Two of my Favorite Math Review Games

During my first year of teaching, I started the year off strong, everything was fun!! Eventually, the standardized test date started to loom over my head and I started to just “cover” content by any means necessary. One student noticed and said, “This class was so much more fun at the beginning of the year.” That broke my heart because it was true! I had more energy at the start of the year too. LOL Anyways, I figured I could at least give them a fun day with some math review games!

Since then, I’ve tried my best to make a conscious effort to engage my students with something fun at least once per unit!

I’m passionate about preparing engaging presentations for my material and giving kids opportunities to

• • be creative, 
  • have some choice, 
  • get moving and 
  • engage in friendly competition!

My focus for this blog post is giving you ideas for math review games that get your students moving, prize bags, and ghosts in the graveyard!

 Warning: These math review games will require a little prep ahead of time!

Math Review Game #1: Prize Bags

You need:

• 5-7 brown paper bags
• 5-7 sets of questions
• prizes

The exact number of bags/question sets depends on how much time you have and the skill. For example, if we are practicing multi-step equations, I would only do 5 question sets with 2 questions each because they take a while to solve. Make sure you have an equal number of question sets and brown paper bags. 

On each bag, list the prizes that are available and how many winners will be chosen from each. 

To play this math review game:

Give students one question set at a time! I label mine with letters. So the first set would be A, the second set is B, etc.

Questions can be of varying difficulty! I like to start with low-level questions and slowly advance to more challenging questions. 

1. Give each student the first set of questions.
2. After they solve the set, they should come to you to get it checked. This gets kids moving because they have to “move” to get their answers checked! It’s not “technically” a race but they will try to make it one.
3. If a question is correct, put a checkmark, if not, leave it blank and have them return to their seat to try again. If all questions in the set are correct, have them write their name on the paper, fold it and slip it into one of the brown bags. 
4. Then, give them the next set of questions!
5. Repeat step #3. Students can place their question set in a single bag as many times as they’d like.

About 10 minutes before the end of class, stop the game so you can select the winners from each bag!

Math Review Game #2: Ghosts in The Graveyard

This is hands down my favorite activity to do around Halloween time! But, I recently had an idea to do it for other holidays too!! I’m going to share how to play it as Ghosts in the Graveyard but you could easily adapt it for other holidays or just play it “as is” year-round!

To prepare for this, you need:

• 3 digital tombstones (for the graveyard) 
• 8 sets of questions (with 2-3 questions each)
• make enough copies of each question set for each group (ex: if there are 5 groups, make 5 copies)
• a recording sheet for each student
• a different color of ghost for each group of students (each color is for a group)
• Enough to have 8 ghosts for each group

Before playing this math review game:

1. Place students in groups of 3 or 4.
2. Each tombstone on the board is worth a number of points but students don’t know how many points until the end of class.
3. Sit out the sets of questions, I usually only have a class set so don’t let them write on them.

I used to use little printed ghosts and made some tombstones with construction paper! It was too hard to clean up the ghosts in between classes so I created a digital version (pictured below).

You can purchase it on TPT here.

I call them “challenges.” But instead of working independently, they work in groups.

To play: 

1. Pass out Challenge A for each group. For the subsequent challenges, they will grab their own!
2. Pass out a recording sheet to each student.

One person in each group is the “runner.” Which means they are in charge of bringing the recording sheets to you to get checked.

1. Give students time to complete their challenge with their group. Each group member should be showing their work while answering each question. They should also make sure they all have the same answers.
2. After each group is done with their challenge, they should bring each of the recording sheets to you to get checked. I only put checkmarks on one of the recording sheets but I glance at all of them to make sure each student did some work.
3. If they all show their work and have the correct answers, they decide which tombstone they want to move their ghost to. Make sure they consult with their group before coming to get their answers checked!! Otherwise, there will be some arguing about where to place it.

      4. At this point, students return Challenge A and grab the next one! 

      5. If any of the answers are incorrect, don’t put a checkmark next to it. Have them go back and do it again!

      6. Repeat!!!

About 10 minutes before class ends, I stop the game to reveal the tombstone point values. I do one tombstone at a time so students can calculate their points. For example, if one of the five tombstones is worth 5 points and they placed 2 of their ghosts there, that would be 10 points for their team!

Include a negative point value if you want to be mean like me!!

The winning team gets a prize of your choosing! I usually give my students either candy or one ticket per student.

If there is a tie, you could either break the tie by flipping a coin or just have two winning teams!

Head over to my rewards and incentives blog post to learn more about my ticket system!

I hope you try one of these math review games! I’d love to hear how it goes!