Fresh Ideas for Content Review: Review Games

Would you like to infuse some fun into your content review?  This post talks about six quick and easy games that are guaranteed to get your students interested in reviewing!

All of these games are included in my Review Games Packet with more details on how to play them.


Memory Game
In this game, you would put out a collection of flash cards or related items.  Students have a short amount of time to memorize the items.  Afterward, students would need to recall as many of the items as possible and be able to tell how they are related.

In the example picture below, I have a collection of cell organelle flash cards.  The student who recalled the most words and made the connection that these are cell organelles would win the round.

Timeline Game

Another name for this game could be "Silence" because students must arrange themselves in order without making a sound!  The game can be adapted with very little preparation to fit almost any curriculum or theme.

The first step is to count out enough sticky notes/papers for each student.  Then, choose a topic related to your curriculum and get started letting the students line up according to your topic!

Puzzle Pieces Review Game

This game requires a little preparation.  To prepare, laminate five pictures.  You might laminate pictures relating to a teaching theme and then cut each picture into four to six puzzle pieces.

Goal:  You want to end up with one puzzle piece for each student in your class, so you will want to create a variety of four-piece, five-piece, and six-piece puzzles.

In the example below, the deciduous tree matches with the acorn and the coniferous tree matches with the pine cone.

Four Corners
I talk in more detail in this post about this game, but the idea is to be able to use a multiple-choice test have students moving to different corners of the room, marked with the letters of the test choices.  I made letters big enough to see from anywhere in the room with PowerPoint.  I decided to laminate them so they would last longer.

I include the letters and step-by-step instructions in my content review packet.

Pass the Chicken

Goal:  In this game, no one wants to be stuck holding the chicken.

Directions:

1. Prepare some themed topic ideas ahead of time 
2. All students stand in a circle.
3. One student is "it" and holds the rubber chicken.
4. The teacher or "caller" says to the person holding the chicken, "Name three organelles.  Pass the chicken!"As soon as the caller says, "Pass the chicken!", the person holding the chicken passes it to the right.
5. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle.  If it makes it back to the original person holding the chicken before he or she can name the amount of things named at the beginning, the holder is still "it".
6. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when "it" finishes is the new "it".

Knowledge Tag

Goal:  Review content knowledge with physical activity.

Directions:

1. Designate three or four "taggers" and three or four "thawers".
2. The thawers each have a set of knowledge cards with answers. 
3. On the "go signal", students begin the tag game.
4. When tagged, the student stops and begins doing jumping jacks or running in place.
5. The thawer role is to find a student who has been tagged and ask that student a question from the cards.
6. If the question is answered correctly, the student goes free.  If not, he or she is given another question.

If you are interested in learning more about these games and downloading a copy, CLICK HERE.


Have you tried any of these review games?  Which of these sounds the most applicable for your class?  I'd love to hear your ideas!

Sweet Treats to Inspire Learning from Pre-K-12

It's that time of year when students are imagining sleeping in, no testing, and days spent with no agenda.  So, what do you do to keep things educational and fun at this time of year?  Why, you pull out the sweets, of course!

Here is a list of low-prep (or no-prep) end-of-year activities that will keep the kids learning and having fun that use candy.

State Testing

Candy Motivational Testing Notes

"Be a Smart Cookie" Motivational Note

STEM

"Saving Sam": A team-building challenge to "save" a gummy worm from drowning
The end of the year is a great time to dust off those team-building exercises you used at the beginning of the year.

Growth Mindset

Edible Neurons 
This craftivity is so fun to show how you can strengthen your mind/memory.

Life Science/Biology:

Cookie Phases of the Cell Cycle: Mitosis/Meiosis

Edible DNA Models

Gummy Bear Changes in Matter
This one was done by a Second Grade teacher, but it easily translates into 8th Grade science curriculum.

Gummy Bear Osmosis
I've done a similar experiment with my 7th-Graders.

Earth Science

Using chocolate chip cookies to "excavate" chocolate chip "fossils"
This one was written by a Preschool teacher, but you could easily make it appropriate for older students by having them count and graph the chips they found.  

Jurassic Park Fossil Cookies

Another great way to extend a unit on fossils/dinosaurs.  For older students, this can be tied into your evolution unit to show how we use fossils to prove change over time.

