a fun element to my revision times with the class. I use it at the beginning of lessons to quickly revise what we have learnt over several lessons to help consolidate knowledge.

I set the scene of what we will be reviewing – for example – What do you know about the Language Features of Narratives? Then I throw the fish to each student as they recall what they remember. This continues around the whole class until each student has a turn.

N.B. The trick is, students can’t answer something that has previously been offered and they can’t talk if they don’t have the fish in their hand.

My kids love this activity and it’s a really fun and engaging way to review past content, get them thinking quickly, as well as have every child answer.

For this game, you can use any type of large soft toy as something to be thrown and caught by the students.

7. Whole class brainstorm activities

I love doing a whole-class brainstorm at the end of a unit of work.

If you record your classes responses to a particular question on a mind-map chart, it’s a clever way to revise many weeks of work and have a visible reminder on the wall to refer back to.

It’s great for subjects like; English, History or Science etc.

Examples of whole-class brainstorm questions:

• What have we learnt about….?
• What are all the elements you need in a narrative story?
• What language features do you need to include in an entertaining narrative?
• What are the qualities of light? etc. etc.

8. Warm-ups

Warm-ups are another quick strategy to recall students knowledge at the beginning of each lesson.

‘Warm-ups’ are activities that call on student’s the prior-knowledge from past lessons. As part of your explicit instruction , a “warm-up’ is essential for students to revise information, skills and concepts they have previously learned.” ‘Warm-ups’ “move knowledge from the student’s short term memory to their long-term memory, as well as build automaticity.”

Just choose a few quick questions or activities from the previous lesson and go over them at the start of a new lesson. This will help build their mastery in the topic.

For many warm-up opportunities, it’s helpful to get students to respond on their personal whiteboards. This gives them a chance for a quick response as a whole class, share with a friend and also get some immediate feedback on their work. You can also use peer tutors to go and quickly help those that need it, on the spot.

I love warm-up activities, as they are a quick way to review work and help students to gain confidence and achieve success in areas needing it.

By using this activity on a daily basis, you’ll see a huge improvement in student achievement and the kids will love it.

The game of ‘Buzz’ is another fun way for revision. It a very engaging for the whole class and I often use it to revise spelling words for the week or for a whole term review.

All of your class form a large circle around the outer part of the room. They don’t need to stand in any particular order, but you will need to give them clear expectations of the positive behaviours needed to play the game in a safe and respectful manner.

• Start the game by picking a student.
• Then the teacher chooses a word that the class will spell, for example, ‘Respectful’ – the beginning student says the first letter of the word – ‘R’, then the next student says the next letter -‘E’ and so forth.
• If a student says the wrong letter, they sit down and are out of that round.
• Once all the letters for the word are spelt, the next person must say the word ‘Buzz!’ If they forget, they sit down, if they remember the next person sits down.
• Then you start on subsequent spelling words until all the students are out.
• The last person standing is the winner and they begin the new game.

It’s a great way to develop listening skills as well as revising work.

In closing:

I hope these suggestions have given you some ideas for your next revision session.

I know my classes of grade 5’s have really loved these engaging revision game over the years and are certainly not bored.

I hope your kids love them too!

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

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About Michelle

Michelle is a qualified primary teacher in Australia - BEd (Dist) and is the founder of Teach Smart With Me. She is also a certified Holistic Life Coach (HLC) and Mind-Body Practitioner (MBP) and is passionate about guiding other busy teachers in their search for balance.

Michelle understands the ins and outs of life in the classroom and loves to coach educators to thrive, using a variety of tools to help them prioritise their own self-care and wellbeing.

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17 Test Review Game Ideas for Middle & High School

Why should you use games as review in your class? 

-Games are fun, and test review games are useful and AWESOME. Reviewing for an exam can be an enlightening formative assessment in and of itself.

Before administering the test you can see what the students have retained. As the review unfolds you can identify weaknesses, clarify a misunderstanding and support students before they face the exam. 

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

-Gamifying the review raises the stakes, the energy and the buy-in for students. Plus, it can be a lot more fun for you! Here are a list of 10 games to get you rolling, plus some from around the web. Use them verbatim or modify to your classroom needs.

The last review game is an editable board game that you can download for free, so be sure to grab it!

Let’s Play!

If you’ve never played this game it’s super fun; and if you can’t draw it’s so much better! 

How it Works: In groups of 4 students pair up, two and two. One pair goes first. The drawer picks up a card with a term on it — event, person, vocabulary, whatever you’re reviewing. S(he) has 1 minute to draw clues and get their partner to guess the correct answer. If said partner doesn’t get the answer after a minute the other pair has a chance to try and answer and steal the points. If they get the answer right they get 5 points. Then the next team has a turn. This continues for a prescribed amount of time. Whichever team has the most points at the end “wins”. 

Extensions: You can have the winning team for each group enters a playoff on the whiteboard at the front of the class until you have the ultimate Pictionary Pair.

Materials & Prep: You need to create about 20-25 clues to play this game for most of the period. Type up the clues in a grid (or handwrite the terms if that’s faster for you) and make enough copies for 1 per group. They need to be cut out and put into an envelope.

I’m not going to lie, this does takes a few minutes to do, depending on how many classes you have. However, think long term; you can save them to use next year. If you have a service student (I’ve landed 1 for the last couple of years — yay!) it’s easier.

If you have small dry erase white boards like these for each pair that’s awesome, but not at all necessary. Just cut up (more cutting!) sheets of copy paper into 4s and use to draw on (you can even have students do it at before the game begins)

You will also need timers, which are super cheap on Amazon. Check them out here . As an alternative you can set a timer on your SMARTBoard and all groups will work in the same timeframe. That’s it, you’re done.

Students Create Their Own Review Game

How it works: I LOVE this one! The picture above is a game board I made for the Chinese Cultural Revolution. But I’ve also created an editable blank copy that you can use for any unit.

Or, better yet, let your students create their own review game board! It looks like this:

Materials & Prep: You’ll need 2 things besides the game board, dice and game pieces . You can pick up a 50-piece set of dice on Amazon for about $7. They’re nice to have around. You can pull them out to see which group gets a particular assignment, who goes first when presenting, even how many days to allow for an assignment!

If you don’t want to buy game pieces, colored paper clips or coins will do.

PASSWORD     

This is a REALLY old school game, but perfect for review. Students get riled up when playing this — to the point where they sometimes shout out the answer for the other team!

How it Works: Divide the class into 2 or 3 teams. You need a student to be the clue giver — they can rotate or choose one for the whole game. Team 1 starts. The spokesman has a term/person/event they must try to get their team to say without saying any of the words in the answer. They give verbal clues as fast as possible until someone gets it. Then they quickly go to the next term. Team 1 has two minutes to get as many terms as possible. Then it’s Team 2’s turn — same routine. Next up is Team 3 if you’re using 3 teams. Rotate three or four times and add up the points for the winner. This is fast-paced and fun and covers a lot of review.

EXAMPLE (For French Revolution) Term: Louis XVI. Clues: “Absolute monarch. Lived in a huge palace. He spent more money than they could afford. He had his head cut off.”

Materials & Prep: You simply need a stack of index cards.  Write words, terms, events, people, anything relevant to the review, one on each index card. Your need A LOT of index cards, at least 35, depending on how hard each term is to describe. Write down every clue you can think of, then start googling the topic to get more or throw in terms from older units to refresh their recollection. When you create the index cards save them to use year after year and class after class.

HEADS-UP      

The game is the opposite of Password above. Instead of 1 person trying to get their team to say the answer only one person doesn’t know the answer and the team has to get that single student to answer.

How it Works: The class is divided into 2 or 3 teams. Team 1 goes first. Whoever is it must stand in the front of the room for the whole team to see them and hold up an index card on their forehead, so everyone can see but them. Alternatively, someone can write the term on the board behind the guesser. The team gives clues to try and get “it” to guess correctly. As soon as they get the answer they go to the next clue. After a prescribed time (2-3 minutes) play stops and the next team goes. You can do a determined amount of rounds (at least 3) or period of time.

Materials & Prep: You need index cards with clues. I try to make about 30. This takes some prep time, but if the questions are harder you can use less because it will take each team longer to answer the questions. If you’re having a hard time coming up with that many on the specific unit you’re reviewing throw in some review questions from prior units. And save the cards to reuse at the end of the year for finals and for coming years.

I love this game and have made cards for several topics. Global history teachers, if you’re short on time, or just want to see how I’ve done it, you can access review cards for the Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment Era or Imperialism they’re a click away. U.S. history teachers, you can try my cards for the Civil War or the Great Depression . You could also use these cards for both Pictionary and Password. Hope these resources are useful to you!

  BATTLESHIP 

A colleague of mine turned me on to this game and it’s fun (thank you, Brendan!). Students get to throw paper balls! But it’s also challenging and an excellent review for a unit.

How it Works: You start with groups of 4. Each group has to create 5 questions for the topic being covered. They cannot be questions that allow a yes or no question. Each question should be written on a separate sheet of paper.

Now the battle begins. Starting with a team chosen by picking a number or rock, paper, scissors — whatever floats your boat — the team throws their “bomb to another team. That team has 2 minutes to read the question, discuss and answer. If they get it right it’s their turn to throw a “bomb”. If they get it wrong one of their 2 battleships are sunk. Play continues until their is one victor.

Materials & Prep: This game is EASY prep. Create a PowerPoint slide of the rules. Walk around to ensure that questions are appropriate. You can allow open notebook while playing or not.

If you’re a teacher who likes props you can print out pictures of battleships or plastic toys for each group and take them away as they’re sunk. To take it to another level bring in dollar store tub toys as battleships and float them in a basin of water. When a battleship is sunk play an appropriate sound effect and push one of the boats to the bottom of the water.

Who doesn’t like Bingo?! I use this game often as a review. 

How it Works: Students each get a different Bingo card with review terms on it. Walk around and have different students pick a term from a bag. They have to give the class a definition or explanation of the term, not just say it. This allows for a deeper, more meaningful review. The student calls on students until they identify the term. 

You can play straight Bingo, L shape, inner circle, outer circle, “X”, postage stamp, and finally full card.

Materials & Prep: There are 2 ways to implement this. The first method is that you just make copies of a blank Bingo board for each student and display a minimum of 24 terms on a PowerPoint. Students are in charge of writing one term in each box (except the free middle box of course) in whatever order they wish.

The second method is to distribute pre-made Bingo cards with the terms already filled in. I have created a FREE Bingo Review for the Enlightenment Era , which is useful for both global and U.S. history teachers. There are bingo cards pre-made for the French Revolution as well that includes 30 different scrambled bingo cards and a vocabulary review handout. 

Digital Dice

I happened upon a pair of digital dice and was hooked! These are awesome for review games, but work to gamify anything you’re doing in your class on a day-to-day basis. It’s a PowerPoint slide. You simply click to roll the dice and click again to stop the roll. I have a whole separate post on them here , including a link to download our own set! Check it out if you’re interested.

  LIFE’S TOUGH, GET A HELMET

This is a group game (groups of 4 works well) that involves answering questions and gaining points — or losing points if you’re unlucky!

How it Works: Display a medium-to-challenging question with clear instructions: Identify 3 causes of the French Revolution in a full sentence. One group member writes the full question for the group (recorder should be rotated). The group discusses the question and writes the answer once they’ve figured it out. Another group member is the runner (also should be rotated) and brings you the answer.

The first 3 groups to deliver the correct answer go to the whiteboard where there are Post-it notes. The 3 winners each take a Post-it which has points on the back: 5, 10, 15, -5 or -10. The reason for the negative points is two-fold. Firstly, it makes the game more risky. Secondly, there are invariably 1 or 2 teams that start to dominate a game, this evens the playing field. Continue on to Rounds 2 – 10. Whoever has the most points in the end wins.

Variation: You can up the stakes for the last few questions by having a double-bonus rounds where the 3 winners can take two Post-its instead of one.

Materials & Prep: The two things you need are:

• A PointPoint with each question posted on a different slide
• Between 35-45 Post-its with points written on the sticky side. 

Stick the Post-its randomly (or in rows if you’re a bit OCD) all over your whiteboard or any smooth surface. I’m not going to lie; it does take a few minutes to make and stick all those Post-it notes. If you’re playing this game with numerous classes elicit the help of students, if you have access to service students or class helpers.

Create the questions to cover major concepts you want the students to review and make them somewhat difficult. If the questions are too easy then it’s a content of who can write faster, rather than knowing the subject matter. I wrap up the class by distributing the ten questions from the game on a handout and ask students to answer them for the last ten minutes of class. This reinforces the review that just took place and gives them a study guide.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

This is not a game for a rowdy class. It entails throwing a beach ball from team to team and not all classes can handle that. However it’s fast-paced, fun and can be as rigorous as you want to make it.

How it Works: In groups of four the teacher throws the beach ball to a group. Whoever catches it has 30 seconds to answer your question. If they get it right they go to the spinner to see how many points they get. That team then throws to another team and the game continues. You can end the game when a team reaches a certain number of points or stop at a prescribed time to ascertain the winner.

Materials and Prep: Obviously, you need a beach ball or an equivalent (nerf ball, paper ball, etc.) You can invest in a prize wheel for your classroom, which can be used for various other purposes as well.

My daughter purchased one and uses it weekly as an incentive for her students as well as for teaching and review games. She gives out raffle tickets all week for various good behaviors. On Friday any student with ten or more tickets can spin the wheel for a prize (homework pass, +5, candy, pencil, etc)

It’s not the highest quality they sell, but Jackie says it gets the job done. You can also write on each section; it’s like a whiteboard. You can check the price on Amazon here .

BASKETBALL                                     

Boys and girls love this game. It can also be added to any of the other games. When a group gets an answer they get the prescribed amount of points AND get to shoot for extra points.

How it Works: Divide the class into four groups. One group gets to pick the question for another. Simply have a stack of index cards facing down, so they don’t know if they’re choosing a hard or easy question. Group 1 has 30 seconds to answer the question. If they get it right they get 10 points. The group chooses a shooter who gets 2 shots at the basket for an extra 5 points. The game continues until a set amount of points or time. 

Variations: If a group does not get the answer you can go to the next group, then the next, etc. Another variation is to have a double bonus round at the end to allow lagging groups to try and catch up so that they don’t give up and “check out” of the game.

Materials & Prep: Write down 20 easy and 20 hard questions on index cards in preparation for playing the game. You also need a basketball hoop and basketball. We share one in my department. The really flimsy ones can be frustrating. This is a solid hoop which you will have for years and is less than $25.

PLICKERS                     

This is a great way to practice multiple choice questions. Students enjoy Plickers much more than traditional paper and pen methods of review.

How it works: Each student is given a sheet of paper with a QR code that is unique to them. A multiple choice question is posted on PowerPoint. Students hold up their Plicker with their answers (each side has a 1-4 and they turn the card so that the correct answer is on top). The teacher scans the room with an  app on his phone and records all the answers. The app tallies all the answers and show each student’s correct or incorrect answer.

Materials & Prep: Plickers is a free app that you download on your phone. Simply sign up and upload your classes onto their site. It’s very user-friendly. The site will generate QR codes on each Plicker for you to print out. I like to laminate mine and they can be used again and again. Generate multiple-choice questions from Problem-Attic, old NYS Regents exams or Googling.

