Review days can be tough. Teachers juggle the challenge of keeping students engaged while ensuring the material sticks—and let’s be honest, the usual review games don’t always get the job done. Often, the same handful of students participate while the rest tune out. However, the right classroom review games can transform review time into something students actually look forward to while reinforcing concepts in a way that truly shows in their work.
Math & ELA | PreK To Grade 5
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In this blog, we will share 12 classroom-tested review games for any subject that are easy to implement and fun for students.
1. One-Minute Expert
This game builds confidence and reinforces key concepts by letting students become the “teacher” for a minute. It’s great for quick, focused reviews that get everyone involved. If you are looking for quick review games, this is a great option.
How to play:
- Pair up students and assign each a topic from the lesson (e.g., “Causes of the American Revolution” or “Parts of a Cell”).
- Each student gets one minute to explain their topic to their partner as if they’re the expert.
- After the explanation, the partner asks one follow-up question to deepen understanding.
- Rotate partners or topics for multiple rounds to keep things dynamic.
- End the game by having students vote for the best “expert” explanation they heard or asking a few students to share their favorite takeaways with the class.
2. Online Curriculum-Aligned Games
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Online review games make review sessions engaging and time-efficient for teachers. They can be customized to match lesson objectives and cater to diverse skill levels. Real-time data tracking highlights struggling areas, enabling immediate intervention. Their interactive format fosters active participation, problem-solving, and collaboration, even from less engaged students. Assigning games for class or homework ensures meaningful practice with minimal prep.
With SplashLearn, you can seamlessly incorporate free curriculum-aligned review games for students into your classroom. These games are designed to reinforce key concepts while saving you prep time. Here’s how:
- Curriculum alignment: Access pre-designed, curriculum-aligned games for math and ELA that perfectly match your lesson objectives. Search by topic (e.g., fractions, phonics, grammar) and start immediately.
- Customization: Adjust game difficulty and focus areas to support advanced learners or those needing extra help, ensuring every student is challenged appropriately.
- Easy homework: Assign games in a few clicks. Track progress automatically, giving insights to both teachers and parents while saving time on grading.
- Real-time insights: Use detailed analytics to identify struggling areas and guide lesson planning for targeted interventions.
- Engaging format: Vibrant visuals, sound effects, and rewards make learning fun, motivating students to participate and reinforce concepts effortlessly.
- Classroom collaboration: Encourage teamwork with group play or friendly competitions that boost engagement and reinforce skills.
3. Concept Corners
This game gets students moving while reviewing key concepts. It’s great for reinforcing understanding and encouraging classroom discussion.
How to play:
- Label each corner of the room with terms, options, or categories related to the lesson (e.g., “Fiction,” “Non-Fiction,” “Biography,” and “Poetry” for an ELA review).
- Ask a question or present a statement (e.g., “Which type of text is a novel?”).
- Students move to the corner that matches their answer.
- Once everyone is in a corner, reveal the correct answer. Students in the correct corner earn a point.
- End the game by summarizing the key concepts covered to ensure everyone leaves with the right answers.
4. Pass the Question
This is a quick, interactive game that keeps everyone engaged and encourages students to think critically while listening to their classmates.
How to play:
- Start with a softball or any throwable object (e.g., a foam ball or beanbag).
- Ask the class a review question and toss the ball to a student to answer.
- Once the student answers, they create a related question and toss the ball to another student.
- The game continues until all students have participated or time runs out.
- To add a competitive twist, keep track of correct answers. The student with the most points at the end wins or rewards the class if everyone participates successfully.
5. Worksheets for Review
Worksheets are often underrated, but with a creative spin, they can become engaging and interactive tools for review. By turning them into activities like trivia stations, or collaborative challenges, they encourage active participation. Worksheets also offer flexibility, allowing teachers to tailor content for different skill levels or specific needs. When used thoughtfully, they’re a low-prep, high-impact way to make learning effective and fun.
For example, you could try a worksheet speed race to build excitement or a team trivia worksheet to foster collaboration.
How to play:
- Worksheet Speed Race: Set a timer and challenge students to complete as much of the worksheet as they can accurately before time runs out. Reward both speed and accuracy to keep the focus on quality.
- Team Trivia Worksheet: Divide students into teams and have them work collaboratively through the worksheet. Award points for correct answers and add bonus challenges for extra engagement.
- Worksheet Stations: Divide the worksheet into smaller parts and set them up as stations around the room. Students rotate through stations in groups, solving a section at each stop.
6. Story Chain Challenge
This game reinforces comprehension and sequencing skills while encouraging creativity and teamwork. This is one of the most fun reading review games.
How to play:
- Choose a class story, passage, or chapter for the review.
- Divide the class into small groups. Assign the first student in each group the task of starting a retelling of the story with one sentence.
- The next student in the group adds another sentence, building on the previous one, and so on.
