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 10 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.
Review Game | Game Overview | What You Need |
Monopoly Style Game  | Each student receives a certain amount of Monopoly money. The teacher asks the first question. Students bet based on how confident they are that they know the correct answer. | |
Classroom Jeopardy | Create review questions for the test in categories that have monetary values. Students get to choose and answer questions as per the original game. | |
Pass the Chicken | Sit with your students in a circle. One receives a question while a rubber chicken is passed around the circle. The students answer the question correctly before the chicken comes back around to them. | |
Beach Ball | Write questions or tasks on a light-colored beach ball. Throw the ball to the first student. One student catches the ball and answers where the right thumb touches the ball. | |
Hedbanz | Write review terms or questions on sticky notes stuck to the student's forehead. The student will have to find out the term/word with the help of their team's clues. | |
Spin the Wheel | Write review questions on the wheel. A student spins the wheel and answers the question where the wheel stops. (Flexible rules) | |
Bingo | The free bingo cards can be used to review vocabulary words or math equations. |
The 1o 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 review games and activities for elementary, middle, and high school.
1. 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 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.
2. 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.
3. Classroom Feud
This is a group review game that entails splitting the class into two groups. Each team will compete against the other to answer review questions.
The video below can help you to prepare a PowerPoint presentation with review questions.
4. Classroom Jeopardy
You may need a smartboard or other type of projection to make this happen, but you can easily find Jeopardy templates free online. You create review questions for the test in categories that have monetary values. Students get to choose and answer questions as per the original game.
Watch the video below to see how to integrate jeopardy into your classroom.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Bingo
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.
8. 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 watched the ball and has to answer 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.
9. 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.
10. 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 2 groups, choose one student and stick the note onto the forehead to not see the term.
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 by 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 review 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 to create a game on Blooket or other platforms that has a point system, is exciting, and in the end, makes education a bit more exciting for the students. And the best, 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.
In Closing
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 a 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 them points if they get correct.
Using points or not doesn’t matter. The idea is to help that 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.