REVIEW GAMES FROM AROUND THE NET

The above games are all tried and vetted in my classroom. I surfed the web to find other review games that seemed like fun (and I will try in the future). Here are the ones that I particularly liked.

The following games are from Teach4theheart.

RACE TO THE BOARD

Teachhub.com described several review games in their article. Three I really liked are

PASS THE CHICKEN

Scholastic describes two classic games here scholastic.com

MILLIONAIRE

FAMILY FEUD

Finally here is a game with a fun name at Toengagethemall.blogspot.com

Playing games in class has so many advantages. It changes the tone of the classroom and allows you to interact with the students in a more informal manner. You get to see different sides to students (some are incredibly competitive!) You can assess student comprehension and recall in a nonthreatening  atmosphere. 

Prizes can take many forms. My go-to is extra points on the test the we are reviewing for. Other possibilities are candy, their names posted or a homework pass. One colleague gave “bragging rights” to the winning team in each class. He told them that they could officially declare themselves “Global History Badasses” or something similar for the rest of the day. The students bought into it, much to my surprise! 

Whichever game you play and prize you give enjoy the levity. Teaching is often stressful; we need to embrace those fun and sometimes inspiring moments when we can. So go play, good pedagogy demands it! 

If you’d like to download a copy of this article click here.

Teach and Thrive

A Bronx, NY veteran high school social studies teacher who has learned most of what she has learned through trial and error and error and error.... and wants to save others that pain.

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12 Best Review Games and Activities for the Classroom

A review game is a fun activity to prepare students for tests and to help them with their understanding of the content in class.

A review game aims to find ways to get students to answer questions correctly in a way that doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable. It allows them to ask questions, score points for the right answers, and create a unique educational environment.

Group activities, whereby students work in teams, are a great way to foster team-building and can also help students with test prep.

In this article, you will find a list of the best review games that are fun for students and teachers.

But let’s take a look at some of our favorite review games first. You will find more games and more details about the rules of the games further down in this article.

The 12 Best Classroom Review Games

Games are exciting and engaging and make finding the right answer to a question something to strive for. They prepare students for the questions they will find on the exam and make test preparation a social play.

Below are our favorite low-prep review games and activities for elementary, middle, and high school.

1. Friendly Feud

Want a fun group review game for your students? Try the classroom version of “Family Feud”!

Here is how to play Friendly Feud in your classroom:

First, divide the class into two teams. (Each team will compete against the other to answer review questions.) Next, the teacher shows a question from the Friendly Feud game template (don’t forget to download the “Friendly Feud” PowerPoint game !). One student from each team then tries to guess the answer. If they are right, their team continues guessing; if not, it is the other team’s turn. Teams earn points based on how popular their answer is, and after three wrong guesses, the other team has a chance to steal points. The game ends when one team has the most points, and for an added twist, the winning team can play a bonus round to guess the top answers quickly. The main goal? Guess the most popular answers and enjoy the game!

2. Classroom Jeopardy

If you have a smartboard or other type of projection, try this classroom Jeopardy template!

First, make sure to download the “Jeoparty” PowerPoint game template. Then, create Jeopardy questions for the game in categories with monetary values. Next, divide the class into teams. It works great whether you are in a classroom or on a video call with screen sharing.

The game rules are simple. A team selects a category and point value, and the teacher reveals a question by clicking on it. Students get a limited time to answer. The teacher can show the correct answer using a button on the slide. If the team’s answer matches, they get the points, and scores are tracked on a scoreboard. After each turn, you will go back to the main question board. Keep playing until all questions are picked. The aim? Answer correctly and rack up points!

Watch the video below to see how to customize and use the Jeopardy template.

3. Classroom Wordle

This Classroom Wordle for students is a fun game to test vocabulary, suitable for teachers to use in any grade.

Playing Classroom Wordle online is super fun to play and easy to set up. Students guess a 5-letter word and type it into the first row of the 5×6 tiles. Tiles will change colors based on your guess: grey means the letter isn’t in the word, yellow means it’s in the word but in the wrong spot, and green means it’s correct and in the right place. Players have six tries to guess the word. If they get it before then, they win! If not, the word is revealed at the end. Each new turn brings a fresh word to guess. Students can play the quiz game individually on phones, classroom tablets, or as a group activity in class. You can create your own online Wordle game here .

You can play classroom Wordle unlimited times with your students in these three fun ways:

• Fastest Fingers: Students play individually on their phones and the quickest to guess the word wins.
• The Closest Letters: Assign points for each correct letter guessed; green letters earn more, yellow letters less. The student with the most points wins, even if they don’t guess the word correctly.
• The Whole Class: Use Wordle as a fun, engaging way to start vocabulary exercises by having everyone play together. It’s a great warm-up or just a fun activity for the class.

4. Mystery Box Game

The Mystery Box Game is designed for review sessions and test prep. This game is all about choices and surprises and is perfect for any grade or subject.

Before you begin, download the Mystery Box PowerPoint template and customize the questions to suit your lesson or topic before you start playing. Playing the game is easy. Students pick a box and answer its question. If the answer is correct, they decide to keep the box or pass it on. Not all boxes are created equal; some might boost their score, while others could set them back.

Watch this video tutorial to understand how to make your own Mystery Box game with this template for your students:

5. Hot Seat

A single student will sit at the head of the class, and a term will be written on the board behind the student. The student can not see the word on the board.

The student in the “hot seat” can call on up to three other students to give them clues as to what the term is. The students describe the word without using the term itself.

The hot seat changes when the student does not correctly guess.

The video below will help you to understand how to play “hot seat” in your classroom.

6. Pass the Chicken

Students sit in a circle, and one receives a question while a rubber chicken is passed around the circle. The idea is for the student to answer before the chicken comes back around to them correctly. You don’t have to use a chicken.

7. Ping Pong

In this review game, the class is divided into two teams. They work together to answer the query. If answered correctly, the student will get a chance to toss these Ping Pong balls into one of three cups. If they succeed, the team wins a prize.

This is an entertaining way to review for a quiz. Some teachers will use candy as markers to add a bit more excitement to the game. Use this as a way to review vocabulary words or math equations. This website allows you to create your Bingo cards for free .

9. Beach Ball

Queries are written on a light-colored ball like this one . The teacher will throw the ball to the first students. The student watches the ball and answers where the right thumb touches the questions. The student will throw the ball to the next student.

Watch this teacher who explains how he plays the “beach ball” in his classroom after the summer break.

10. Spin the Wheel

Similar to the “Beach Ball” game is the “Spin the Wheel” review game. Put review terms and concepts on this wheel that the student can spin and then be queried on the topic or term. Depending on your class size and grade, you can make up the rules on how to divide the students into groups or play the game as a one-student game.

11. Hedbanz

For this review game, you do not need to buy the original Hedbanz game. Here is a simple and cheap alternative: Review terms or questions are written on sticky notes stuck to the student’s forehead (they can’t peek). The student will have to find out the term/word with the help of their team’s clues.

Depending on the class size, the students play either in teams of two or the teacher divides the class into 2 groups. If you play the game with two groups, choose one student and stick the note onto the forehead to not see the term.

12. Monopoly Style Game

This is a one-person game. Each kid will receive a certain amount of Monopoly money , which they will bet based on how confident they are that they know the correct answer to the question being asked.

• The teacher asks the first question.
• If the students think they know the answer, they will put an agreed amount of money into a pot or onto the table, write the answer secretly onto a piece of paper, and hide it from other students. If a student does not know the answer, they don’t have to play that round.
• The teacher gives the answers, and the students show their papers.
• The student with the correct answer wins the pot. If more than one student has a correct answer, the pot will be split equally. If no student got the answer correct, the money would stay in the pot for the next round.
• As soon as one student has no money left, the game ends, and the student with the most money amount wins.

How to Make Test Review Fun?

Exchanging ideas and teaching tips with other teachers helps to get creative in finding the best ways to help students find the correct answers to test prep. You will find another five engaging review games for elementary, middle, and high school students in the video below.

Working in Teams

Review games can help students to learn how to work as a team appropriately. As teachers, we want to take the time to help foster team bonding and educational experiences because they will help the student in more ways than just performing better on tests.

Working in teams gives the teacher the ability to educate beyond the use of a board and chalk. Small group instruction will help you to plan and design a test akin to playing effectively.

Teams can write out answers, work together to define terms, or properly guess what the key term is defined. It leaves room for open cooperation . Turn test prep into a points-earning game that the student feels engaged with. Bringing points into the session can help spark working together or that competitive drive to get the point before another does.

How Do Students Benefit from Review Games?

Not all kids learn best from an educator standing in front of the classroom , writing definitions on a chalkboard. Many teaching tips will discuss ways in which we can turn test reviews into a game. This is how we can make a review for a test seem like something other than it is, and this can help foster a love of knowledge for kids in a classroom.

Review games turn test prep into a game . This type of play engages students and can spark their interest in how a PowerPoint lesson just can’t. Rather than going rote through concepts , make a jeopardy-style game that makes math a fun classroom game .

Kids develop skills in different ways, and for many, these group review games are their favorite way to explore ideas. Teaching requires flexibility. Whether the students are learning the ins and outs of mathematics or how to write a specific type of report, this type of practice helps them hone their skills and develop a love for knowledge.

You can easily find tons of digital resources that make education a bit more exciting for students. And the best part is that many of these resources are free. You can find questions and answers, point charts, and ideas for creating an engaging and fun way to get your students ready for the next exam. This is a great way to prepare your students for the content they can expect on a quiz and ask questions if they are unsure.

The review games on this list can help students to develop a love for learning . Students can foster a better ability to work in teams, which will score them points in the future where they will be expected to work together in a team environment easily.

A team-building exercise may seem to be childlike play, but it is an important social lesson that will significantly help them in the future .

Whether you use a question-based board game or a points system for an activity that involves teams, you can find free templates and plans that will allow you to create a unique system. Perhaps even with a points value, that will pose a key question to students who can earn points if they get correct.

Using points or not doesn’t matter. The idea is to help one student make their way to the correct answer to the question and take the time to explain to the students why these terms or concepts are important.

Review games are an important part of getting students ready to take tests and move on to more complicated subjects that rely on understanding groundwork principles and concepts.

Allowing students to work as a team, spending time letting them explore a question, and even assigning points so that a student, in the end, feels like they have won something is well worth the time and effort.

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February 3, 2019

4 Review Games to Keep Test Prep Engaging

Are you looking for review games to keep your students engaged and excited about spiral review ahead of your standardized tests? This post includes four unique review strategies that gamify the classroom and pump your students up to review!

All four review games are classroom tested and have shown themselves to be crowd pleasers with upper elementary students, but will work at any level by modifying the materials and content being used.

Let’s dive right in!

My Favorite Review Games for Test Prep

Hot stew review.

Hot Stew Review is a PowerPoint review game where students work collaboratively to answer questions and earn points towards their total.

There are 20 questions and answers slides. After each question, there is an opportunity for students to choose a vegetable from the pot of stew and write down their selection on the recording sheet. The following slide will reveal how many points they have earned, but it isn’t always a positive point value! Sometimes teams will lose half or all their points, a certain point value, or have the opportunity to double their points.

Due to the point values being random throughout the game, every team is in it to win it until the very last question upping engagement and encouraging students to continue to work hard throughout.

You can check out Hot Stew Review for yourself here .

Trashketball

This is another review game that always garnered cheers from my students. The idea of crumpling up their papers and throwing them across the room was some kind of fantasy for them. What can I say? I love to make their dreams come true!

To play trashketball, students should be in teams, preferably of four. Every student needs a whiteboard and marker.

• The teacher reads a question or displays it in some manner
• Students work individually to answer the question
• When given the signal, students confer with their teams to come up with a single answer which they write on a piece of scrap paper
• The teacher asks for answers from the team
• All teams show their answers
• Teams who answered correctly select a team member to squish the paper into a ball and take a shot into the trash can or recycling bin
• If they make it into the bin they receive the point for the question, if not, even if they had a correct answer, they do not

If you want to add another element of challenge into the game you can mark off 1, 2, and 3 point lines for students to shoot their trashketballs from. Students love this extra element because it adds a sense of risk and allows teams to come from behind later in the game.

Towers is one of those review games that it so beautifully simple it just works!

To play Towers all you need are a set of questions and some kind of building material. You may choose to use paper cups, blocks, math cubes, or anything else you have available.

Once again students should be in partners or teams. Towers is especially fun to play in partners because it adds more competition and there are no points to keep track of.

• A question is given
• I prefer to use the Heads Together strategy for students to find the answer so that every student is doing the work instead of just one or two from each team
• Students reveal their answers to the class
• For now, the cups are just set to the side of their workspace

• Continue the process for all questions or until you have about three minutes left for the review game
• I prefer to use 2 minutes for this part of the activity, but it is up to you
• The challenge is for each set of partners or team to try and build the highest tower with the number of cups they have. It is completely up to them how to build the tower.
• When time is up all hand are off and you go around with a yardstick finding the tallest tower.

Students really get into their tower creations and just because a team has the most cups doesn’t necessarily mean they win, but it certainly does help!

Stinky Feet

Stinky Feet always has been, and probably always will be my absolute favorite review game. It was introduced to be by a colleague and was an immediate hit with my students.

There are two ways to play, the sticky note version and the digital version.

To play with sticky notes, you will need to create a poster covered with sticky notes. On the back of each sticky note should be a point value, with both positive and negative points included.

Once again, students are in a team of 4 to play and each student will need their own whiteboard and marker.

• A question is introduced to the group
• Students work independently to answer the question before conferring as a group to answer
• A correct answer means the team chooses a sticky note
• Continue this process for all questions or for as long as time allows

In the end, you total up the number points and the team with the most (or least if you decide) points wins. You could also choose to keep a running total of each team’s points.

To play the digital version, you will need this template or one of the pre-created Digital Stinky Feet editions here . Gameplay is the same, but instead of having sticky notes teams choose a stinky sock to reveal their points.

About All These Review Games

Something all these review games have in common is students working together to problem solve. Only together can they submit an answer. This leads to more critical thinking and important conversations.

This is important because no one student is able to carry a team.  Nor can one student do all the work leaving other students not taking part in the review.

Additionally, none of these games focus on how quickly the work is done. Instead, they reward the quality of work or correct answers. I would caution you to stay away from a review that rewards rushing through work. It will build bad habits that cannot be easily broken.

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Five Ways to Make Review Games for Students to Play at Home

We’re getting to the time of the year when I usually get a lot of requests for ideas for making review games for students. This year is not any different except that I’m getting requests for making review games that students can play at home. Here are five options for making review games that I have been recommending lately.

ClassTools.net offers a free service teachers can use to create their own educational games. Games made on ClassTools.net can be shared via email or embedded into a blog or website. (Yet another reason for having a class website or blog). ClassTools.net provides more than a dozen easy-to-use templates with which teachers can make educational games for their students. Take a look at the  Fling the Teacher  game to get started.

Flippity.net offers more than a dozen easy-to-follow templates for making games and other activities through Google Sheets. One activity that I like is the Scavenger Hunt. Flippity calls it a scavenger hunt but it is more like a series of trivia questions that students answer to open digital locks. Try it yourself with  this demo game .

TinyTap  is a good iPad and Android app for creating your own review games based on pictures and diagrams. You can create games in which students have to identify parts of a picture or diagram. You can also build games in which your students have to assemble a puzzle by dragging and dropping pieces into place (the puzzle does not have to follow the jigsaw puzzle format). Students can play the games you create on their iPads, Android tablets, or on a laptop.