- Encourage students to include key details, vocabulary, or main ideas from the text.
- At the end, each group shares their completed story chain. Reward the most accurate, detailed, or creative retelling.
Related Reading: Best Vocabulary Games to Play in the Classroom
7. Mind Map Wars
This game encourages teamwork and helps students organize their knowledge visually. It’s one of the best educational review games and is perfect for reviewing broad topics or concepts.
How to play:
- Divide students into small groups and provide each group with a large sheet of paper or access to a digital mind-mapping tool.
- Assign each group a broad topic from the lesson (e.g., “Causes of World War II” or “Ecosystems”).
- Set a timer (e.g., 10 minutes) and challenge each group to create the most detailed and accurate mind map, branching out into subtopics, examples, and connections.
- Once time is up, groups present their mind maps to the class.
- The class or teacher votes on the “best” mind map based on detail, creativity, and accuracy.
8. Pictionary with a Twist
This game combines creativity and critical thinking as students visually represent concepts, but with a unique challenge that makes it more engaging. It is one of the most fun review games for elementary kids.
How to play:
- Divide the class into teams and provide each team with a whiteboard or large sheet of paper.
- Write key concepts or terms from the lesson on slips of paper and place them in a bowl.
- One student from each team picks a term and draws it—but here’s the twist: they can only use geometric shapes (e.g., circles, squares, triangles) or symbols, no detailed illustrations or letters!
- The team has 30 seconds to guess the concept. If they’re correct, they earn a point. If not, the other team gets one chance to steal.
- Continue until all terms are used, and the team with the most points wins.
9. Guess the Graphic
This game uses visuals to help students interpret data, charts, or diagrams. It’s one of the most fun classroom review games for reinforcing analytical skills and making connections.
How to play:
- Display incomplete or cropped visuals (e.g., a partially filled bar graph, a pie chart missing labels, or a zoomed-in section of a map) on the board or screen.
- Ask students to work individually or in teams to guess what the graphic represents based on the clues they can see. For example, “What might this bar graph be showing?”
- Teams discuss their answers and share their reasoning.
- Reveal the full graphic and explain its context. Award points to teams with correct or well-reasoned answers.
- End the game by asking each team to create their own “mystery graphic” as a challenge for the class, turning the tables and reinforcing the skill further.
10. Debate Face-Off
This game hones critical thinking and speaking skills as students argue for or against key concepts or topics from the lesson. It’s one of the easiest review games and is perfect for engaging students in active discussion.
How to play:
- Divide the class into two teams and assign them opposing sides of a debate topic related to the lesson (e.g., “Was the New Deal successful?” or “Should cloning be allowed?”).
- Give teams 5–10 minutes to brainstorm arguments and assign roles (e.g., opening speaker, rebuttal, closing statement).
- Each side takes turns presenting their case, with a time limit for each speaker.
- Add a twist by introducing surprise challenges mid-debate, such as “Switch sides!” or “Argue from a neutral perspective.”
- At the end, the teacher or a class vote determines the winner based on the strength of arguments, teamwork, and presentation. Wrap up with a summary of the key points to reinforce learning.
11. Brain Break Bingo
This game combines review and movement to refresh students while reinforcing key concepts. It’s a perfect balance of learning and fun.
How to play:
- Create bingo cards with lesson-related terms, concepts, or questions in each square (e.g., vocabulary words, historical events, or math problems).
- Distribute the cards to students and explain that they’ll complete tasks to mark off squares (e.g., “Find someone who can explain photosynthesis” or “Solve this equation”).
- Students move around the classroom, interacting with peers to complete their bingo cards. For each square, they must provide evidence or explain their answer to a classmate.
- The first student to complete a row, column, or diagonal shouts “Bingo!” and wins a small prize or recognition.
Related Reading: Best Classroom Math Games
12. Reverse Jeopardy
This game flips the traditional Jeopardy format by giving students the answer first and challenging them to create the correct question. It’s one of the best revision games for critical thinking and deeper comprehension.
How to play:
- Prepare a set of “answers” related to the lesson (e.g., “The process plants use to make food” or “The author of the Declaration of Independence”).
- Divide students into teams and present one “answer” at a time.
- Teams work together to come up with the correct question (e.g., “What is photosynthesis?” or “Who is Thomas Jefferson?”).
- Award points for correct questions and give bonus points for well-thought-out or detailed responses.
- End the game with a “final question” where teams can wager their points, ensuring an exciting finish while reviewing a key concept.
Conclusion
Effective classroom review games for kids ensure learning is engaging and impactful. Use methods like interactive games, tailored online platforms, or collaborative activities to reinforce concepts and track progress. Keep activities simple, focus on specific objectives, and adapt to student needs. Review activities work best when they balance fun with meaningful practice, ensuring students stay involved and ready to succeed.
Related Reading: Best Educational Classroom Games for Kids
