Explore 7 Enlightenment Thinkers review games designed by a teacher to engage students and reinforce curriculum. Give students a break from worksheets and bring Social Studies review to life with a classroom game.

• 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.
• TRASHKETBALL™ mixes fast-paced question review with a classroom shooting competition where correct answers earn shots for points.
• SCOOT combines review with movement as students rotate between desks and work their way through a set of topic-specific task cards.
• The TERRIBLE Game rewards correct answers with positive or negative points that students can strategically assign to their own team or their opponents.
• Turn review into a classroom battle with GRUDGEBALL, where correct answers earn attacks and successful baskets give teams extra shots at their opponents.
• Turn review into a team battle with BUMP, where correct answers earn shots and students can bump their opponents off the platform for extra points.
• In FRAZZLED, teams answer questions to uncover mystery points, but one wrong answer or unlucky bomb can completely change the game.

Review doesn’t have to mean another worksheet, especially when a game can get the whole class involved. Before long, students are cheering, discussing answers, and asking to play again—even when their team didn’t win. 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.