Quizalize  is an excellent platform through which you can create and distribute online quiz games. Your students can play the games as a group in your classroom much like Kahoot. You can also have your students play the games at home. In fact, Quizalize offered the “play at home” option long before Kahoot did.

Quizalize lets you give assignments and practice activities to students based upon how they performed during a quiz game. For example, you can specify that any student who answers less than 75% of the questions correctly has to watch a video or read a review sheet. This differentiation feature isn’t limited to just one score trigger. You can specify that students scoring 50-60% receive one type of review activity and students scoring 60-75% receive a different review activity.

Kahoot Challenge Mode

Kahoot  is perhaps that best-known quiz game platform available today. Over the years it has steadily added features that make it easy to use in physical and online classrooms. One of those features is the Challenge Mode that you can use to have students play games individually at a time that works for them within a window of time that you choose. Kahoot, like Quizalize above, also offers a Smart Practice mode that gives students an opportunity to focus on the questions that they answered incorrectly during a Kahoot game or challenge. Smart Practice works in three phases. The first phase has students immediately try the missed questions again. The second phase is trying the questions again after 24 hours. And the third phase has students try the questions after 48 hours.

Two other features of Kahoot that I appreciate are the question bank and the ability to duplicate games. The question bank lets you import existing questions into your games. The duplication feature is great when you want to make a copy of a game then add or remove a question or two.

Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp!

Registration for the  Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp  opened last week. One third of the early-bird tickets have already been claimed. This online PD event will feature ten live, interactive webinars on a wide array of topics applicable to every classroom. It will be held three times this summer. There is a June session and two July sessions.  Register for the session of your choice here .

Free Webinar This Thursday

This Thursday at 3pm ET I’m hosting a free webinar titled  A Framework for Using Educational Technology . I held it last week and many people asked if I would hold it again, so I am.  Learn more and sign up here .

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5 engaging math review games that don't require the internet.

1) Sticky Points

Materials needed:

How the game is played:.

• Each group has a set of questions and works at their own pace.
• I stood at the board and held the answer key. As each group finished a question, one person came to show me his or her answer.
• If they got the question right, they could choose a sticky note from the board. They are awarded the number of points that are written on the back. I keep track of the points on the board.
• If the group got the question wrong, I let them go back to their table and try again.
• The game ends when you run out of time, you run out of sticky notes, you run out of questions, or the students run out of steam.

2) Raffle Ticket

• Put the students in groups of 2 or 3. Give the students the set of problems.
• The students work on the problems in any order and at their own pace.
• When students finish a problem, one person from the group goes to you to have it checked. 
• If they have the right answer, initial their paper and the student chooses a number from 1 to 100 (this is their Raffle Ticket number). They put their name or initials on a sticky note, then put the sticky note on the number to identify that number as theirs. 
• If they have the wrong answer,  let them go back to their desk and try again. 
• The process repeats until either you run out of time or you run out of questions. Students will have a handful of Raffle Ticket Numbers by the time the activity ends.
• The game ends when you run out of time, you run out of questions, or the students run out of steam. 
• Finally, the teacher randomly selects 2 or 3 numbers using a random number generator. Those groups whose numbers were selected, get a prize!

3) Trashketball

How the game is played

• Use a trashcan or an empty box as the “goal”. Use a Nerf ball or a wad of paper as the “ball.”
• Put 2 lines of painter’s tape on the floor marking the “1-point line” and the “2-point line.”
• Put the students in groups of 2 or 3.
• A group chooses a problem from the prepared PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.
• Each group works on the problem at their own pace. There is no reward for the fastest team.
• One member of each group shows the teacher the answer. If they have the correct answer , the group gets 1 point and gets the opportunity to “shoot” from either the 1-point line or the 2-point line.  So a group can earn up to 3 points on one question.  If they have the wrong answer,  they earn zero points and must wait for the next question. 
• The teacher keeps track of the points for each team on the board.
• The game ends when you run out of time, you run out of questions, or the students run out of steam. You can award a prize to the winning team if desired.

You may be interested in some prepared  Trashketball Games  I have:

👉 Rational Expressions Trashketball

👉 Quadratic Functions Trashketball  this one is FREE!

👉 Exponents and Logarithms Trashketball

👉 Sequences and Series Trashketball

👉 Law of Sines and Law of Cosines Trashketball

👉 Conic Sections Trashketball

👉 Polar Coordinates and Graphs Trashketball

4) Scavenger Hunt

How the activity is played

• There are "stations" posted around the room (and even in the hallway!). A station is a sheet of paper with the station number, the answer to another question at the top of the page, and a new question at the bottom of the page.
• The students start at a station of their choosing. They solve the problem at that station, then find the answer at the top of another station, then solve that problem.
• The students continue solving the problems until they return to the question where they started.

• The teacher stands at the board and holds the answer key. As each group finished a question, one person shows the teacher their answer.
• If they get the question right,  they choose a token out of a bag/container and are awarded the number of points that the token represents. The teacher keeps track of the points on the board.
• If the group gets the question wrong,  they go back to their table and try again.
• The game ends when you run out of time, you run out of tokens, you run out of questions, or the students run out of steam.

____________________________________________________ Honorable Mention:   Bluff

Honorable Mention: Gimkit.com

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10 Low-Prep Classroom Review Games Your Students Will Beg For More Learning Fun!

Sylvia Nguyen

Are you tired of restless students who seem disinterested and unmotivated during review sessions? Do you find it challenging to make end-of-unit or lesson reviews engaging and productive?

It’s frustrating to witness students losing interest in essential review activities, especially when these sessions play a crucial role in accelerating learning and addressing any learning gaps.

But fear not! We have the perfect remedy to transform your classroom and captivate your students’ attention. These 10 innovative and entertaining classroom review games are designed to not only improve knowledge retention but also infuse your classroom with a new level of excitement. Let’s dive into these exciting classroom review games and get ready to witness your students eagerly participate in them!

10 Low-Prep Classroom Review Games

1. around the world.

Around the World is a classic game that I’ve seen used time and time again with great success! It’s perfect for individual play and limited time because all you need is a list of questions, and you can leave your students in their seats (to begin with).

• You start by having two students stand up and pair off against each other.
• Then, you ask a question, and whoever shouts the answer first wins.
• The winner then moves on to the next desk for the next contestant, and so on and so forth.
• The student who didn’t win sits down in the desk where they are, even if it’s not theirs! The goal is to move as many seats as possible before losing. Once you lose, you sit in the seat of the person who bested you.
• The game ends when one student makes it “around the world” and gets all the way back to their seat, or when the time is up – the person who traveled the farthest wins.

Materials : Just questions!

2. Multiple Choice Quiz Game

Turn your material or assessment questions into a quiz game to have your students practice, learn, and have fun while doing it!

• Option 1: ClassPoint . As a PowerPoint user, ClassPoint is my go-to! It’s a PowerPoint add-in that lets you turn your slide into a student activity, posing a question that they can answer from their device! Write your question on your slide (one question per slide!), then add the Multiple Choice button, and invite your students to join online! Gamify it by awarding stars for correct answers and revealing the leaderboard to showcase the standings after each question!
• Option 2 & 3: Kahoot! and Quizizz are other great alternatives if you don’t use PowerPoint. Go online to their website, create an account, create your quiz, and invite your students to play! Kahoot has a library of existing quizzes if your material is universal too.

Materials : ClassPoint, Kahoot!, or Quizizz are all great options!

3. Fill In The Blanks

You can turn a simple fill-in-the-blank review activity into a game by using ClassPoint’s gamification system as well. With a combination of features supporting teachers to reward students with levels and a leaderboard, it surely is not a boring review exercise but a fun one!

• Add your questions or phrases, including blanks, to your slides in PowerPoint! You can leave a maximum of 5 blanks per slide.
• Add the Fill in the Blanks button, then run it with your class in presentation mode! They can use their devices to fill in the blanks and submit them back for you to review and reveal the correct answer!
• Gamify it by giving stars for correct answers! Also, let students pitch their answer variations for a chance to earn a correct star!

Materials :

4. Fly Swatter

Need to practice vocabulary? An easy and tech-free way is to play Fly Swatter with vocab words written on the board!

• Write a spread-out cloud of vocabularies on the board and divide the class into two teams.
• Have one student from each team come up to the board and turn their back to it, then give them a fly swatter.
• Read out the definition of the word, and the students will race to turn around, find the correct vocab word, and touch it with the fly swatter.
• Whoever swats the correct word first gets a point for their team!
• 2 fly swatters
• A list of vocab words & definitions

5. Crossword Puzzle

Has anyone spent hours solving a crossword puzzle? If you have, then welcome to the team, because you’re one of 50 million people who consider crosswords as part of their daily life .

In fact, according to Griffith University, crossword puzzles are intellectual activities that teachers should implement in classroom activities because they could provide an opportunity for students to evaluate their knowledge and help them pay more attention to the lesson.

Which is why, sometimes, I would create crossword puzzles as a review game for students at the end of the lesson to help them recall their lesson more easily!

Designing a crossword puzzle is surely time-consuming, so I found a smarter and faster way to do it – online!

• You just need to provide the tool with a list of words that you want to put in the game, and it will automatically generate the crossword puzzle for you.
• Then, download the worksheet and the answer sheet, print out copies, and give them to your students!

Tips : If you want to make it a digital classroom game on PowerPoint, simply copy and paste it onto your PowerPoint slides, then use ClassPoint’s draggable objects to turn it into an interactive Crossword Puzzle right inside PowerPoint!

• Crossword generator: There are many online crossword puzzle makers, such as My Crossword Maker and Crossword Labs , but my favorite is Crossword Puzzle – Worksheet Generator .
• ClassPoint or another similar interactive activity tool, such as Nearpod .

6. Group Contest

Use the power of group work collaboration combined with gameplay competition for a fun and effective review game!

• Divide the class into 2 to 4 different groups.
• Then, pose a series of questions or challenges that each group must achieve within a set amount of time to earn points.
• Set the time to be somewhat limiting to increase the challenge and practice time-constrained thinking and recalling.
• Once the time is up, the group with the most correct answers wins! Make this more competitive by adding multiple rounds and a scoreboard to keep track of points earned in each round!

Tips: You can make a digital scoreboard using ClassPoint as well. That way, your students will be encouraged to actively participate in the group activity.

• An assignment you can turn into a competition game
• Optional : a digital scoreboard!

Group activity is truly essential and effective when it comes to review games. By allowing students to work in groups with their peers, they can help each other learn faster and understand the knowledge more easily.

Furthermore, according to the University of New South Wales , group work motivates students to improve their skills and exposes them to diverse ideas and approaches. Thus, as teachers, we can also take advantage of these benefits to host group activities and support students in group games.

7. Headbands

Have you ever played the popular mobile game Headband?

The first player – player A – will receive a note card with a word and, without looking at this word, they must place it on his or her forehead. Then the other player – player B – will need to describe the word without directly mentioning the answer. In the digital game, player A tries to guess as many words as possible before their time is up! This is super fun and can be easily turned into a classroom review game!

• When played as a classroom game, 1 student plays the role of player A, and the rest of the class will be player B.
• Using index cards or sticky notes, write vocab words or course concepts that you want to review.
• Without looking, player A holds up one note card on their forehead, revealing it to the class. The classmates must describe the concept or the definition without using the written word to player A while they try to guess it!
• To gamify it, you can set a 2-minute timer for each player and see how many cards they can go through.
• Or, make it a relay and set a 5-minute timer, switching player A after each word and seeing how many students they can get through. There are many ways you can play around with these, from individual player points to setting teams!

By doing this, we can motivate our students to describe and talk about the knowledge they learned in the lesson on their own. This is actually a trick of using the Feynman Technique – a popular study technique – in our classroom.

• Vocabularies
• Index cards, sticky notes, or paper!

8. Team Trivia Race

Who doesn’t love a game show-like game? But instead of the time-consuming prep of jeopardy, just take a list of assessment questions, add a scoreboard, and voilà, you have a trivia game!

• Divide the class into 2 teams and have the students form two lines starting at the board.
• Ask the first two students a question, and whoever answers first gets a point for their team.
• If the teams are even, keep each student for two questions and alternate who leaves to mix up the pairings.
• If both students get it wrong, anyone gets to guess for a team point to keep the rest of the students involved.
• Set a timer, and the team with the most points in the end wins! Make it fun with speed and by trying to get through as many questions as possible quickly!

9. Independent Trivia Race

Similar to the last game, you can do an independent trivia race at the board (or even in their seats!) by asking a group of students a question and giving whoever gets it right first a point!

• Randomly select 2 to 5 students, have them come up (or stand up at their desk) to answer your question.
• Give points to whoever gets it right first or whoever can get it right if it’s challenging!

Tips: To randomly select names, use ClassPoint’s Name Picker in PowerPoint! Add your class list and draw multiple names at once with the auto-pick! It’s that easy, and the names will be left out so everyone is sure to get a turn before you reshuffle!

Leaderboard or rewards – To spice up the game, you can use a class leaderboard to give points to individual students, or you can give out rewards of your choice. If you use PowerPoint, ClassPoint has a gamified leaderboard that you can add your class list to and give out stars for whatever you choose!

• Name picker
• Optional : timer

10. Drag and Match

An easy drag-and-drop classroom game of matching the knowledge description with the definition or the keyword of the concept. While your students figure out the description and definition that they need to match, they also get to review their lesson through the game.

• Prepare a slide with drag-and-drop elements of descriptions on one side, and on the other side of the slide, prepare fixed definitions or keywords of the concept.
• Then, students will need to match the descriptions with the definitions of the knowledge they learned.
• They can drag and drop the elements of description to where they belong, or they can also draw on the slide to connect the factors.
• ClassPoint’s Draggable objects
• Alternatively, you can prepare this as a Slide Drawing activity and allow students to match the keywords by drawing the connections on their devices.

Final Thoughts

All the classroom review game ideas above are easy to adopt in your classroom. After a long session of lecture, using classroom review games can help you and your students relax while still revising the knowledge.

If you don’t have time to prepare all the review questions for your lesson, then an AI quiz generator might be just what you need. One of my favorites is ClassPoint AI . I’ve been using ClassPoint for a while to create interactive questions and activities in PowerPoint for my students, but their recently released AI feature has taken the ed-tech game to a whole new level.

Now, all I need to do is prepare lecture slides in PowerPoint. After every lesson, in presentation mode, I give my students 5 minutes to review everything. Then, I turn on the ClassPoint AI feature to automatically generate questions from the lecture notes . It’s quick and easy, and the AI-generated questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy meet my expectations perfectly. Moreover, it provides three diverse types of questions, including MCQs, short answers, and fill in the blanks. This tool is an absolute must-try!

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12 Super Creative Curriculum Review Games and Ideas

Learn, review, repeat.

Tired of flash cards and printed study packets? Us too! That’s why we love these 12 creative curriculum review ideas.

1. Use a charcoal mask for a peel-and-reveal review.

Your students will be asking for this one again and again. All you have to do is laminate your material (or put it in a plastic pocket). Then you use a brush to paint on a black charcoal mask. You don’t need a fancy mask; just about any will work. After it dries for 5–10 minutes, it’s ready. Challenge students to come up with the answer first and then peel to reveal the answer. We tested this out with word problems, but you can use it for just about anything. It’s really fun and slightly addictive.

