Test Prep Games to Review

Test prep is 100x more fun when you incorporate games into your review! And it is surprisingly easy to prep and plan these test prep games!

Connect Four

This can be a super fun whole group game.

To prep, you will need to grab some task cards. You will draw a grid on your white board. The traditional Connect Four board is six rows and seven columns. Split your class into two teams. Each team will need their own color of Expo marker or their own color of sticky notes.

Give each team a task card. They should work together to come up with the correct answer. One person from the team brings the answer to you. If it is correct, they can put their sticky note in one of the squares on your grid.

Teams are trying to get four in a row and they can try and block the other team.

Test Prep Jenga

This is another test prep game that can be played with the whole class (although it could be played in small groups or centers, too!).

You will need some task cards and a Jenga game.

Split your class into 2-4 teams. Give each team a task card. They should work together to answer the question and then come to you when they have the answer. If the answer is correct, the team can remove one piece from the Jenga stack and then they are given a new task card.

The winner is the team with the most Jenga pieces when the stack falls down.

Stinky Feet Game

This test prep game is loads of fun!

You will need a stack of task cards. Draw a huge foot on your white board. Grab some sticky notes. Write point values ON THE BACK of each sticky note. You will want some notes that are plus points and some that are negative points. (For example, you can have a note that says +5 and you can have a note that says -3.) Put the notes on top of the foot.

Split your class into two teams. Give each team a task card to work on. When they finish, they must check the answer with you. If it is correct, they get to grab a sticky note from the foot. The note tells them if their team will get points or if points will be subtracted from their team.

Once students complete one question, you can give them another if time permits. They will be very focused because answering more questions gives them the opportunity to earn more points for their team.

Why is it called Stinky Feet?

It stinks when they lose points!

Cups Game

This game is similar to Stinky Feet, but it’s a simple way to switch it up and keep things fun!

You will need those task cards (or even a passage with questions), three cups and three different colors of square tiles (or another counter).

On the bottom of the cups, write point values. You will want two cups with positive values and one cup with a negative value. For instance, you can have +3, +5 and -2.

Split the class into three teams. (You can have more teams if you have more colors of tiles!) Each team is assigned a color and given a stack of tiles in that color.

The teams will work together to answer questions. After they complete each question and get it checked, they can put one of their tiles in any one of the cups.

They have no idea the value of each cup since the values are written on the bottom!

After all of the questions have been answered (or your time is up), reveal the value of each cup and tally the team points by counting the color tiles in each cup. The winner is the team with the most points!

Test Prep Candyland

Everyone knows how to play Candyland and that is what makes this test prep game so easy to implement in your classroom.

I love to use this game in center rotations because it is a four player game.

All you need is a Candyland game (cheap at Walmart and second hand stores) and some task cards.

Players will take turns grabbing a task card from the pile and answering it. If all players agree that their answer is right, they can take a turn on the game board. That means they get to pick a Candyland card and move their player on the board.

If they are wrong, they don’t get to take a turn on the game board and it is the next person’s turn.

The winner is the person who gets to the end of the Candyland board first.