Games provide students with an engaging environment while demonstrating their knowledge in specific subjects.  These experiences allow students to solidify their learning while engaging in a task that is fun and competitive. Classroom games provide the perfect combination for student success and engagement while preparing for any review of previous learning.

To help you get started, we’ve located some resources for finding sample questions and we have some resources and ideas for games.

Resources

• Release questions from the 2013 State exam
• Sample test questions from Edinformatics
• Assessment builder from NY Learns
• Office of State Assessment

Game Ideas

 Whole Group Whiteboard Games

Use the test question banks above to build fun interactive games to play with your students. Check out our ERC where you can download game templates for Jeopardy, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and more. These games will help you review with your students in a fun, informal method.

Stations

Split the questions up according to standards and create stations around the classroom.  In small groups, students can travel around the stations and work together to answer questions given at each station.  Provide students with manipulatives to solve problems, for example, providing containers and fluid to solve volume equations, or counters to solve story problems.

Test Question Concentration

Give students a set of questions. Have them solve the equation on one index card and explain the steps they took to solve the problem on another index card.  Once they have completed these steps with their sets of questions, they can lay out the cards and play a game of concentration.  If students are given different questions, once they have completed the task they can share their cards amongst their peers.

Play Grudgeball

This is a fun and innovative game created by Kara Wilkins to help get her students active and ready for their state exam.  She shared this game on her blog, To Engage Them All. The game lets students practice for the State test as they strategize against each other to keep their points and become the classroom Grudgeball champions!  Check out her site for game rules and details.

Whether it be playing Jeopardy with your students as a whole group or having them work in stations, these ideas will definitely make preparing for your state exam fun and exciting.  What games do you and your students like to play to when doing review activities? Share your ideas below to help us make all our students successful on any tests!