Review Fun!

"grudgeball"

I found a review game called "grudgeball" on Pinterest.  Check out the original blog post HERE!  The game is originally meant for middle schoolers, but I found that my second graders loved it!

Here is how we played in Second Grade.

I put team numbers 1-5 up on the board.  Each team had 10 X's.  I got the kids into 5 groups.  I gave groups questions one at a time.  If a group got a question right they were able to erase two X's from the board (from any team they chose or they could split it between two teams).  They also got to shoot a ball into a container.  They could choose to shoot it from a closer line (1 point) or a further line (2 points).  If they made the shot they were able to earn either 1 or 2 X's for their own team.  The goal is to have the most X's at the end of the game.

It was very interesting to watch my second graders with this game.  At first they didn't realize how it would feel to have another team erase their points, they were angry.  They retaliated.  There were some contentious vibes.  Then one of the students shot for a point and barely missed, it bounced off the rim.   I heard a few players from a different team than the student who had shot say "God job" "Nice Try".  I promptly stopped the game and explained that I was going to reward the team that has people being good sports by giving them an X.  When the next person went up to shoot they missed and automatically the whole class erupted in cheers. They were saying things like "Great try!" "Good Job!" "Almost."  That is a moment I will remember for a long time!  It was the greatest thing to see my kids cheering each other on!  After that one of the students came up and asked if they could give teams points instead of take them away.  When it came to their turn they crossed out one teams X and then gave an X to a team that needed it.  How cute is that?

My class was reviewing addition and subtraction, they were having a blast, and they really had an awesome bonding experience!  When we were finished they were asking if they could play again when they got back from computers. 

I would say it was a review success!

Literacy Review Ball

Another thing that my students loved was this Literacy Review Ball! There are tons of things like this on Pinterest too.  Unfortunately I do not know who was the first, so to whoever you are, thanks a million!

 I decided that on my ball I would just put a to of questions, all having to do with literacy/skills we have talked about this year.  Homophones, contractions, compound words, synonyms, antonyms, multiple meaning words, short and long vowel sounds, the works. We tossed the the ball around the classroom.  The person who caught it got to read the question under one of their thumbs.  I would then either have the whole class answer the question, ask a certain student who was raising their hand to answer, or have table groups talk about the answer.  After the question as answered the person who had read the question would pick someone quiet and throw it to them...and so it continued.  This would be really easy to take outside too if the weather was nice!

Review Relay

I was at Dollar Tree the other day and I saw some pails.

I came up with the idea of a Review Relay!  I would have four teams.  Each team would have two buckets about 20 or so yards apart. All the review questions would be in the buckets on one side.  Each team would start at the same time.  They pull out questions one at a time and work together as a team to answer them.  Each team would have a whiteboard, a marker, and a number line if they needed it.  When the question is answered they peel the tape off the back of the question and see if they got it right.  If they got it right they run and put the question into the other pail.  if they got it wrong they keep it with them (outside of the pail).  They can't try again if they get it wrong because they will already have seen the answer.  This will put the pressure on them to get the right answer the first time and not guess.  When the runner returns the next question can be taken out. 

The team who finishes first wins,unless they got questions wrong and another team got more questions correct than them.  Doing the math right and getting the right answer is the most important thing! 

Pails: 2 of each color.  One at the start (with all the questions) and one at the finish (with the questions that were answered correctly).

   Pails lined up at the finish line! Go team, go! Tape hiding the answers on the back.

     Running the questions down to the end quickly and coming back quickly for the next question to be read!

My kids really enjoyed this today!  It was a great way for them to review and get their spring/it's getting close to the end of the year wiggles out. I will definitely be making up some new sets of questions so that we can play again next week.

I hope that at least one of these ideas will find its way to your classroom (or blacktop).  Happy reviewing!  Let me know how it goes : )