Happy October! You’ve survived the back-to-school rush, teaching all the expectations, and are now probably deep into your first units – you deserve a whole lot more than a pat on the back!
Unfortunately, this also means that you’re deep into the curriculum by now, and unit tests are right around the corner. So many students avoid studying like the plague. My students are no different! From personal experience, I’ve seen that students are much more motivated to review for upcoming tests when I frame review as a fun game over a worksheet or study guide! These are my tested favorite review games that I am always coming back to when my students need some extra math practice.
Math Bingo
Math Bingo is my absolute favorite math review game, hands down! It’s so easy – I give students a blank bingo board and a list of math questions that go with our current unit. Students solve the problems and write the correct answers on the blank bingo board, making their unique game board! I emphasize to students that I won’t call wrong answers, so they need to take their time and make sure they are getting the right answer. Otherwise – they can’t win! Once everyone is done creating their game boards, we play bingo as a class! I pull the correct answers and students use my vast collection of mini erasers from Target to cover the pulled answers on their bingo pages. I give prizes for the winners and prizes for students who cover their entire board by the end of the round – meaning they got every question they solved right!
This activity is easy to put together using tables on Google Docs or Microsoft Word, but if you’re looking for a ready-to-go Equations review, my Equations Bingo is waiting for you in the Freebie Library! Enjoy!
The Unfair Game
You’ve probably heard of this one since it’s been big on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook lately. To prep, create a set of slides with one question, one answer, and one point reveal per question – depending on the topic, my students get through about 15 – 20 questions per class period. Students are in teams and select a question to solve. If they are correct, they can pick if they want to keep the points or give them to the other team – without seeing the point value first! (If they are wrong, I go to the other team. If the other team is right, they get to steal the points or give them to the first team). Here’s where the fun part comes in – the points can be positive OR negative, good or bad! If you’re feeling creative, you can also add options like “multiply your points by -2”, “divide the other teams’ points by 10”, or even “switch points with the other team”! To truly keep it (un)fair, I also roll a die at the end of the game to determine if the higher or lower points win – it keeps us all guessing!
Math Escape Rooms
If you’ve been a fan of this blog for a little while, you know that I am obsessed with math escape rooms – check out my blog post about it here! Math Escape Rooms are themed puzzles where students solve math problems to unlock clues and “escape” from a virtual or physical room. I first fell in love with this style of review activity when I had a competitive, high-energy group of 7th-grade boys in my intervention class a few years ago – they wanted NOTHING to do with fractions, but putting escape room challenges in front of them transformed my classroom in a way that Trashketball never did! This style of activity promotes teamwork and problem-solving skills while reviewing math concepts in a dynamic and interactive way. My students love working together and talking smack about who will finish first! Again, students have to be accurate while working and pay close attention to the directions, otherwise, their passcodes won’t work! Interested, but don’t have time to create it yourself? I have your back! I’ve created over 20 escape room activities and bundles that are ready to go, saving you time and energy!! Check them out here!
I hope your students love these activities as much as mine do!
