Explore 7 Americas Art, Architecture & Symbols review games designed by a teacher to engage students and reinforce curriculum. When students are having fun, they forget they are reviewing, making games a great way to practice Social Studies.

• In GRUDGEBALL, teams answer questions to fire on their opponents’ ships, then make baskets to earn even more shots.
• The TERRIBLE Game rewards correct answers with positive or negative points that students can strategically assign to their own team or their opponents.
• Get students moving with SCOOT, where they travel from desk to desk answering task cards and recording their answers along the way.
• TRASHKETBALL™ mixes fast-paced question review with a classroom shooting competition where correct answers earn shots for points.
• The BIG TERRIBLE Game keeps the whole class involved as up to eight teams answer together and watch their scores swing above and below zero.
• FRAZZLED turns review into an unpredictable competition where teams win points, lose points, steal points, and try to avoid the dreaded bomb.
• In BUMP, correct answers earn students shots at the platform, where they can score even more points by bumping off opposing teams.

Turning review into a game is one of my favorite ways to get students participating without making practice feel like more work. Once the game starts, students start talking, thinking, and working together, with hands shooting up and everyone waiting to see what happens next. Just like a team practices before a big game, students who know another review game is coming have a reason to prepare, because this time they really want to win.

Don’t just take my word for it—research shows that game-based learning can improve student achievement, retention, and motivation. See the research.