The first weeks of the school year always got me wondering how much my students learned from last year. I certainly didn’t have time to review all of their standardized test scores, and it’s hard to give a pretest in every subject that touches on skills from the whole year. Math quiz games are a perfect way to get students excited about being together again, and have some friendly interaction. This is one of my favorite games designed for easy no-prep implementation, and a quick review of every major math concept for each grade level…
Math Madness!!!
Find it at TeacherspayTeachers.com
Mrs. L’s Leveled Learning Store
This math quiz game is designed as an interactive power point presentation so the kids click the number for each question they want, then the question pops up. They take a minute or two to deliberate with their partner or team, and then choose an answer. The answer choices will tell you if it is correct or not, so there is no checking for the teacher. Students can direct themselves in this game as a whole class, small group, or with partners. The wrong answers will take them back to the question so the opposing team has one more chance to get the right answer. The correct answer will read them with some hearty cheers, and then return them to the original question board. The line turn color to keep track of which questions have been answered or not.
Hints for smooth and easy play:1. Establish a time-limit for answering questions! 1-2 minutes is usually good enough. This gives the opposing team a chance to think about the question as well in case they get the second chance to answer it.
2. Only allow two chances to get each question right. A few questions are yes or no, so there aren’t other chances for students to think about the right answer and guessing defeated the purpose!
3. Choose a system to rotate students on each team for taking turns to choose the next question and solve it. Too much or too little involvement by other students can slow down the game and then kids lose interest.
4. Choose one student to be the score-keeper for each team so it goes smoothly. Maybe have a second student who stays seated, work as their partner to check their math when adding points. 🙂
This game is great to review concepts from the previous year. It is also a really fun review of their current year content before standardized testing, or when you need an engaging activity for those last weeks of school!