2. Play a little trashketball.

Source: Mrs. E Teaches Math

Trashketball has been around for a while, and we love how Karrie with Mrs. E Teaches Math uses it. Check out her full instructions for how to play here . You can use this with your math class or any other subject.

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3. Try our game boards for fun Q&A.

Put a competitive challenge on your review with our free printable game boards.  Have your students pair up and then roll the dice. They have to answer questions along the way. You can either write the questions ahead of time or have them do this for added review.

4. Find the right key to unlock the answer.

Our unlock-and-learn game uses locks and keys to challenge students’ understanding. You can check it out right here or get the basics from the above video. All you need is matching answers to make this game work for any age level.

5. Come on down for classroom Plinko!

Golf tees and a peg board are the main supplies needed to make this classroom Plinko board. You can also use it for classroom rewards. Students will love dropping the ball, and then you can ask them a question based on color-coded categories. Get the  full instructions here .

6. It’s Skee-Ball review!

Source: Love, Life, Celebrate

You have to see how they made it for yourself, but know that it’s really simple. Get the full instructions here . Now we know you’re thinking this could quickly get out of hand in a room full of third graders, and we hear you! But maybe bring it out for a reward or special occasion. The trick here is getting students to go one at a time.

7. Try Kaboom!

Source: The Star Spangled Planner

Have you heard of Kaboom? It seems like once teachers learn about this game, their students never stop wanting to play it. There are many ways to play, and blogger The Star Spangled Planner sums it up nicely. Check out her pro tips here .

8. Is it true or false?

Source: Stephanie’s History Store

This is a really simple game that doesn’t require a lot of materials in order to play. This history teacher writes about it on her blog, Stephanie’s History Store . She uses it for history review, but you can use it for any subject you want.

9. Roll and review.

Source: Nurturing Learning

This is a simple idea from Nurturing Learning where you use soft-sided dice for curriculum review. The plastic pockets make it easy to slip in different categories or questions. You’ll be able to easily make it work for your specific needs.

10. Go digital.

Source: The Learning Effect

Kahoot and Quizlet are a couple of our favorite online quiz websites, which this teacher writes about on her blog. Check out the others and learn how to create your own interactive quiz to test your students’ understanding.

11. I’ll take Artists for $600.

Source: The Art of Education

Thank you to the brilliant art teacher Alecia for this creative idea for review. You can definitely use it across curriculum areas. Just write the questions, and you’ll be all set.

12. Try a little punch and learn.

Source: Composition Classroom

You can put anything you want in these punch-and-learn cups. To make them, you just need cups and tissue paper.

We’d love to hear—what are your favorite curriculum review ideas? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, our favorite ideas for formative assessment.

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6 Easy Engaging Ways to Review Classroom Content

Are you looking for engaging ways to help your students review important concepts without spending hours preparing? Look no further! We’ll explore creative and enjoyable review methods that require minimal preparation while maximizing learning. Whether you’re gearing up for a quiz, test or simply reinforcing key ideas, these strategies will create excitement in your classroom while ensuring meaningful review. Let’s dive into these effective and low-prep activities your students will enjoy!

6 Easy Ways to Review in Your Classroom

1. attack - team review game.

Break your class into teams, the more teams, the longer the game. Each team chooses an artist to draw a castle on the whiteboard.

To save time, you can have printouts of castles for teams to use.

When students get answers correct, they put an x on an opposing team’s castle.

3 Xs, and they’re out.

The last castle standing wins.

2. Review Race - Kinesthetic Review Game

How to play this classroom review game :

• Push all desks to the sides of the room.
• Split the kids in half and line chairs up in two rows facing each other and leaving an aisle in the middle for the “raceway.”
• At one end of the chairs is either the whiteboard or a chart paper for students to write answers on. Ask a question, and the kids on the far end of the row have to run up and write/draw/circle/whatever the answer to a review question.
• The players all shift down one seat, and new players are up.

Game rules :

• Students can’t leave their seats until the question is finished being asked.
• Only the person whose turn it is can stand up.
• The team can help give them answers as they race to write (but don’t yell it out, or the other team usually gets your answer).
• No pushing or tripping players.
• Answers are checked when you put your pencil/marker down.
• The first team with the marker down and the correct answer gets a point. 

This is a really fun game because of the movement that is involved, but you need to be sure that students are following the game rules and classroom management skills . 

3. Reuse Old Board Games

Get simple games like

• Chutes and Ladders ,
• Jenga , etc.

Create cards with review questions. Students have to correctly answer a question in order to take their turn.

4. Class Feud Review Game

Split the class into 2 teams or families.

One person from each family faces off at the front of the room.

Use a tall chair or stool as the “ buzzer .” The first hand down gets to answer the review question read by the teacher.

If they miss, the other person has the chance to steal. If the student misses, the family of the first player gets a chance to steal. The family gets to use their notes and books., etc.

This is another review game that gets kids up and moving. I also like that it allows the students to refer back to their notes , which is an important skill in reviewing information and studying. 

5. Jeopardy Class Review Game

A Jeopardy-style review game never gets old. Students love to work together to answer the questions. 

You can choose to have them consult their notes, each other, or use their memory to play this game. 

You can use digital templates or simply put index cards on the board to play this game. 

6. BINGO Class Review Game

Print out blank bingo boards and have students create a bingo board using the names of classmates.

This is a clever review game as students do not know the order that you will choose students in order for them to win the game. 

When that person answers a question, their name gets covered. Everyone has to be used once. Winners get a prize and play again.

Extend the review game by using other variations of BINGO, such as creating the letter T or the outside border. 

Remember that review games can be both enjoyable and effective. By incorporating these fun, low-prep review activities into your teaching toolkit, you’re offering your students a chance to reinforce their understanding in a dynamic way. Keep in mind your students’ diverse needs and preferences as you choose activities, and don’t hesitate to get creative with variations. With these engaging strategies, you’re fostering a love for learning and helping your students succeed. 

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5 Games for Reviewing Any Content

• Engagement , Planning

When I was in school, I remember teachers reviewing content by simply having us open a book, going to the end of the chapter, and answering the questions. It was not my idea of reviewing, nor was it exactly exciting. In fact, I hated the end of a chapter. It was very predictable and it never helped me remember anything. There was no application piece. There was no engagement. And there definitely wasn’t any benefit to it.

As I mentioned in my last post, Why You Should Use Games in the Classroom , often times teachers feel concerned about using games too much in the classroom for fear that it isn’t educational enough. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are incredible benefits from using games for reviewing and learning (including a surprising one I mentioned in that post). Check them out if you’re apprehensive about using games in your classroom.

Today, I want to share with you a list of whole-group games for reviewing that can be used for any content area!

Whole Class Games for Reviewing

1.) Heads Up, 7-Up. This has long been a classic game for indoor recess, but now you can use it for any topic! Play the game like you normally would, but before a student can guess who picked them, they have to solve a problem or question on the board. Only if they get both the question and guess who selected them, can they switch spots. (As an alternative, have all students write their answer on an index card first before putting their heads down).

2.) Zinkers! Break your class up into teams. Then draw a question or task cards and read it to the first team. If they get it correct, have them draw a slip for points. (The point options are 25, 50, 75, or 100.) If they get a slip that says Zinkers , their team loses all their points. If they answer incorrectly, the other team takes a turn. Students play until all the questions are answered or time is up. The team with the most points win.

3.) Sink or Swim. I love this game for reviewing. Break your class up into two teams and place them on opposite sides of the room. The middle of the classroom is an ‘ocean.’ Have team 1 answer a question. If they answer it correctly, they can select a member from team 2 to ‘sink’ (move into the center of the ‘ocean’ and sit – they are out). If they are incorrect, they must ‘sink.’ Then team 2 takes a turn. If correct, they can choose to ‘sink’ a member of team 1 or save their sinking team member. This continues until all the questions are answered. The team with the most members swimming (not sinking) wins!

4.) Knock ‘Em Out. Have students stand in a row along a wall. Randomly draw a student’s name (I use sticks) and randomly draw a question. Ask that student whose name you drew the question. If he gets it right, then he can choose to have the person to the right or left of him sit down. If he answers wrong, then he has to sit down. Continue until only one student is left standing. Occasionally on missed questions, you can ask a student who is knocked out (or sitting) if they know the answer so they can rejoin.

5.) Schooled. Break the class up into two teams. Draw on the board for each team 8 lines like you would when playing the game Hangman. (_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _) Then ask questions back and forth between the teams. If a team gets the question correct, a letter is added to the opposing team. If they answer incorrectly, the other team gets a chance to answer. Continue playing until the word ‘SCHOOLED’ is spelled out. The first team to have schooled spelled out is the losing team.

Of course, there are other games too, such as Pictionary, trashketball, Flyswatter SWAT, and Around the Room. You could even pretend to be on a game show by bringing up a player from each team and having them face one another and placing one of their hands behind their back. Then when it’s time to ring the “buzzer” have them press your stapler or a battery operated touch light (found typically in dollar stores).

You’ll also find that I have a few games described in other posts here on my website, such as the Heartbreaker game , Human Bingo , and Task Card Games .

• Game-Based Learning , games

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Creating Lifetime Learners

Classroom Review Games For Any Subject

Keeping things fun and engaging on a daily basis in the classroom can be a challenge sometimes. I find that implementing new and fresh ideas on a normal basis keeps my kids on the edge of their seats and more willing to interact with the skill we are learning. This is a list of some of my favorite classroom review games that I rotate in and out throughout the year to keep things exciting for elementary students. Anytime I am going to be teaching something that may not be the “most” interesting subject, or I feel we need a change in routine, these are my go-to games. These 9 classroom review games could work for any skill and any subject!

(This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through this link, we get a small commission–at no additional cost to you. Rest assured – we only share links to products that we use and love!)

Spin the Wheel

This is a great “game” that can be done for review or while you’re introducing new content. Each time a student answers a question, they get to come up to the board and spin the wheel. This is the website I use for virtually spinning the wheel: https://wheeldecide.com/

For example, we may be going over a reading passage together as a whole class under the document camera. If someone raises their hand to tell me what the answer is, what background knowledge they used, what paragraph the proof is, what they’re inferring right now, etc.—they get to spin the wheel! It’s a great way to encourage every student to want to answer so you don’t see the same five hands going up over and over again.

This website allows you to add anything you want to the wheel selections. You can add in choices like “No Homework Pass”, “New Pencil”, “New Eraser”, “Sticker”, “Dojo Point”, or anything else you’d like. Sometimes, I put points on the wheel and whichever student or team has the most points at the end of the class period wins.

The possibilities with this website are endless for playing classroom review games. You can have them spin for points, spin to choose who goes next, spin for prizes, etc.

There’s another variation you can use this game for as well…partner work! When students are working in partners, if they finish their work together well, or score a certain percentage correct when I check it, I’ll let both partners go spin the wheel as a reward for their hard work. This can be a great motivator for students who may be a little shy working together. When they know there is a potential “prize” at the end, it helps them overcome that hesitancy and work together to reach a common goal. You might also like this REAL wheel. I bought one a few years ago and love to pull it out to surprise the kids with every once in a while.

@thelifetimelearner A game you can play anytime! The virtual wheel I use is https://wheeldecide.com/ ##teacher ##teachers ##teachersoftiktok2021 ##teachersoftiktok ##teachertiktoker ##teachertiktok ♬ Little Bitty Pretty One – Thurston Harris

Wheel of Names

This is a great website as well: https://wheelofnames.com/

I use this “game” for names getting picked. I may let that person choose their practice partner first. That person may get to answer a question. That person may get to choose someone else who is going to answer the question. It’s just a fun way to keep things interesting on a daily basis.

@thelifetimelearner Easy way to randomly choose students! ##teacher ##teachers ##teachersoftiktok2021 ##teachersoftiktok ##teachertiktoker ##teachertiktok ♬ Jeopardy – The TV Theme Players

I draw a big connect 4 board on the whiteboard that is very big. The grid is usually a 10×10 board of squares. Then I tell the kids that each row in my classroom is a different colored team (red, blue, green, yellow) and give the first person in that row a whiteboard marker in that color. If someone on the red team answers a question, they get to go put a red circle anywhere on the board they want. If someone else on the red team answers a question correctly, they get to put a second red circle anywhere they want (and then they have 2 in a row).

Then, if the green team answers a question, they’ll get to go up and put a green circle on the board. They might block the red team from getting 3 in a row. The first team to get 4 in a row wins. I’ve done this as a classroom review game for practicing content and have even used it as an indoor recess game because students love it.

@thelifetimelearner Use connect 4 to review skills! ##teacher ##teachers ##teachersoftiktok2021 ##teachersoftiktok ##teachertiktoker ##teachertiktok ♬ 80’s Game Show Girl – Hollywood Film Music Orchestra

Basket-Ball

All you need for this game is a basket (or trash can) and a piece of paper for each student. I happen to have these little baskets that look like basketball nets and they work perfectly too. Anytime a student answers a question correctly, they get to try and shoot the ball in the basketball can. I’ve seen this game referred to as ‘trashketball’ before as well.

This particular classroom review game really pulls in my classroom athletes. Sometimes we do this whole group and sometimes I let each set of partners take a basket to shoot points after each question they answer together.

This classroom review game is super simple. First, write everyone’s name on the board. Whoever answers a question correctly about literally anything gets to roll a dice. I use large ones that the whole class can view when they’re rolled across the floor. You could also roll virtual dice online. It’s easy to google “virtual dice” and then roll them whenever a student answers a question. Whatever points the student rolls, you add next to their name. I normally let the student actually add their own points to their name so they get a chance to move around a bit. The kids compete to see who can get the most points by the end of the class period. When we play this, I let the winner of the game be line leader for the day and they love it.

I’ve also done a variation of this game with “Class vs. Teacher”. Someone answers a question correctly and they get to roll the dice. I add the points to the class team. Then I roll and add my points. They see if they can beat my score. I get to roll every round and someone who answers a question gets to roll every round. If they beat my score, I give them that many minutes of extra recess at the end of the day.

Students only need a whiteboard and a marker for this classroom review game. Split the class in half and put half of the students on each team. Call up a student from each team and they bring their whiteboard/dry erase marker. I ask a question about the passage and they write the answer on their whiteboard (it might be as simple as writing ABCD or it might be “Guess what this word means?” or “What keywords should we underline?”). Whichever student gets it right wins a point for their team. If they both get it right, they both get a point.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

A lot of students enjoy classroom review games that are found on TV. That’s where Who Wants to be a Millionaire comes in! Split the class in half so there are two teams. But instead of calling up one person from each team, call up one person only from only one team. I rotate back and forth between the teams for each question. Each team’s points are kept track of on the board. But instead of just writing their points on the board, I also write three phrases: “Ask the Audience”, “Phone a Friend”, and “Cut It In Half”.

I explain that these are lifelines that can help students when they get stuck.

Here’s what the lifelines mean: -Cut it in half means I take away two answer choice possibilities. -Phone a friend means they can choose anyone on their team to go out in the hallway with. They get to talk to the friend in private about what they think the answer is and why and then they both come back in (30 second time limit). -Ask the Audience means everyone on that team gets to vote for what the answer is. Then, the person gets to side with whoever they want (30 second time limit).

Each team only can use those lifelines once. So, if Johnny uses the “ask the audience” lifeline while he’s up for his team, no one else on his team can use it. I explain that he should only use it if he really is unsure.