Oreo Phases of the Moon

This was written by a Kindergarten teacher as part of her unit on the Moon, but Virginia students need to know the phases of the moon starting in 4th grade.  So go ahead and let those older kids play with cookies!

Oreo Layers of the Earth

This was written by a 5th grade teacher.  What could be better, or more delicious, than Oreos, chocolate syrup, and M&Ms to demonstrate the layers of Earth?

Starburst Rock Cycle

Starting in 5th grade, Virginia students are required to know how each type of rock is made and the cycle it goes through to get there.  Here's a really cool way to have your learning and eat it, too!

Language Arts

Hershey Kiss Opinion/Persuasive Writing

This was written by a 2nd grade teacher, but ALL students could use practice with developing those words, phrases, and paragraphs that concisely and appropriately convey their opinion.

How To Eat an Oreo (How-To) Writing

Even though this was written for 1st-2nd grade, I found that even 7th-graders need a reminder on how-to writing.  So, bust out those cookies for kids of all ages!

Oreo Close Reading/Sensory Writing

Even though this lesson was written by a primary teacher, I could totally see middle-schoolers getting into this!

Oreo Sight Word Recognition
Call out letters and have students cover them on their "bingo board" with cookies.  I would probably use a smaller print and different type of candy to make a true bingo board.

Math

Oreo Mean, Median, Mode

Smarties Fractions

Oreo Fractions

Sweet Fractions
Although this is a worksheet, you could recreate some of these sweet scenarios as a treat for completing the exercise.

Measure Oreos with Non-Traditional Sources of Measurement
For older students, Have them measure the Oreos in standard and metric.

The Great Cookie Election
Pick different types of cookies, let students vote on their favorites, and declare the winner.  Take it to the next level by having older students design their own poll, ballot, and graph to represent the results.

Oreo One-to-One Correspondance

Make Oreo Patterns

Social Studies

Gummy Bear Types of Government

From dictatorships to democracy, this teacher had her students use gummy bears to represent the different types of government.  The picture below shows a "voting booth" for the democracy.  So clever!

Teaching Taxation Without Representation/Things That Led to the American Revolution

Another Alternative to Teaching the Causes of the American Revolution Using Smarties
This teacher gives ridiculous scenarios in which the King or Queen (of the classroom) would be allowed to tax the students.  Wearing white socks?  Fork over a Smartie!  So fun!

Not finding what you're looking for?  Check out this post by Carla at Comprehension Connection.  She shares a boatload of ideas across several subjects.  Happy hunting!


Any ideas you'd like to share about using sweets to teach at the end of the year?  I could use all the ideas I can get!

Watching Movies AND Teaching the Curriculum

As more and more expectations were piled on my plate at the end of the school year, my grade level colleague and I came up with a plan to get it all done.  We had read many of the same authors and/or books during our read-aloud time.  Why not show the movies that went with those books?  Our two classes watched the movie in ONE room.  This freed up one of us to go other places if need be (to the office to get student files, for example). 

Of course, I didn't want it to be all fluff and no curriculum.  Here's how I made that happen.

1. Read the books during read-aloud or small group time. 
2. Have your normal vocabulary, comprehension, author studies, etc. discussions.
3. Watch the corresponding movie.
4. Compare and contrast the movie with the book.

 To extend this idea, I thought about doing the following activities after watching the movie.

1.  Create a "sequel" to the movie:  Brainstorm what happened to the characters after the end.  Create a play, skit, or short story to demonstrate. 

Here are some tools:

• Use Storybird to create a story with pictures.

• Create a comic depicting the events.

 You can see how I used all of this in more detail by clicking here.

2.  Create a commercial advertising the sequel. This is a great opportunity to review or teach persuasive writing.  You could film this if it suits your needs.

Here's a list of the books/movies I have done at least part of this with or would like to:


I like the "old school" version of this movie or the BBC version. 





I wish there were more movies to go with Kate Dicamillo's books!  And on that note....

Our school has the 1985 version of this movie. The newer version might be too "racy."

Do you use movies in coordination with your curriculum?  If so, which movies do you find most closely adhere to the book?