Explore 7 Major Turning Points in the Pacific 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.
• The TERRIBLE Game makes review wonderfully terrible as teams answer questions, uncover unpredictable scores, and use positive and negative points to get closest to zero.
• FRAZZLED turns review into an unpredictable competition where teams win points, lose points, steal points, and try to avoid the dreaded bomb.
• SCOOT combines review with movement as students rotate between desks and work their way through a set of topic-specific task cards.
• In BUMP, correct answers earn students shots at the platform, where they can score even more points by bumping off opposing teams.
• TRASHKETBALL™ gets teams racing to answer correctly, then rewards them with shots at the trash can to score points.
• Turn review into a classroom battle with GRUDGEBALL, where correct answers earn attacks and successful baskets give teams extra shots at their opponents.

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. The real change happens when students start looking ahead to the next game and realize that the more prepared they are, the better their chances of winning.

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