My class has become good at assessing who really needs those lifelines versus who doesn’t and they’ll call out “Save it, you can do this. You got this!” Or, if it’s someone they know may need a little extra help, they’ll call out “Use a lifeline, we got you!”

Play Hangman (I actually like to use “Build A” games instead of Hangman but it’s played the same way. We may be building a flower or building a snowman instead of a person like in Hangman). First, you put all the letter choices on the board. Call on a student to answer a reading question. If they get it right, THEN they get to guess a letter on the Hangman (or “Build A…”) game. Each time a student gets called on, they can either A-guess a letter or B-try to solve the entire puzzle. They cannot do both. If they call out, they know they will not get called on to solve the puzzle. That helps a lot with students guessing when it’s not their turn. The student who solves the classroom review games puzzle gets a small prize from me like a pencil or eraser.

Deal or No Deal

On television, there are plenty of classroom review games. Another one is Deal or No Deal! Deal or No Deal is a game that does require a little bit of prep. However, it’s a classroom favorite and students’ eyes always light up when they see this on the board when they come in the room. I use dojo points as a reward but you could utilize any reward system with this classroom review game.

Here’s how to play: Put 20 index cards on the board with tape. On the back, write a number of dojo points that it’s worth. You put a number from 1-20 on the front of each card. So, when kids are looking at the board, they should see 20 index cards numbered from 1-20 (they can be in numerical order, don’t need to be mixed up), BUT they don’t know what’s on the back of each one.

I explain to my class that a reward is on the back of each card. Some cards have 1 point written on them and the amounts go all the way up to 100. Whichever card they end up with at the end, they get to add those points to their Class Dojo account. Tell each kid to write their name on a sticky note and put it on the corner of their desk.

When a student answers a question correctly, they get to choose which number they want to stick their name on. Let’s pretend Johnny chooses Card #7 so he sticks his sticky note with his name on it on Card #7. Then, Molly answers a question correctly and chooses Card #5. All students do not get to see what’s on the back of the card till the very end of the game. They’re taking a risk.

Here’s where the twist comes in. Bobby may get an answer right and wants Card #7. He has two choices. He can choose a different card that hasn’t been claimed yet OR he can move the other person to another card number and take #7 for himself. To help with time constraints, I have a simple rule. If they move the other person’s name, they have to move the person’s name to the closest number nearby. That way, students aren’t standing there wondering which of 20 numbers they should bump the person to.

At the end of the game, I let all kids flip their cards over to see how many points they received. Everyone ends up with an amount no matter what.

Sometimes, we’ll play this individually as well. When they finish a worksheet or skill-based task, they’ll bring me their paper to grade. If I can tell they put forth their best effort, they get to go take any card off the board they want and see how many dojo points they just earned.

If they scored poorly on their assignment or did not try their best, they do not get to choose a card. However, they still have a chance to earn a card. Students can choose a partner that DID pass to help them go over their wrong answers. Then if they come back with the partner and can explain to me what they did wrong in detail, that student gets a turn to pull down a card on the board, AND the partner that helped them gets to choose an additional card. This method keeps everyone engaged and working so no one is bored.

Hopefully, these ideas help or spark an idea of how you can implement them in your own classroom!

You may also like to read about Hide and Seek Games. These are classroom review games that are pre-made for you. They can be used for any subject, any grade level, and with any content. They’re a great way to review before an assessment with any content or can be used to practice math facts any day of the week.

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10 Teacher-Approved Online Review Games

Online review games for the classroom are wonderful modern education tools. They provide an engaging way for students of all ages to study essential lesson material while remaining active participants, often in a positive group setting. Additionally, digital games are familiar to students and teachers alike and can be easily introduced into classroom pedagogy. In today’s tech-driven environment, 99% of boys, 94% of girls, and 62% of teachers play video games. 1

This guide to 10 teacher-approved review games will help you learn more about the different classroom review games available and select which of these gaming programs will best fit your curriculum, your budget, and your students’ educational needs.

If there is one review game platform on this list you’ve heard about before, it’s Kahoot!. Kahoot! is popular and boasts millions of users and more than 100 million ready-to-play games, according to its website 2 . Kahoot! launched in 2012 and is designed for social learning. 3 Kahoot allows you to create multiple-choice games, polls, and quizzes quickly for an exciting gaming classroom experience. Teachers can host live review games during class time, or display their “kahoots” on a shared screen to remote students participating from home. Students can play in classic mode, or team mode with shared devices. Kahoot! requires registration with a login. Once you’ve gained access there’s a basic, free version and a premium version to choose from.

Teacher Tip: Check out Kahoot!’s “curriculum aligned collections” to find games created by teachers.

For those interested in a free classroom review game that's made by students, for students, Gimkit is the answer! Gimkit’s Kahoot!-style gameplay is supercharged by delivering virtual dollars to players for correct answers. As an added bonus, players can get more money per correct answer as they level up. Gimkit “streak bonuses” deliver even more money for sequences of correct answers meaning student players are rewarded for their overall efforts. Gimkit’s increasing virtual rewards, based on question level and willingness to take risks, encourages strategic play among students and teams. Other features include “insurance,” “multiplier,” and “money per question.” 4 It’s easy to get started with Gimkit. Just create a new “kit,” add an appropriate title, add your choice of cover image, create your questions, and go live. Paid versions of Gimkit allow you to edit your questions after your quiz has been created. Once your Gimkit review game is underway, it’s up to students to build value for their teams. They will be encouraged to do so with Gimkit’s exciting, monetized gameplay features.

Teacher Tip: Turn off Gimkit’s clapping feature to minimize distractions at the end of games.

3. Flipgrid

Flipgrid is perfect for discussion-based style classroom reviews or reviews which require a bulletin board style program to facilitate learning. Acquired by Microsoft in 2018, 5 Flipgrid describes itself as a free video discussion platform that promotes social learning that’s both “fun” and “supportive.” 6

Educators start a Flipgrid by creating topic grids, setting sharing and access guidelines, and lastly, opening up grids for student participation. Students can create short video responses to grids that last anywhere from a short 15 seconds to five minutes in length. This online review tool also provides an accessible forum for students who are less talkative in a traditional classroom setting. With Flipgrid, all students can share at their own pace. To turn your grids into a game, have students post responses to practice quiz questions. In summary, Flipgrid is an easy-to-use conversation starter for students who are middle school age or older, including high school and college students.

Teacher Tip: Press the “disco grid” button to get already-created assignments by other educators that you can customize to your classroom needs.

Launched in 2015, Quizizz bills itself as “the world’s most engaging learning platform,” 7 and is a great way for educators to create tech-based exams, pre-test reviews, unit tests, and impromptu tests for their online review activities. Educators can choose from Quizizz’s presenter-led or student-led setting options. Students have more autonomy with Quizizz and can work at their own speed on a variety of personal electronic devices. This online review program also allows teachers to see student performance data. As of late 2020, Quizizz has more than 65 million global users across 150 countries. 8

5. Flippity

Flippity enables educators to turn their very own Google Sheets spreadsheets into different online reviews games including flashcards, crosswords, trivia games, and board games. Flippity is free to use, though some additional features are ad-supported. Flippity works on most browsers but does require Javascript to function. Each student can have his or her own version of the Flippity review game and teachers can have student results emailed to them for quick classroom progress tracking. A web connection is needed for each page to load, but no special application is needed to get the program.

6. Quizlet Live

Quizlet helps students build their soft and hard skills while they use this collaborative classroom game to solve quiz questions. You’ll need at least six students to run the game and both the students and the classroom education will need an electronic device to participate. To get started, teachers should divide students into groups. With Quizlet, only one student’s device has the correct answer, per group. This ensures student teams must cooperate and communicate in order to find the correct answer and progress to the finish as a group. Teachers can track each team’s progress along the way. The more effectively teams work together, the faster they can win. Wrong answers put teams back to the start to collaborate together again. Students do benefit from Quizlet’s method of group learning and seven different study modes. According to Quizlet, 90% of students who use Quizlet report higher grades. 9

Teacher Tip: Quizlet Live can be accessed from a browser or the Quizlet downloadable app.

Padlet is recommended for Grades 2-12 and is a great way for your students to share their ideas and their work with the entire class. Padlet has a free basic version that provides three “padlets,” or bulletin boards, and comes with an ample amount of storage space for classroom use. If you need more padlets or storage space, select the paid pro version. Any type of file can be posted to Padlet and students can type in responses to a question as well as share work files from external applications. Classroom educators can customize Padlet backgrounds and content to keep material visually interesting and conducive to classroom learning. To get started with this online review game, create a new Padlet, decide on the layout, and give it a name and description. Further customize it as you like to your classroom needs. For classrooms that need more monitoring, select “require approval” for each student comment to review that material before it is posted for the group. Padlet’s approval option works best if you want more control over classroom content and if you have time to check Padlet regularly to prevent content approval backlogs. Lastly, have your students sign in to free Padlet accounts to launch their experience and you’re ready to go.

Teacher Tip: Turn on Padlet’s “attribution” feature to see what each student has shared. Turn on comments to get students engaging with one another. Keep “reactions” off to tamp down on student competition over who has the most “likes.”

8. Quizalize

Quizalize is your tool to help create and share your online review quizzes while conducting formative assessments. 10 Quizalize allows teachers to track individual student progress accurately and to see which students have mastered which skills. Tailor each quiz to your curriculum’s needs or utilize the application’s existing quizzes, designed by fellow educators, that are tied to common curriculums. Quizalize motivates students individually but also on the team level and can be played from a variety of devices (laptop, cellphone, tablet) that are internet-connected. To get started with Quizalize, select from their free, teacher-made quizzes or create your own review quizzes. You can add images to your quiz and correct answer explanations. Next, choose quiz length and then save. With Quizalize, you have the ability to add as many questions as you’d like and you can customize the quiz delivery options for students. Once all of your preferences are set for your classroom needs, your Quizalize quiz is ready to launch!

Teacher Tip: Select “mastery mode,” to have students receive individualized questions based on information they need to show improvement with.

9. Bamboozle

Need to boost your students' vocabulary skills? Bamboozle is a great online review game option for vocabulary building. It’s also free. Bamboozle is easy to launch, is great for all classroom levels, and has the ability to be replayed in the same classrooms as its games are randomized. To get started quickly, search for games in a category, preview the questions and pictures, pick the number of teams, and the number of questions. Next, set up scoring and additional game options and you're ready to launch. You can also set up your own Bamboozle games from scratch.

Teacher Tip: Once your game is ready to play, increase the fun levels in class by calling on your students individually, asking them to pick a numbered card and answer the question that appears. Click and show the correct answer after each individual student has participated to review answers and reinforce group learning.

10. Bookwidgets

No online classroom review games list would be complete without Bookwidgets. With more than 40 exercise templates to choose from, Bookwidgets empowers teachers and curriculum developers to evaluate, grade, and give valuable feedback to students. 11 Bookwidgets can interface with Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Schoology, and Moodle. Games you can create with Bookwidgets include flashcards, quizzes, bingo, crosswords, and math exercises. Customize your tests for a variety of devices including tablets, PCs, and Chromebooks. Create your very first widget and follow the series of prompts to get started. Though free for students, Bookwidget does have a cost for teachers. Pricing plans start at $49 for a year-long subscription for individual educators. Discounts apply for group purchases. For those who want to try Bookwidgets before committing to a full purchase, a 30-day trial version is available.

Teacher Tip: Share your newly created widget with students and other teachers via Bookwidgets’ customized, shareable links.

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• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from thetechedvocate.org/the-positive-connection-between-games-and-online-learning/
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from kahoot.com/schools/how-it-works/
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahoot !
• Retrieved on July 7, 2021, from gimkit.com/
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from venturebeat.com/2018/06/18/microsoft-acquires-education-focused-video-platform-flipgrid/
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from blog.flipgrid.com/gettingstarted
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from quizizz.com/
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quizizz
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from quizlet.com/features/live
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from app.quizalize.com/
• Retrieved on July 6, 2021, from bookwidgets.com/

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Fun Review Activities and Classroom Games to Do Now

Janelle cox.

• October 17, 2019

Reviewing material can be so boring. Not only is it boring for you to teach, but think about how your students feel! When reviewing for a unit or state exam, try to incorporate activities and classroom games that engage students , not bore them. The trick is to make it so much fun that the students don’t even realize they are reviewing material. Try a few of these teacher-tested ideas below, they will have the material mastered before you know it.

Classroom Games

Turn review time into fun time with games . A review game is the perfect solution to get students working together. Here are a few to try out.

Monopoly – For this review game, each student is on his own, there are no teams. Each student receives the same amount of Monopoly money. They are allowed to wager their money based on how confident they know the answer to the review question you ask. If they get the question correct, they keep the money, if they are wrong their money goes to the next person who gets the answer correct. At the end of the game they can cash their money in for prizes.

Family Feud – Divide students into two teams. One person from each team must go against one another to answer a review question. If they get it right their team gets a point. To engage the other students while they are playing, have the rest of the team write the answers to the questions in their journals.

The Hot Seat – For this review game, have one student sit facing the class. Write a vocabulary word on the board behind their seat. The audience raises their hands and the “Hot Seat” student can call on three students for clues to guess the word. Change the “Hot Seat” student if they don’t get the word correct.

Jeopardy! – This fun game can be done using the Smartboard, PowerPoint, or just on the blackboard. You can find downloadable Jeopardy formats on the internet, or create your own. To begin, create questions and answers worth a specific amount of points. Divide the students into two teams and have each team choose a number. Their goal is to answer the question that is attached to the number they chose.

Pass the Chicken – You will need to purchase a rubber chicken for this fun review game. To begin, have students sit in a circle. Randomly ask one student a review question while the rubber chicken gets passed around the circle. If the rubber chicken arrives back at the student before he/she answers they must go to the middle (the pot) of the circle. The chicken is then passed to the next person, and so on. If the next student does not get the answer correct, then ask the students in the “Pot” if they know the answer. If they do, then they may get out of the pot and go back to the circle. Be sure to enlist a few safety rules, the students can tend to get rough with the rubber chicken.

Ping Pong – Divide students into two teams. Students work as a team to answer a review question. Then, if they answer it correctly, they get a chance to bounce a ball into one of three plastic cups to get a prize for their team. Prizes can be a homework pass, free time, extra computer time, lunch in the classroom, and so on.

Bingo – Review Bingo is another classroom favorite. To change it up a bit, use candy as the markers. Have students program their bingo cards with their vocabulary words and pull questions randomly.

Beach Ball – Purchase a white beach ball and write a variety of review questions on the ball. Then have students sit on top of their desks. The goal of this game is to play catch. When a student catches the ball, the must answer the question their right thumb is touching.

Headbands – A fun spin on the popular game headbands is to write a review term on a post-it note. Each student must stick the note to her forehead without looking at it. Their goal is to figure out what the term on the forehead is. For example, if one person had the word “Nectar” on his sticky note, their team members would give them clues, such as a sugar-rich liquid, it attracts pollinating animals, and so on.

Spin the Wheel – Create a wheel with a variety of review questions on it. Then randomly call upon students to come up and spin the wheel to see if they can answer the question correctly.

There are a lot of great review games out there. Any one that you choose will increase student engagement and help students learn the material. Just make sure that you keep anything that you make yourself so can reuse it again next year.

