Jeopardy

You say the answers and the pupils say the questions. It is useful if you tell pupils that the answer must begin with, “who is” or “what is” to narrow down the response.

Guess who

Pupils are given a key word or character and in pairs (often stuck to their heads with a post it) They have to question one another to see if they can decipher the key term or idea. It is useful to encourage pupils to link learning together e.g. a hobby or place to live in …

Globingo

This is a kinaesthetic form of bingo where each child starts off with a board of questions (9×9 grid). The first person to get the 9 cards (with questions on them) completed by 9 different people wins!

Give me 5

Pupils are shown a category or topic. They have 30 seconds to write down up to 5 different answers and score 1 point for each correct answer plus a bonus of 1 point for any answer that is unique in your class (i.e. not suggested by anyone else).

First letter, last letter

Give pupils a start word and in pairs or teams they have to find the next word in the list. It must start with the last letter of the previous word. Eg. Sheep à Panda à Anteater. To make it harder you could set the subject area or word type (ie. adjective).

Countdown

Give 9 letters and get pupils to make as many words as they can. If it works for the topic you are teaching, hide a key word in amongst the letters and see if anyone gets it!

Catchphrase

Key words (9) are placed in a 3×3 grid. Pupils describe as many words as possible on the board to their team mates in a minute to try and win. Behind the words is a catchphrase that there are bonus points for guessing!

Bingo

Get pupils to review their learning by choosing 9 out of a possible 12 numbers or words and complete a grid. The students can then cross out the words as the teacher describes them; first to complete their grid wins! Another way this can be used is to focus the children’s learning on a particular …

Beat the teacher

Everyone (teacher included) has a mini-whiteboard and pen. The teacher gives a calculation or anagram and everyone starts doing it. Either set the timer or give the pupil your time plus 1 minute. When they think they have the correct answer they must hold up it up on their whiteboard. Another version involves having a …

Acrostics

Provide pupils with a number of clues for them to decipher, they must use the first letter of the answer each time to solve the word.