Explore 7 Ancient Americas 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.

• BUMP combines fast-paced question review with a competitive challenge where students land shots and knock other teams off the platform.
• In TRASHKETBALL™, students compete to answer questions quickly and correctly to earn chances to shoot and score for their team.
• GRUDGEBALL combines question review with a battle for survival as teams fire cannons, sink opposing ships, and fight to be the last one afloat.
• The BIG TERRIBLE Game gets up to eight teams answering every question while unpredictable positive and negative points keep everyone guessing until the end.
• In The TERRIBLE Game, teams answer questions to reveal mystery scores, then decide who gets the points as everyone battles to finish closest to zero.
• Keep students on their toes with FRAZZLED, where every answer can reveal points, help the opposing team, or uncover a bomb that resets the score to zero.
• Get students moving with SCOOT, where they travel from desk to desk answering task cards and recording their answers along the way.

Review works a lot better when students actually want to participate, and games give them a reason to jump in. You’ll see students lean into the questions, debate answers with their teammates, and hang on every result as the game unfolds. When games become a regular part of review, students quickly learn that knowing the material gives them an advantage, and they start showing up ready to compete.

And it isn’t just something I’ve seen in my own classroom—research has found significant learning benefits from using educational games with students. See the research.