• #ClassroomGames , #ReviewActivities , #StudentEngagement

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• January 29, 2024
• Classroom Review Games

14 Fun Literature Review Games for Students

Review games in literature classes can turn the study of texts, characters, themes, and literary devices into an interactive and engaging experience. These games encourage students to think critically about the material, work collaboratively, and apply their knowledge in creative ways. Below, we explore a variety of games suited for literature review, detailing the necessary materials and instructions for each.

1. Character Bingo

Materials Needed:

• Bingo cards with names or traits of characters from the literature studied
• Markers or chip
• A list of quotes, actions, or descriptions related to characters for the teacher to call out

How to Play:

In this adaptation of Bingo, cards are filled with characters’ names or key traits. The teacher calls out quotes, actions, or descriptions from the text, and students must identify the character and mark their card accordingly. The first student to get a row, column, or diagonal and shout “Bingo!” wins.

2. Quote Match

• Cards with quotes from the literature on one set and the corresponding characters or contexts on another set

Spread out all cards face down. Students take turns flipping two cards at a time, attempting to match a quote with the character who said it or the context in which it was said. This game tests students’ recall and understanding of key moments in the texts.

3. Literary Terms Jeopardy

• A Jeopardy board with categories related to literary devices, themes, plot points, and characters
• Questions for each category

Students choose from categories like “Metaphors,” “Plot Twists,” or “Dynamic Characters,” with each question assigned a point value. Correct answers earn points, and the student or team with the most points at the end of the game wins. This format is great for a comprehensive review of literary elements.

4. Story Sequence Scramble

• Cards or strips of paper with key plot events from a text

Students work individually or in teams to arrange the cards in the correct narrative order. This game reinforces understanding of the plot structure and key events, encouraging students to discuss and justify their choices.

5. Literary Pictionary

• Whiteboard and markers or paper and pencils
• Cards with literary terms, characters, themes, or plot elements

Players draw representations of the literary terms, characters, themes, or plot elements written on the cards, while their teammates try to guess what they are drawing. This game encourages creative thinking and helps solidify students’ understanding of literary concepts.

6. Theme Park

• Index cards with themes from various texts

Students draw a card and have a set amount of time to explain the theme and how it is developed in the text, citing specific examples. This can be played in teams, with points awarded for clarity, accuracy, and the ability to provide detailed examples.

7. Character Hot Seat

• A list of characters from the literature studied

One student sits in the “hot seat” and assumes the role of a character from the texts studied. The rest of the class asks questions, and the student in the hot seat must answer as they believe the character would. This game deepens character understanding and encourages empathy and perspective-taking.

8. Plot Twist Challenge

• Cards with plot points from various texts

Students draw a card with a plot point and must create an alternative plot twist or ending based on that point. This encourages creative thinking and a deeper understanding of narrative structure and character motivation.

9. Literary Speed Dating

• Character profiles from the literature studied

Students assume the identities of characters from the texts and engage in short “dates” with other characters. They discuss their backgrounds, conflicts, and relationships as outlined in the texts. This game promotes character analysis and understanding of character interactions.

10. Vocabulary Crossfire

• Flashcards with vocabulary words from the literature
• Definitions, synonyms, or sentences using the vocabulary words

Students are divided into two teams, and one member from each team draws a card. The first to correctly define the word, provide a synonym, or use it in a sentence wins a point for their team. This fast-paced game enhances vocabulary knowledge related to the texts.

11. Literary Maze

• Maze templates with literary questions or prompts along the paths

Students navigate through a maze, answering literature-related questions at certain checkpoints. Correct answers allow them to proceed, while incorrect answers might lead them down a dead end. This game is a fun way to review various literary elements and text-specific questions.

12. Fictional Family Tree

• A list of characters from one or more texts
• Paper and pens or a digital tool for creating family trees

Students create a “family tree” that shows the relationships between characters from the literature studied. This can include literal family connections, as well as thematic or symbolic relationships. This exercise helps students visualize and understand character connections and dynamics.

13. Synonym Synthesis

• Cards with complex vocabulary from the texts
• Cards with synonyms or simpler explanations

Students match vocabulary words with their synonyms or simplified explanations, promoting a deeper understanding of the texts’ language and enhancing their vocabulary.

14. Book Cover Redesign

• Art supplies (paper, markers, colored pencils, etc.)
• Key themes, symbols, or motifs from the literature

Students redesign the book cover of a text studied in class, incorporating key themes, symbols, or motifs. This artistic activity encourages students to think about the visual representation of literary elements and themes.

These literature review games transform the study of texts into an interactive learning process that engages students in critical thinking and collaborative learning. By integrating these games into the literature curriculum, teachers can foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of literary works in their students.

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The Instant Jeopardy Review Game has been designed and dramatically improved to make it the perfect review game for a wide variety of classroom uses. This tool is a fun and interactive way to review content in your classroom, meeting, conference, or other group setting.

• Simple insertion of pictures on Question and/or Answer slides
• Full support for symbols, such as exponents and wingdings style fonts
• Better support for foreign language Question and/or Answer slides
• Simpler visual editing process
• Embed anything in your question slides, even Youtube videos, flash objects, etc.
• Simple scorekeeping system
• Works on portable devices such as smartphones, iPad, and iPod Touch!

• Internet , Software & Tools

15 Fun Online Review Games That Are Teacher Approved

Online review games aim at finding a way to let students answer questions correctly in a manner that makes them feel comfortable. These teacher-approved games also allow students to ask questions, participate in learning , and score points for correct answers.

Most of these games involve group participation. Group activities let students interact with their peers and enhance team-building. These activities can also help learners with test prep.

This article focuses on a list of fun online review games that teachers approve of. Therefore, if you’d like to engage your students and make classroom learning more meaningful and exciting , keep reading.

Fun Online Review Games That Are Teacher Approved

If there’s a teacher-approved review game you’re probably familiar with, it’s Kahoot! The platform lets you create multi-choice quizzes, games, and polls for a fulfilling classroom gaming experience.

As a teacher , you can host live review games at class time or even showcase your “kahoots” on shared screens to remote students.

Kahoot! lets students play in the classic mode or team mode through shared screens.

Creating a review game on the platform takes a few minutes. You can create the game by editing a template, creating it from scratch, using existing questions, or customizing the kahoots made by other users.

You can host Kahoot! Live within a classroom or use a video conferencing tool to engage students virtually.

Typically, questions and answers appear on a shared screen as students answer on their devices. However, you can display the questions on students’ devices, as well.

The other feature I like about Kahoot! Is that it lets you grab the students’ attention with true or false questions. You can also adjust the timer options based on the question’s complexity.

Do you have YouTube videos relevant to your questions? You can insert them into the questions.

The Basic, free version allows you to host and play kahoots, create kahoots based on quiz questions, assign student-paced games, and host up to 40 students per game.

The premium plans are for individuals and teams. Individual plans include Start, Premier, and Max costing $3.99, $5.99, and $7.99 per teacher per month respectively.

On the other hand, Team Plans include EDU Standard at $11.69 and EDU Pro at $16.19 per teacher per month.

Also Read : Best Kahoot Fun Ideas For Friends

Are you interested in a fun online review game made by a student for students? Gimkit would do. Gimkit looks like Kahoot ! and Quizlet combined, but has other unique features.

The platform’s live gameplay is engaging and fast-paced. But don’t let that intimidate you.

It’s easy to get started; search for question sets or kits that other users created and modify or copy them for your use. Interestingly, Gimkit lets you import question sets from a spreadsheet or other flashcard platforms .

If you are having problems building a kit, don’t worry; ask students to help you do it. The KitCollab feature lets them submit their own questions in minutes.

Now, you can quickly add an exciting review game into your lesson without much prep time. You will set a due date and let students work through the kit at their preferred pace. They answer questions until they hit a set goal.

I also like the assignment feature available on Gimkit; use it to give out homework at the end of the game.

As an educator, you will need to create an account to access and start using Gimkit. However, creating a student account is optional; students don’t need to create an account to start playing.

Educators can start with Gimkit Basic, a free account, and then switch to Gimkit Pro with an annual subscription of $59.88 or a monthly subscription fee of $9.99.

Padlet is a robust tool that helps learners collaborate in the classroom . Students can use it to share their work and ideas with the rest of the class. It’s also an excellent platform to post fun games and let students participate.

How do you initiate a game that everyone will love?

Easy. Double-click at any point on the Padlet to get started. Next, write your game title and describe it at the point where it states ‘Write something…..’.

If there’s an external website with a detailed description of your game. You can add an external link to it, too.

You can choose from a variety of games to play. For example, suppose you want to play ‘Caption the picture’. You start by showing a picture on the board.

Four teams will start playing by writing a caption on the mini board. Also, have a group of students form a judging team to review and evaluate which caption is the best.

The free, basic version has three padlets or bulletin boards and has adequate storage space for the classroom’s use. To access more storage space or padlets, switch to the pro version.

Padlet offers Personal, Team, Business, and School memberships . Personal and Team memberships have a free plan with three padlets and 20 MB of storage space. Paid membership starts at $6.99/month for the Personal plan and $14.99/month for the Team plan.

The Business plan starts at $12/month and the School plan starts at $1,000/month. Business and School memberships come with a trial.

Formerly known as Flipgrid, Flip is a fun and interactive social learning platform where educators post a question and let students respond in a video.

Owned by Microsoft, Flip is completely free and includes unlimited topics, student videos, and groups.

So, how does it work? As an educator, create a link and a join code to your question and share it with the students.

Students will record a video with a response to your prompt. They can use the camera tools to get as creative as possible in their response.

Next, students can take a selfie and submit the video. Now, students can leave comments on each other’s videos, sparking an interesting discussion.

Flip lets you draw inspiration from other educators’ content while creating your own. You can use Flip to enrich learning in PreK-8 classrooms, high schools, and higher education institutions.

Quizizz is another powerful platform tool with tons of tools that make a classroom fun, engaging, and interactive.

As an educator, you can assign homework, create lessons, facilitate formal assessments, and interact with students in an exciting way.

Quizizz features instructor-based quizzes where the entire class goes through every question unanimously and the teacher regulates the pace. You can use this feature to create a live question.

We also have student-paced quizzes in which students learn at their own pace while you see live results and a leaderboard for each lesson or question.

You have access to millions of quizzes and can import a quiz as it is, customize it, or edit it.

The Editor lets you select from six question types and add a video, an image, or audio.

The feature I like most is one that lets students access questions on their devices, whether smartphones, PCs, tablets, or laptops.

Additionally, you get feedback from students to help you improve your quizzes.

Quizizz is free for students and K-12 teachers. However, other users, such as employers, need to pay to use it at $25 per month or $48 per month for the Standard and Premier plans respectively.

6. Quizlet Live

Quizlet Live is Quizlet’s exciting and fast-paced learning game that many students love. The teacher-approved game lets you help your students to improve their vocabulary and other concepts acquired in class while engaging in a competitive and fun quiz game.

You can play in the Teams mode to enhance collaboration and communication, or in Individuals mode, which is ideal for smaller teams.

Quizlet offers the easiest way to build and play a classroom review game. Start by selecting a Quizlet study set and use Quizlet Live to create a game in seconds.

Next, share the join code with friends to invite them. Lastly, watch as they learn and compete together.

You can also use Quizlet Live to engage students in distant learning.

Students use Quizlet to study and understand over 100 subjects, including math, philosophy, history, music, languages, English, and more.

Quizlet is free. However, you can upgrade to QuizletPlus at $35.99 per year or $7.99 per month. QuizletPlus starts with a seven-day free trial.

7. Flippity

Flippity lets educators convert Google Sheets or templates into online review games, such as trivia games, flashcards, board games, and crosswords.

For example, you can easily create Bingo from a Google Sheet and share it with students. Students will then email you the game results so you can make quick classroom progress.

Note that Flippity works well on most browsers , but requires Javascript to operate well.

Flippity has numerous games to explore, such as Board Games, Matching Games, Connecto, Virtual Breakout, Random Name Picker, Flashcards, Flex Cards, Randomizer, Word Scramble, Word Search, Spelling Words, and more.

Flippity is free to use, but some features are ad-supported, which is how they generate revenue.

8. BookWidgets

BookWidgets is a fun online review game with over 40 digital exercise templates. You can use this game on your PC, tablet, or device.

This game empowers you to transform your paper worksheet into an interactive quiz or assignment more dynamically using multimedia elements. It makes it easy for you to evaluate, grade, and offer feedback to the learners.

BookWidgets worksheets and quizzes come with different evaluations and question types that are auto-graded to help children learn on the spot. From its reporting dashboard, you can give personalized feedback to each student.

Monitor each student’s progress and activity in real time as they work on their assignments in class or at home. This way, you’ll know which of them needs extra help. The game lets you take surveys and play live games to enliven your sessions.

The games you can create here include quizzes, crosswords, bingo, math exercises, and flashcards. To start, follow the prompts.

BookWidgets integrates seamlessly with Canvas, Microsoft Teams for Education, Schoology, Google Classroom, itslearning, and Moodle to help you create, grade, share, and provide feedback from a central point. You can also share your widgets with learners and fellow teachers through customized links.

This teacher-approved review game is free for students. As a teacher, you have a 30-day trial to test how it works before committing to subscription plans which include Teacher at $9.95/month, Teacher Group at $55/year, Standard at $245/year, and Professional at $1,195/year.

9. Socrative

Socrative lets you create and share your games and quizzes with students. It provides more exciting ways to assess learners’ comprehension in various learning environments.

Founded in 2010, this review game has delivered formative assessment tools that help connect teachers with learners . It offers fun tools that help gauge learners’ understanding in real time.

It is an effective tool that lets you modify your learning materials based on student understanding. To help reach more users, Socrative provides its interactive sessions in four different languages.

With its free plan, you have a public room with 50 students. The learners can log in using their student ID from smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. It has an intuitive user interface where you create on-the-fly quizzes and questions to help review concepts, introduce new topics, or go Space Race gaming with the learners.

As an educator, you’ll be able to track learner progress in real time and provide immediate feedback. Socrative ensures you have fun and engaging sessions with learners and makes grading a breeze with its auto-grade system.

Personalized activities like polls, questions, and activities have been simplified to help you execute tasks swiftly.

The platform is free for students. Pricing plans include Socrative Pro for K-12 at $89.99/year and Socrative Pro for Higher Ed & Corporate University at $179.99/year.

10. JeopardyLabs

JeopardyLabs is a digital review game that allows you to create and share trivia games and quizzes with students. It has plenty of customizable options to help you tailor games to specific topics or subjects.

The platform has two million games, with templates available on every subject. It offers a simple way to build your Jeopardy games on different topics such as the weather, geometry, world capitals, arts, etc.

You can create templates here using the editor or browse through the many templates created by other users. After creating a game, you can share it with students on a screen through a projector. As the host, click on a square, and it will show both the question and the answer.

It allows you to add sound to games, embed videos, customize colors and font size, delete rows, and move cells.

Students will buzz in by raising their hands or shouting their names. With every answer, you allocate points on the scoreboard.

JeopardyLabs is free to use, with no registration required.

11. Blooket

Blooket allows you to select a question set with a unique game mode. The platform will generate a code for the students to use when joining the game from their devices. To keep the game going, the learners have to answer questions and win.

Blooket has plenty of games to keep the excitement and engagement going. Students are motivated by rewards after exploring new learning methods and answering questions.

In Blooket, you create a virtual world where students compete in different activities. They can complete quests, explore other maps, battle monsters, etc. They’re also empowered to customize their characters.

