An active quick-fire question-and-answer game

Age group: Grades 1-4

Number of students recommended: 25

Subjects/skills learned: Spelling and vocabulary

Object of the game: To think quickly and correctly answer questions on an individual basis.

Setup: No set up needed.

Game Play: All of the students start by sitting on the tires. The teachers call out to start, and all the students get up and move throughout the playground (similar to musical chairs). When the teachers call out stop, all the students must find a tire and sit down. Randomly the teacher chooses a row or column and ask that group of 5 students to answer a question as quickly as possible (for example, for spelling, the teacher might ask each student to spell a word that ends in ‘at,’ and students might spell ‘cat, ‘bat,’ or ‘rat’). Each of the students in the row must answer the question, one after another from one end of the row to the other (answers must all be different!). Once all students from one row have answered, the teacher may call out another row to answer, or move on.

Game Conclusion: The game is completed when the teacher feels each student has been asked a sufficient number of questions or all material being tested has been asked.

Examples: The teacher yells “stop!” and all students find a tire. The teacher then asks asks one row for examples of adverbs. The students in the specific row say “quickly,” “frantically,” “randomly,” etc.

Tips and Variations:

• Ask students to spell a word starting with the last letter of the word spelled by the student before them
• Ask students to spell a word with a certain number of letters (this can be combined with words starting with a specific letter or ending with a few letters)
• Instead of asking only one row at a time, ask each row to participate in a sequence