Explore 7 Urban Growth & City Life 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.

• TRASHKETBALL™ mixes fast-paced question review with a classroom shooting competition where correct answers earn shots for points.
• BUMP gets teams racing to answer correctly, then gives them a chance to score points by knocking other teams off the platform.
• SCOOT gets students out of their seats and moving around the classroom as they rotate from desk to desk answering task cards.
• FRAZZLED turns review into an unpredictable competition where teams win points, lose points, steal points, and try to avoid the dreaded bomb.
• The TERRIBLE Game rewards correct answers with positive or negative points that students can strategically assign to their own team or their opponents.
• 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.
• 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. You’ll see students lean into the questions, debate answers with their teammates, and hang on every result as the game unfolds. 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.

Want the evidence behind the games? Research comparing game-based learning with traditional approaches has found improvements in achievement, retention, and student motivation. See the research.