This teacher-approved game has social media integration and a leaderboard system that lets them interact freely and compete with others.

The Set Builder lets you import or create question sets. There’s also the option to explore and select your preferred question set from the Discover Page. The page has a collection of sets built by other users.

Once you have your game, you can set your game mode and edit the game settings to make a perfect session for your students.

Blooket has a community of educators and students who add more content to the platform to make the games more exciting.

For it to work, you have to host a game on a screen where students join in with their game IDs to compete from their gadgets. Throughout the game, they’ll answer review questions on various subjects.

The detailed question analysis and score reports help you to understand their performance and abilities. This way, you’ll identify the areas that need to be reviewed more.

Blooket is free but if you need more features, upgrade to the Plus plan at $2.99/month or Plus Flex at $4.99/month.

12. Plickers

Plickers is an online and classroom real-time assessment tool through which you’ll provide an environment for students to share their thoughts anonymously.

From the other end of your device, you’ll see the students who’ve grasped the topic and those who haven’t. All learners will answer your questions by participating more.

This tool works wonders, especially if you don’t have a device policy in school. It requires Plickers cards and a smartphone. You’ll get standard cards for free at the Plickers website.

On Plickers, you get to ask multiple questions and let the students answer by showing their cards. All the questions you ask should be inserted on the website. Every side of the card represents a question letter like A, B, C, or D. When the students raise their cards, you’ll scan them using the Plickers app.

Plickers is an all-round game you can play with students in lower classes and at the university level. It is an excellent formative assessment tool for lesson fresheners and warm-ups. Sign-up on this platform is free.

13. Quiz Tree

Quiz Tree is built with a user-friendly interface through which you create customized questions and quizzes to teach new topics and review concepts.

The platform makes learning a fun venture for students. It has more than a thousand quizzes and games on various subjects, including reading, SAT, math, music, spelling, Spanish, geography, sports, trivia, awards, and more.

The activities on Quiz Tree come with fun sounds, an animated interface, and cool features to make learning more exciting for students. You have enough activities for different grade levels and different teaching techniques.

It makes it easy to prepare students for the next exams, test their knowledge, and learn something new. The best part is that new quizzes are regularly added to create variety.

Quiz Tree is free.

14. Quizalize

Quizalize lets you transform every quiz into a classic game and engage students with fun gamified materials. Personalize your teaching by getting instant data that will help learners grow.

This platform allows you to create and share review quizzes with learners as you conduct formative assessments . While they’re at it, you will track each student’s progress to see those who’ve mastered specific skills and those who still need to grasp concepts.

You can customize quizzes to fit the curriculum or use the ones designed by other educators. It has more than a million lesson resources ready for use. You’ll also find hundreds of readily available curriculum-tagged materials in subjects such as math, world languages, social studies, science, etc.

The platform motivates learners to interact with the content and with fellow students. It integrates with third-party tools like Google Forms and Google Classroom to help you manage the class and save time.

When designing quizzes, you can include images, add more questions, and customize delivery options. Set your preferences to the classroom’s needs and launch the quiz to let learners into the game.

This game is quite affordable if you are on a budget. It takes the work out of grading and writing quizzes when you’re handling a hybrid class. You can use it for three classes and five activities.

It has a free Basic Plan, a Premium for Teams and Departments Plan at $4.99, and a Premium for Teachers Plan at $5.99.

15. Heads Up!

If you want to create an exciting environment where students can have fun explaining terms and recalling information, then Heads Up! is the perfect game to partner with. It lets learners explain terms using examples and definitions to enhance recall.

Heads Up! is an online teacher-approved Android/iOS game that enables you to create review games, title your deck, and include important concepts, people, and terms. You can challenge students to describe terms and play Heads Up! without using words but, instead, acting out terms.

Doing this will force them to think more elaborately about terms, concepts, and people.

To add to the fun, put students in groups and have them draw any number between one and five. Let those who drew number one come together to play the initial round. Make them put their gadgets away, so they don’t see the term.

The rest will read the card and explain the terms without saying them directly. What matters is they should rely on the knowledge they have to find the correct answer.

The Android app is free, but the iOS app costs $1.99.

Turning test reviews into games helps foster students’ love of knowledge. It engages learners and sparks interest in understanding how concepts work in a fun, enjoyable way.

Review games help them explore ideas with much flexibility as they develop their skills. There are plenty of ways to make review lessons exciting for learners. These teacher-approved review games can prepare them for the content they could expect in assignments and on exams.

They also help to foster students’ ability to move on to more complex concepts and work as teams. Making them spend time exploring questions and rewarding them for answering correctly is one way of enhancing their memory recall and building their self-confidence.

Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.

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How to Write a Video Game Review

Last Updated: March 18, 2024

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden . Hannah Madden is a writer, editor, and artist currently living in Portland, Oregon. In 2018, she graduated from Portland State University with a B.S. in Environmental Studies. Hannah enjoys writing articles about conservation, sustainability, and eco-friendly products. When she isn’t writing, you can find Hannah working on hand embroidery projects and listening to music. This article has been viewed 289,267 times. Learn more...

The gaming industry is booming, and is expected to have a net worth of $137.9 billion as of 2018. [1] X Research source As such, video game reviews are becoming more and more prevalent. If you’d like to write a video game review of your own, play the game for about 10 hours, take notes on what you like and dislike, and give your own opinion on the game to create a comprehensive video game review.

Playing the Game and Taking Notes

• If the game has different levels, try to level up as many times as possible. If the game is an open world, explore as much of it as you can.

• Details as small as the trees waving in the wind or a character’s headband can help a reader envision the in-game world when they read your review.

Tip: Try to be specific. Instead of writing “The main character sucks!” try, “The main character didn’t have as many weapon options as I would have liked.” This will be helpful when you start writing.

• For example, you could say, “This racing game has more car model options, but less customizable pieces than their last release.”

Compiling Your Notes into a Review

Tip: If you are publishing a video game review on your own website or blog, you can choose your word count. However, your readers will probably appreciate a comprehensive review.

• For example, say something like, “After the success of Injustice, the newest game from the NetherRealm Studios is Mortal Kombat X. With this installment in the MK series, Nether Realm has mended all the shortcomings that Injustice had and added so much more. MK X is by far the best MK game we have seen in the series.”

• For example, “The movements of the characters and flair with which the executions and bonus moves are performed are one of the best we’ve ever seen. The blood and gore of MK coupled with the next generation graphics truly delivers an experience like no other.”

• For example, “This game breathes fresh air into the market by offering characters who each have a different playing style, offering you the opportunity to learn the combo moves of each character.”

• For example, “I certainly advise you to go pick yourself up a copy of this game. It might just be the best fighting game to come out in 2016. I rate it 8.8/10.”

• Your review may get sent back to you by an editor if it needs to be changed.

Video Game Review Template and Examples

Community Q&A

• Avoid giving out obvious information about the game like the publisher, year, and developer, as this is a review of the game, not a summary of the game's statistics. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://newzoo.com/resources/blog/global-games-market-reaches-137-9-billion-in-2018-mobile-games-take-half
• ↑ https://www.freelancewriting.com/freelancing/writing-a-video-game-review/
• ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/03/22/you-got-game-but-can-you-write
• ↑ https://gamersushi.com/2011/03/23/how-to-write-a-video-game-review/

About This Article

To write a video game review, you’ll want to give readers an overview of the game’s different elements and provide your personal opinion on how good it is. You’ll need to play the game for at least 7 hours to get a real feel for it. Try to explore as many different parts of the game as you can, like its main story, side quests, multiplayer, and challenges. While you’re playing, take brief notes on the things you like and things that don’t work so well to help you write your review. You’ll want to cover topics like graphics, sound design, story, game mechanics, and how well it runs. You can also compare it to other games in its genre to show readers what’s unique about it. Give it a grade out of 10 or a star rating at the end. For more tips, including how to edit and proofread your game review, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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ESL Speaking

Games + Activities to Try Out Today!

in Activities for Adults · Activities for Kids

ESL Review Activities and Games| Fun TEFL Review Games to Try

If you’re looking for some ESL or EFL review activities and games, you’ve come to the right place. Keep on reading for my favourite ESL review games to check out! And, don’t forget to provide your students with lots of opportunities for review in class.

Fun review games and activities

Keep on reading for more details about each of these ESL review games and activities. These English review activities are fun, engaging and student-centred.

Best ESL Review Activities

If you’re looking to make sure your students understood what you taught them in a previous lesson, consider using one of these ESL review activities and games. They’re fun, engaging and interesting, which will equal happy students and happy teachers!

Most of them are appropriate for just about any age or level of students, just adjust them accordingly. Click on the titles of each ESL review game to be taken to the full description of the activity.

But, please remember that the best language learning often happens outside of school, so please remind your students of this as well.

#1: Odd One Out ESL Review Game

This ESL warm-up activity is also one of my favourite ESL review activities. It’s fast, easy and great for making sure that students not only understand new vocabulary words, but the meaning behind them as well. It lends itself particularly well to something like science or sports.

I often use this one to start off my classes with as a quick warm-up. But to make it a review activity, I just use vocabulary words from previous classes.

You can find out more here: Odd One Out.

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 67 Pages - 06/09/2016 (Publication Date)

#2: Dictogloss

Dictogloss is another one of my favourite ESL review activities. It’s heavy on the listening and then students can either respond with writing or speaking, depending on your preference. You can use it to reinforce any grammar or vocabulary that you’ve taught the students in previous classes.

Younger learners may find it too difficult, but it’s ideal as a review activity for high school students, university students or adults.

Learn how to do it here: Dictogloss .

#3: Flip-Chart

This is another one of my favourite ESL review games that works best for smaller classes of 12 or fewer students. In bigger classes, it’ll get too chaotic. You may be tempted to make 3-4 teams, but this gets kind of boring because there’s too much lag time between turns.

Basically, the students have to describe a word (written on the board or page above their heads) to a captain on their teams, who has to say it. It’s a nice way to review new vocabulary terms.

Check it out here: Vocabulary Review Activity .

Even More ESL Games and Activities

#4: concentration review game.

This is a fun English review game that kids love, although you can use it for beginner teenagers or adults too. It’s perfect for reviewing new vocabulary words and definitions. Even high school students get into it!

Perhaps the thing that I like best out this ESL review game is that it’s a test of the memory as well. So, students who are a little bit weaker at English, but may have a better memory actually have a chance at winning.

It’s fun, challenging and helps students to remember new words. Try it out with kids as well as adults and I’m confident that you’ll be happy with the results.

Find out more about this ESL review game: Concentration Memory Game .

#5 Grammar Review Game: Disappearing Text

Try out this ESL review activity at the end of class to review grammar concepts or vocabulary. It helps these things become a bit more automatic with building complete sentences .

It’s also an excellent test to make sure students have really learned what you were trying to teach them in that class. Correct word order in a sentence? Yes, that’s what this activity is ALL about, so it’s particularly good for absolute beginners.

Check it out here: Disappearing Text Review Activity.

#6 Final Exam Review Game: Running Dictation

This 4-skills, student-centred ESL activity is one of my favourites. You can use it to review just about anything and it’s perfect to use before a midterm of final exam to review key vocabulary and grammar concepts.

Try it out in some of your classes today and I’m sure your students will love it. It’s perfect for those “dead” classes who are apathetic to just about everything! It has a serious element of competition to it that students seem to love.

The hush that comes over the class is one serious sign of how engaging this game is! It’s certainly one of the best class review activities that I know of.

Learn More about one of the best review activities for adults (although you can use it with kids too) here: How to Play Running Dictation .

#7 English Review Games: Board Games

I love to play board games in my real life and so I’m always sure to use them frequently in my classes. They’re one of the best ESL review games I can think of, especially for middle school or high school students!

It’s really, really easy to make your own ESL board games and it’ll only take a few minutes once you get the hang of it. Of course, you can sometimes find board games in the teacher’s resource books, but you can write you own easily if you can’t.

Students really love them and they work in a class of any size. You just have to divide the students up into groups of 3-5. Don’t forget to bring a little prize for the winner in each group–it makes these ESL board games a bit more fun!

Find out more details about one of the best fun test review games: Board Games for Language Learners .

Learn More about ESL Board Games:

#8 Review Activities for Adults: Surveys for ESL Students

Surveys are one of my favourite “end of unit” ESL review activities. They get the students up and out of their seats and talking to their classmates. They also encourage active listening and follow-up questions, which students are often quite weak at.

Click on the link above to see six of them that I use in my own classes in South Korean universities. I generally find that I use them in each course a few time a year. ESL surveys really are that good!

Helpful tips for English surveys:

• Be sure to emphasize that this is a 1-1 speaking activity, or you’ll have groups of students doing it together.
• Encourage students to complete this activity using 100% English! It really is possible and also very beneficial.
• It can be useful to give some feedback at the end of this activity on how the class did.

Learn more here: ESL Board Games.

ESL Review Games

#9: Rock-Scissor-Paper

If you have very low-level students who are struggling to put together basic questions and answers, this is the ESL review activity for you! The best part about it is that it gets the students up out of their seats and moving around the classroom.

The way it works is that there are little strips of paper with a question and then the corresponding answer (separate pieces). Students will get a few random pieces and then have to circulate around the class looking for their matches. It’s one of the best review games before a midterm or final exam.

Learn how to play this game here: Rocks-Scissor-Paper .

#10 Review Activity: Simple Role-Plays

If you ask students want they want to work on in your classes, they’ll often say English conversation. Even beginners will say this! However, something like free talking can be impossible for lower-level students. Role-plays are a nice bridge for them.

Role-plays are often quite a nice way to round out a unit. They are one of my favourite ESL review activities, especially for lower-level students. They encourage students to get a bit creative with the language that they’ve learned. Personalizing it can often make it far more memorable.

If you ask students what they want to work on in class, they’ll often say English conversation. However, this can be difficult with lower-level students. Role-plays help bridge the gap and are a nice way for students to learn the basics of conversation.

Learn more: Role Plays for English Learners .

Find out more about how I use ESL role-plays in my classes:

#11: Task Based Activities

Task based activities are when students have to work together to accomplish something. In the case of review, it could be designing an activity or game that helps their classmates review a certain grammar or vocabulary point. Or, they could design a worksheet to do this as well.

Do you want to know more about this style of teaching? Check out the following: Task Based Language Teaching .

• 81 Pages - 06/22/2021 (Publication Date)

#12: Hot Potato Review Activity

This is one of the most versatile TEFL activities out there and can be used for any grammar or vocabulary point. It makes an excellent review activity. The way it works is that students pass around a “potato” and when the timer goes off, the person holding it has to do something.

In this case, it might be to answer a review question. Or, they could have to make a question to ask another student. Find out more about this fun review activity here: Hot Potato TEFL Game .

Reviews games for ESL/EFL

#13: ESL Charades Class Review

Charades is  a fun way to review vocabulary. You’ve probably played this at a party before. The way it works is that students have to act out a phrase to their teammates who guess what it is. Do you want to try it out in your English class? Learn more about one of the best English review games here:

TEFL Charades.

#14: Flashcard Sentences 

Flashcards are definitely one of those things that I think are under utilized by most English teachers. They are super versatile and can be used for a wide range of activities, including review. The sky is the limit so be sure to check this out for some specific examples of how you can use them in your class:

TEFL Flashcard Activities .

