Explore 25 Purpose of Government 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.

• 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 makes review wonderfully terrible as teams answer questions, uncover unpredictable scores, and use positive and negative points to get 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.
• 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.
• Turn review into a team competition with TRASHKETBALL™, where students answer questions, earn shots, and try to outscore the other teams.
• GRUDGEBALL turns review into a battle where correct answers earn cannon shots to sink opposing teams before they sink you.

I’ve always found that students are much more willing to review when they feel like they’re playing instead of studying. Once the game starts, students start talking, thinking, and working together, with hands shooting up and everyone waiting to see what happens next. 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.