My students LOVE competition and they LOVE when there are games involved in learning. Jeopardy games have always been a student favorite. When I bring games into my classroom, it is important to me that they are meaningful and help me support my student’s learning. Over the years, I have found different ways to help all of my learners review and practice their math skills when playing Jeopardy and would love to share some tips with you today.
Check Out Some of My Top Tips for Using Jeopardy Review Games in Your Classroom:
- Start by having students solve on their own! I start by having my students solve the problem for a minute on their own before they can talk to their group about the answer and decide on an answer together. This helps avoid just one person solving the problem for the group!
- Assign a student to be the group scribe! Trust me, this will save a lot of arguing and wasted time. The scribe of each group writes the answer on a whiteboard for each question. I am strategic with who I pick for the scribe for each group. I look for a student who won’t just write their own answer and someone who isn’t always picked, or may need a job to be involved.
- Let group’s choose their name! This may seem obvious, but I have found a lot more buy in to Jeopardy review games when I let my students choose their own names. It brings excitement from the start!
- Use whiteboards! I have found that my students like solving on whiteboards best and it is a lot easier for me to see student work. Whiteboards make it easy for the teacher to quickly see who is on the right track and who is not.
- Take notes when students are solving problems! I normally carry a clipboard around and jot down anything that I want to note about a student or a problem. I make sure to include areas that the whole class, or individual students could use additional practice.
- Don’t feel like you have to do the whole game in one day! Sometimes we do it all at once and sometimes, we split it up throughout the week. When it is split up, it makes it easier to support students on areas they may need more support.
- Have fun with it! The more excited you are about the Jeopardy game, the more excited your students will be. I normally hype up the game for a couple days prior to playing. Then, when it is actually time to play, my students are already excited and almost forget that they are doing math!
Would you like some Jeopardy games to bring into your upper elementary classroom? I have created some 4th grade math Jeopardy review games that are easy to use for review in your classroom. These games are designed to be no-prep for the teacher and to help give your students the additional practice on math concepts. Are you a 3rd or 5th grade teacher, I plan on creating Jeopardy games for 3rd and 4th grade, too. Click here to sign up to be notified when these games are released.