#15: Chain Spelling Review Game

A quick but fun way to review new vocabulary words is to play the chain spelling game. It’s basically a “last person standing” kind of activity where students have to spell out words, one letter by one letter in a circle. When someone misses a letter, they are “out.”

Do you want to find out more about how to play? You can see all the details right here: Chain Spelling Game .

#16: Jigsaw Activities

#17: What are you Cooking?

One excellent way to review the “food” unit that’s super common in many ESL textbooks is to do this fun activity. The way it works is that students have to design a 3-course menu based on ingredients given to them by another group.

Want to try out this ESL food review activity? You can see all the details here: What are you Cooking ESL Food Activity .

#18: Dialogue Substitution

A nice way to review key grammar points or vocabulary words is to use this dialogue substitution activity. Often ESL textbooks will have conversations in them but if you ask students to read them with a partner, they’ll often do this mindlessly. This isn’t their fault—it’s just that they don’t really have a reason to read!

Instead, consider using this activity which takes out key words and then students have a word bank from which to fill them in. The words you take out depends on what you’ve been teaching your students. Want to know more? You can get all the details right here:

ESL Dialogue Substitution Activity .

#19: ESL Picture Activity for Reviewing Vocabulary

A nice review activity can be to show students an interesting picture related to the topic of the day. Then, students have to make some sentences related to what they see, either by speaking or writing. It’s simple, easy and effective for getting students to use the key new vocabulary.

#20: Flashcard TEFL Review Game

There’s nothing like using flashcards to review key vocabulary that students have learned in your classes. Here are some fun review activities to try out with your English learners:

#21: Typhoon Review Game

Try out this TEFL game if you want to have some serious fun before a midterm or final exam! It’s ideal for reviewing large amounts of materials in an engaging and interactive way. Every time I use it in class, students talk about it for weeks afterwards and want to play it again! Find out more here:

Typhoon ESL Game .

#22: Preposition of Place Review Quiz

Check out this simple game to review prepositions with your students:

#23: Basketball ESL Game

This is an easy review game that’s ideal for covering simple grammar points. It’s best for children but I’ve also used it with teenagers with great success. It’s so fun that students always ask to play it again! Check it out here:

Basketball Challenge ESL Game .

#24: Speaking Fluency Activity

Fun Review Games and Activities: FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about using ESL review games and activities in class. Here are the answer to some of the most common ones.

What is a Review Lesson?

A review lesson is a lesson that covers material from previous classes. It’s generally done before an exam or test, however it doesn’t have to be related to this and can be done for its’ own sake. Reviewing topics frequently helps students consolidate new grammar and vocabulary.

Is ESL Review Important?

Review is vital to ESL learners, or any language learner for that matter. It’s the best way for students to get enough practice with new grammar points and vocabulary so that they become familiar with it and are able to use it effectively.

How do you Review Vocabulary?

Here are some of the best ways for ESL/EFL students to review vocabulary:

• Odd One Out
• Flip-chart review
• Concentration
• Disappearing text
• Running dictation
• Board games
• Rocks-scissor-paper
• Task based activities
• ESL Hot Potato
• Flashcard sentences

Review activities for EFL/ESL

How can Students Take Responsibility for Review?

Although you as the teacher can help students with review and create opportunities for this in class, it’s ultimately up to them whether or not they learn the new vocabulary and grammar that you’re teaching them. The best learning often happens outside the classroom and not necessarily just cramming for a test.

Don’t forget to remind students of this fact on a regular basic. Give them tips and ideas for expanding their skills and education beyond just sitting in your class. Think of it as a team sport and you’re the coach.

One of the ideas that I find works particularly well is keeping a log or journal of new things learned and then reviewing it periodically. If your students aren’t great at doing this on their own, add some homework in there.

How Can I Help Students Remember New Words and English Grammar?

All the time, students ask me for tips on now they can remember new English vocabulary words, or grammatical points they learned in class. Here are a few of the tips that I give them:

• Review is very, very important. You can review a word after 24 hours, after one week, and then a month later. If you can still remember something a month later, it’s probably with you.
• Flashcards are ideal. Make sure you go from the English to native language, but also the much harder native language to English. Mix them up every time you study because it forces your brain to work harder. Also be sure to take out the ones that you know very well and work more on the more difficult ones.
• Use a vocabulary notebook.
• Read and listen a lot. The more times you hear new words “in the world,” the better the chance you have at remembering it.
• Learn with a friend and test each other.
• Learn new words every day, but not too many. 5-8 is an ideal number.
• It’s better to review for 10 minutes a day than 10 hours once a month.

Of course, review is by far the most important thing so keep doing it!

My Theory Behind Lots of Review

I incorporate a ton of review into my English classes. At the start of the class to review material from previous lessons. At the end of a class to review what we studied that day. Even in the middle of the class to review some difficult grammar or vocabulary that I’m not sure my students have a full grasp on. Then, I dedicate an entire class to it before the midterm and final exam.

Too much? I don’t really think so. My theory is that it’s far better for students to know a few things really, really well than to do lots of things not at all. It’s the things they know well that they’re actually going to use in real life when they start writing and speaking in English. And they’ll have a solid takeaway from your course.

If you want to learn more about the theory behind teaching ESL, consider some professional development opportunities including conferences. It can help bring some order to the sometimes confusing world of language teaching.

Want the Ultimate ESL Activity Book?

Find What You’re Looking for a Minute

Do you want to know the best part? All the games and activities are organized by category for easy use (speaking + listening, reading, writing, 4-skills, warm-ups + icebreakers). Yes, there are even lots of review activities and games too!

It’s lesson planning made easy!

Available in a Variety of Formats

You can easily get the book on Amazon today. There are two formats: digital + print. The digital one can be read on any device by downloading the free Kindle reading app.

Keep a copy on your bookshelf as a quick reference when lesson planning. Or, have a copy on your phone for planning lessons on the go in your favourite coffee shop for example.

Where Can I Get It?

Check out the book for yourself today by clicking the link below. And, get ready for some ESL awesome in your life, okay?

What are some tips for Review Classes or Activities?

If you want to do some review with your students, here are some tips and tricks for making it as helpful as possible.

#1: Have a Plan

Instead of just giving students free time to review before a test, have a plan. I like a mix of worksheets, textbook review pages, videos, task-based learning, games and activities. Of course, it depends on what the class is: writing, speaking, etc.

#2: Don’t Hit your Students with Everything at Once

If you dump every single grammar and vocabulary item you studied that entire year onto a single sheet of paper, it’s going to be overwhelming. Instead, take it in sections at a time, and you may consider not reviewing the very fine details. Most students are happier with the big picture stuff.

#3: Have a Few Minutes of Question Time

Students often have questions about the material they’ve learned, or about the upcoming test. Leave a few minutes at the end of class to field these.

#4: Have Students Review Things 

If you have upper-level students, you may want to get them to teach a small mini-lesson (5-10 minutes is ideal) for a certain concept. It’s fun for the students, and often quite memorable.

#5: Avoid Introducing New Things

Review is all about the old, so avoid the temptation to introduce new concepts. This will often cause some major frustration for your students!

#6: Keep it Simple

Remember that some of the things you’re reviewing may have been covered in class months ago. Keep it simple!

I generally aim to give students enough information in a review session so that the average student could be a “B” on the test if they knew everything well. The “A” students will have to study more on their own.

What I’m saying is don’t give ALL the information that the top students will know because you’ll overwhelm the majority of your class.

#7: Make it Student-Centred

Your students should be working hard, not you. After all, it’s your students who have to learn the language, not you!

With this in mind, your activities and games should be focused on them as much as possible. Avoid the chalkboard warrior things as much as possible in your review sessions.

#8: Consider an Entire Review Class

The class before the midterm or final exam, I dedicate exclusively to review. I want my students to do well on my tests, and this is one way that I try to help out the weaker students a little bit.

I generally come up with 3 activities for a 1.5-2 hour class. Perhaps a board game, concentration and then perhaps a survey. Of course, all the content is from the course and will be on the final exam.

Students are used to studying everything individually. For example, the simple past, then past continuous the following week, and problem/advice the week after. They’re not used to seeing everything together, so I try to give them this experience during my review.

Finally, I’ll give lots of hints to students who are paying attention about what will be on the test. Plus, I allow for question time and I’m generally quite free with advice about the exam’s content.

More Ideas for How to Finish a TEFL Class

Have your Say about these ESL Reviews Games

Do you have one or two go-to review games in your English classes ? Leave a comment below and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

And don’t forget to share this on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful resource filled with grammar review games.

Also feel free to contact us if you have any questions about teaching English.

Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 100 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

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• Don’t spoil Animal Well for yourself

Seven years in the making, this one-person passion project is unlike any other… if you have the willpower to see it through

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Share All sharing options for: Don’t spoil Animal Well for yourself

You are an egg person. You wake up in a large turnip.

The world around you is alien, with an eerie, neon glow. But there’s a familiarity to it. A nearby squirrel beckons you to chase it, and lazy reeds sway in an unseen breeze. You start to find comfort in this strange world, gobbling up smaller turnips and discovering plants that act as mini firecrackers to scare away the few creatures that wish to do you harm. It’s a simple life you’ve found, living among the ducks and kangaroos and monkeys of this bizarre realm. But beneath the surface of Animal Well , something lurks. Something that will transform you from a simple egg person into a paranoid, note-keeping conspiracy theorist.

You have been warned.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch .

Animal Well is devious in the way it presents itself. At first glance, it’s a simple 2D exploration game with no combat whatsoever. Your goal? Hard to say, beyond some vague markings on a large map. It appears to be a very lo-fi take on the Metroidvania genre, with basic, switch-based puzzles blocking your way.

But as you explore this world, its secrets unravel before you in fascinating ways. Ways that I desperately don’t want to explain, but I realize I have to in order to convey why this is one of the most inventive games of the last decade.

We’ll start with the basics. As with any Metroidvania, there’s gear in Animal Well that’ll allow you to traverse more of the map. One of the earliest pieces of gear you get? A bubble wand that allows you to blow a single bubble, which you can then jump on as a height boost. In other words, it’s this game’s take on a double jump. And yet, the simple bubble wand hides within it other techniques that are not immediately obvious. For example: You can stand on a bubble and ride it down like an elevator. Push down on the analog stick, and you’ll speed your descent. But jump once, and the bubble pops. Perhaps, you might wonder, are there more ways to utilize this tool within the world of Animal Well ? Maybe these weird mouths at the end of sewer pipes might take a liking to your bubbles?

So much of Animal Well is “what if I try this?” It’s a quiet, peculiar game that doesn’t offer a lot of obvious help, but through clues in the environmental design, you begin to divine the language of this world. Animal Well is a Swiss watch in video game form — on the surface, it can tell time, but if you delve a bit deeper, there’s an astounding amount of complexity hidden within. There actually aren’t many games that follow this model, but fans of Fez , Tunic , and Outer Wilds will feel right at home here.

Like those games, Animal Well has a lush presentation style all its own. The densely drawn pixel art has few analogues in the way that it breathes life into the world and its denizens, with rustling bushes and gaseous ghosts swirling throughout its strange and sometimes unsettling landscapes. All of this is backed by an ethereal score that is both inviting and haunting. The artwork, score, and game design all come from a single, very dedicated developer, Billy Basso, which makes this feel like a true passion project fully realized. And a large part of that passion went into creating puzzles that might take a single normal human (read: me) weeks, months, or an eternity to solve.

But the smartest thing about Animal Well is that it is relatively easy to finish for most players without much help at all. The challenge of getting the credits to roll took me about six hours. The game actually offers you a stopwatch upon beating it the first time. Which is useful, because I can tell you that my stopwatch now reads 30 hours, and I still have many mysteries left to uncover.

It’s hard to describe the beguiling appeal of Animal Well ’s first few hours, but it’s even harder to talk about this game without talking about the postgame. That’s where Animal Well really starts to show its true colors as a puzzle-solver’s and scavenger-hunter’s dream come true. But it is good to know that at least some people will walk away satisfied upon reaching the credits, not realizing the further depths that await them if they really start filling in the dark spaces of their map.

I have no doubt that within a week of Animal Well ’s release, the game will be mostly solved by internet obsessives who are trained on cracking precisely the sorts of mysteries that lie within. And yes, those playing in their wake can have the experience spoon-fed to them on wikis and guide pages far and wide.

But let me suggest another path.

Find a friend or two, and make a blood oath to solve as much of Animal Well as possible among only yourselves, without getting help online. The true magic of this game is sharing discoveries and theories with friends; having a faceless internet person tell you the mystery of the eggs without working it out on your own is to deny yourself a feeling of satisfaction that few games can offer. It harks back to the early days of Zelda, when the oldest among us tried to figure out what the hell “Dodongo dislikes smoke” meant. Consider it a trial, a badge of honor that you can wear when you’re 30 hours in and you’re smashing your head against this random mural of a rabbit. When that happens, know that you are truly one of us.

Animal Well was released May 9 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC. The game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Bigmode. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here .

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Arrowhead is actually making a 'review bomb' cape to commemorate the Helldivers 2 PSN fiasco, complete with two huge negative review bars

Sony's PSN blunder will be immortalized on a cape.

Helldivers 2 continues to make lemonade out of its biggest blunder. On the back of the " PSN-gate " fiasco that saw the best-selling shooter pounded with negative Steam reviews, delisted from a bunch of countries (an ongoing problem), and its publisher Sony pressured into reversing a disruptive PSN sign-in requirement, Arrowhead is now making a cheeky cape to commemorate the player protest.

A brief rewind: The same morning Sony reversed its decision last week, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt shared a community post pitching a cape based on Helldivers 2's Steam review graph—with its blue peaks and sudden negative drop as the review bombing began. Nobody was sure if he was taking the idea seriously, but that changed when he replied to one fan saying Arrowhead was "talking about a good name for it right now."

Two days ago, Pilestedt tweeted out a teaser of the cape—a black fabric with matte finish and, just visible in the corner, two long red bars representing over 200,000 negative Steam reviews, many of which have since been reverted back to positive ones. Adding to the cape's legitimacy is a recent reply from community manager Twinbeard on the Helldivers Discord:

"We already have a name," he said in reference to the review bomb cape, "should there ever hypothetically be a cape, that is."

This would be the second cape made in reaction to a real-world player effort: In early April, Arrowhead celebrated the liberation of Malevelon Creek with a new in-game holiday and commemorative cape for all.

It's nice that Arrowhead wants to acknowledge the review bomb protest that led to Sony's reversal. It's also unavoidably awkward. The Malevelon Creek celebration was a feel-good, in-fiction victory for the community, but PSN-gate is a mess that's still ongoing for those still locked out of a game they played for months. Then there's the unprecedented strangeness of a studio endorsing and celebrating the review bombing of its own game—a practice that's proven powerful but imperfect over the years—weeks after one of its community managers was fired for publicly supporting said review bombing/refunding as it was happening. It's never boring keeping up with Helldivers 2.

The assumption is that the yet-unnamed cape will be released for free sometime soon, perhaps around the next big war event, which could be any day now.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

Former Helldivers 2 writer is astonished by the monster he helped create, as he describes how the game's approach to storytelling led to the community's showdown with Sony: 'We trained them to fight together. And then they fought together'

Helldivers 2 director says new de-listings are an 'administrative error correction' by Valve on Sony's orders, but 'we still want the game to be available everywhere'

Frustrated developer changes his game's name to 'Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, a creative building sandbox' because Steam users keep tagging it as a strategy game

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