Explore 7 Complex Historical Relationships 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.
• Turn review into a team competition with TRASHKETBALL™, where students answer questions, earn shots, and try to outscore the other teams.
• 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.
• The TERRIBLE Game adds strategy to review as correct answers uncover positive or negative points that can help your team or hurt your opponents.
• 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.
• SCOOT combines review with movement as students rotate between desks and work their way through a set of topic-specific task cards.

I’ve always found that students are much more willing to review when they feel like they’re playing instead of studying. You’ll see students lean into the questions, debate answers with their teammates, and hang on every result as the game unfolds. Over time, that excitement carries beyond the game itself, as students start preparing because they want their team to have a better chance of winning next time.

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.