BEST Upper Elementary Review Ideas

Check out some of these NO PREP ideas great for any elementary class to review content!  My students love review time because of the excitement and games surrounding it!

1.  Hexagon Bean Bag Throw – great idea to do with ANY subject!  Includes a link to a freebie to get you started.  This is great for last minute!!

2.  Student Created SCOOT – I hand out notecards and whisper the word or concept and students create the questions, then we rotate around until we have reached all or most then go over the answer together – they LOVE THIS!

3.  Musical Chairs –   Great for memorizing items!  We play this with states and capitals.  You write down a state then I play music and whichever chair you land at – you write down the capital and then another state right below for the next person.  Music – writing – music  – writing ….sometimes we even thrown in a dance leader while we are rotating.  (I play kareoke versions of popular songs –  no words = no problems with bad lanugage!)

• This version would also work great if you wrote concepts at each table and whatever table the students landed at they had to write what they knew – not looking at others just whatever first popped in their head then reviewing as a class to make sure any misconceptions are covered. 

4.  One Word – Divide into 2 teams.  One person on team is guesser. The rest of the team is lined up and can only say one word per person going down the line to try and get the guesser to get the word.  For example if the answer was “barter.” First person would say “trade”, 2nd person “goods”  3rd person “for” 4th person “other” 5th person “goods.”  They would keep going until the person got it.  This really forces them to work together – it’s another FAVORITE!

5.  Hot Seat – One person sit with their back to the board (a word/concept is written on the board).  They call on people to give clues to help them guess what is behind them.  Sometimes I limit them to only 3 words to really make them think. Another variation would be to have the class use dry erase boards to draw or write only 3 words so EVERYONE is engaged then the guesser has to pick 3 boards to flip over as “clues”  I love, Love, LOVE playing this one!

6.  Group Charades – divide into groups of 3-5. One person from group is facing out and the word/concept is behind them, the other players in the group are ACTING like in charades what it could be.  This works great for social studies content.  I also sometimes ask someone or myself narrate a little to help them out since it can get tricky.

7. Back Art/Spelling – have the class pair up, they have to draw or write on their partners back to get them to guess the concept or word.  So tricky! I like having them confer saying I drew this….and then telling what they are thinking and how it relates.  This could also be a like a pictionary game is doing it on another’s back is too difficult.

8.  Guess Who – notecards are taped to their back and students have to go around and ask clues (not just guesses!) to find out what they are.  This one involves the whole class in on the action.

9. Grudgeball – visit the link to learn more.  Basically answering questions to knock out other teams – we do a version and shoot a paper ball in the trash can but we do it to earn “Xs” I didn’t like the knocking the other teams out – just didn’t feel nice and we play where each team has to reach so many Xs to complete the game and if your team finishes they get assigned to another team to help.  This version does away with the cutthroat competition that my 4th graders don’t need!

10.   Snowball – write questions on sheets or half sheets of paper – then crumple up and toss in.  Students grab a sheet answer and throw it back in.  They could write a follow up question or just grab another question to answer.

If you got some new review ideas you’ll love these test prep ideas for your classroom as well.