Math Review Games for the End of the School Year

By Leah | May 18, 2021

It's hard to believe another school year is coming to an end! The final weeks of school are the perfect time to try out a math review game with your class to revisit the important math skills your little learners have mastered this year. In the iKnowIt May blog post, we feature three easy, fun math review games you can do with your class, virtually or in the classroom. Read on to find out more.

End-of-the-year math review doesn't have to be boring! Mix up your math review routine with the following review games. You can use these math review games to practice a variety of math skills, either virtually or in-person. You can also adapt these review games to your students' grade level and the number of children in your class. Be sure to tag @iknowit on social media if you and your students try out any of these math review activities. We love checking out your learning adventures!

Roll the Dice!

There's nothing like a classic review game using dice! In this activity, students will solve a variety of math problems. For each math question students answer correctly, they will roll the dice to score points. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins! 

Here are the details: 

• Use this dice game to review any math skill, from math facts to fractions. 
• Divide your students into teams. Any number of teams will work. 
• Decide how many points a team must earn to win the game. 
• Teams take turns answering math questions and rolling the dice. The number rolled gets added to the team's score. Teams roll once per turn. 
• Use one die or two dice. 
• Use classic dice, make your own jumbo die like the one in the picture, or use virtual dice if your class will be playing online. 

Pro tip: Make sure you choose a fun prize for the winning team!

Jeopardy

Jeopardy is a fantastic review game for kids of all ages! Since this quiz show game is highly interactive, your whole class will be engaged in the review game from start to finish. Jeopardy can be played with a number of platforms and is an excellent game for virtual math review. Here are your options when it comes to a Jeopardy review game: 

• Whether you decide to play Jeopardy in the classroom or virtually will indicate the type of Jeopardy game board you choose. You can make a DIY Jeopardy board for your whiteboard. You can use a PowerPoint file or Google Slides file. Or you can try out an online Jeopardy game generator. 
• Set up your math categories and point values. You can assign lower point values to basic math skills and higher point values to more advanced math skills. 
• Teams or individual students will select a question box, such as "Addition Facts" for 100. 
• Students announce the answer to the math problem in Jeopardy-style question format (i.e., "What is five?")
• You may want to set a time limit for each question. 
• If the student or team answers the question correctly, they are awarded the number of points in the question category. 
• Keep track of team points either manually or automatically using the online Jeopardy template you choose. 
• Continue to play until all questions have been answered. The team with the most points wins!

Pro tip: If you don't have a classroom set of Jeopardy buzzers, give your students little handbells or other noisemakers to indicate their readiness to answer a question. If you are playing online, students can "click in" their answer. 

Connect Four

Connect Four is another classic game you can easily give a math review spin! Students will solve math problems to see if they can connect four game pieces in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Here are a few key things you need to know about math review with Connect Four: 

• You can divide your class into two teams who will compete against one another. Or your whole class can work together to compete against the teacher—you!
• You can set up a DIY Connect Four game board on your classroom whiteboard using dry erase markers and colorful sticky notes. You can also display a pre-made Connect Four game template with your overhead projector. Either way, give each team a separate set of math problems to solve. Printable task cards work well for this game. 
• Students will work together as a team to solve the math problems given to them. Each time a team solves a math problem correctly, one student from that team can go place their team's color sticky note on the game board. 
• The team who makes four in a row first wins the game!
• You can also try out online Connect Four game simulators to play virtually with your class. If you do, it will be easier to use the built-in math review tool offered by these simulators to help your students review math skills, like multiplication or division, individually. Students will play against the computer as they work through math problems.

Pro tip: Prepare several different math review topics ahead of time, so your class can review a different math skill with every round of the game they play! 

These math review games are just a few examples of the many interactive activities you can use to review important math skills with your students at the end of the school year. The iKnowIt online math practice program is another amazing math review tool. Don't forget to include engaging online math activities from iKnowIt.com in your end-of-the-year review sessions!

It's been an unusual and challenging school year for elementary teachers and students everywhere. The iKnowIt team commends you and your class for rising above this school year's pandemic-related challenges. Here's to ending the 2020-21 school year on a high note!