So games seem to be one of the ONLY things my students respond to. My kids have a test at the end of the week, so I was going to review during the rest of the week. I was browsing around for review ideas because I HATE typical review games like jeopardy, Family Feud, or Wheel of Fortune. Can we say boring and overdone?!?

I found one idea I rather like called "Will the Winners Lose". Basically, students are split into groups and the teacher poses a question. One student can try to answer the question, and if they get the question wrong, another group can try to steal the question by raising their hand quickly. Whoever gets a question right gets to draw a card.

The cards have both positive and negative effects though, so a child never knows what card they are going to get! Even by answering a question right and pulling a card, they might lose points. The cards can say stuff like "Get another turn", "lost a turn", "double the team's points", "gain 100 points", "lose 50 points", etc. I like this idea because teams which are 'losing' can still feel like they have a fighting chance. Plus, the funnier I make the cards, the more they will want to play.

So I thought I'd add a small twist to the game. Maybe the cards can say stuff instead like "Team gains 100 points if the person drawing this card does the chicken dance", or something similar. I want the conditions to be 'hip' though. I mean, is the Gangnam dance still in? Is 'twerking' appropriate for the classroom? What if I asked them to plank for ten seconds?

I'm both lame and uncreative, so I need ideas! Even if they aren't hip, give me some funny or fun things they have to do to get their points! The card events can't take a long time however because the main focus needs to be review. That being said, they can't be so crazy that I lose control of my classroom, either.

The idea is safe, quick fun that keeps their attention.

Ready, set.... shoot me those ideas!
(Since it probably matters, I live in an urban, predominately African America city.)

I really like this idea, I like this idea a lot! I've seen people talk about you being a teacher before and you're going above and beyond to get your students involved which is just awesome! This little game idea is great and the students will surely be interested.

What you have mostly suggested thus far seem perfectly fine to me, heck i'd do that little added twist! XD  But with what is "hip"...that could go one way or the other. Planking and Gangnam style those are fine regardless, at least I think so. I'm not sure how they would be received since fads change every day for the most part. "Twerking" on the other hand is...pretty much dancing to show your butt off. Mostly for girls to do that really..so out of personal opinion..I wouldn't let that fly.

That aside I don't believe you to be lame or "uncreative". Everyone is creative to their own extent. Lesson plans can be difficult and coming up with review ideas can be just the same. I would personally still be one when getting it right having to take like a basketball shot with a crumpled up piece of paper to get points or extra points.

I can't say I know "hip" things right off the top of my head but I can certainly look around for things or ask a couple of my friends who are still in high school what would be considered "in" if that helps at all.

zerothesaint :  Oh, thank you for the compliments.  *blushes*  I didn't make this idea up though... just found it and decided to tweak it.

Thanks for explaining 'twerking' to me. I wasn't sure if it was that, or just jerking your legs around, for lack of a better description. Yeah, definitely won't use that then.

So far, I have the following cards (other than normal addition or subtraction of points):


+30 points if someone in your group can recite the alphabet backwards with no aids
-15 points if another team can correctly spell "schizophrenia"
Steal 20 points from any team of your choice
Double your teams points
+20 points if a team member can make a trash can shot from half way across the classroom
Jackpot!  +1 point  (Had to throw a practical joke in there. xD)
The team before you loses 10 points
+200 points if your whole team does the cha-cha
+50 points if someone from your team does the Macarena
+100 points if someone from your group does the chicken dance
Take another turn
The next team loses a turn


I have music for the dancing cards saved to a playlist.

What are some other quick and easy and fun conditions I can make for gaining or losing points?
I'll reward 100 Viz for every idea I use.

You could have funny video game/TV related questions on the test like "How many characters in the Final Fantasy universe have donned the named Cid?" or "What are the names of all the officers and nurses in the original run of Pokemon?".  Nothing too hard, of course, but enough to keep the students on their toes.

Since the neighborhood is predominantly African-American, you could also ask questions like "What is the maximum number of hops at one time mentioned in the Casper Slide Part 2? (5, I think)" or "Whoopie Goldberg contributes her voice to a baseball bat in what movie? (Everyone's Hero)"

I think that slightly obscure questions can be good and give people who normally wouldn't get answers a chance.

I'm not sure if you're school would let you do this, but in my school sometimes they give out free snack coupons if you do something good. You can use it to get a free stack from the cafeteria. Maybe you can give something like that out for a prize.

I'm about to go to bed, but I kinda need as many ideas as possible before 10am central time tomorrow. XD  I need some ideas that are similar to the last examples I gave in my own post before this.

supernerd117 :  While I don't mind your ideas, they'd have absolutely no clue about any of the things you've mentioned. haha.  They have... um.. a very different cultural background and upbringing.  Most of them probably haven't even heard the cha cha, and very few have probably played those games.  Still.... thanks for trying!

earthwarrior :  I'd love that idea but I don't have the time to set it up since their review is tomorrow.  Maybe I can get someone to agree to it later on in the year.  

Nobody ended up giving me extra ideas, so I went with the ones I had.  As it turned out, I made nearly 90 cards and we maybe got to see 40 of them between all my classes.  LOL  I kept hoping the classes would get the more fun cards, but -nobody- was drawing them!

It wasn't until (go figure) my last class that we ACTUALLY ended up getting the dancing cards and push up cards and... well... EVERY fun card.  The funny thing is that the deck was completely shuffled AND I let the kids draw randomly from the deck anyways.  So all the fun cards being picked at the same time was.... a completely random coincidence.

Even more crazy than the same class getting all the fun cards is.... the fact that the same GROUP kept drawing them.  That group was up doing push ups, basket shots, the cha-cha, the Macarena....

The other students started to get jealous and I felt bad.  

In the end though, ALL the kids LOVED this game.  I think the unpredictability of the points system was great.  Kids were scared and excited to draw the cards, and they always felt there was a chance they could come back from last position.

I was also nervous because... given the demographics... I was afraid none of the kids would know the cha cha or Macarena.  A few of them didn't, but since I had picked music videos that showed the dance, things went well.

I would recommend the game to ANY teacher.  It was so much fun, and the kids kept asking me all week if they could play it again.

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All that being said, I STILL want to know what's hip with teens, that's safe for the classroom. I can make more games with that information, videos, lame jokes... or even add/swap out cards to the game I have.

I'll even still pay Viz for any good ideas.

One I considered putting in the deck was the "Soulja Boy".  I always thought maybe it was a dirty dance, but I looked it up on youtube and don't recall seeing anything bad, really.  I know the kids were REALLY into it a few (?) years ago, but are they still?  Is it one of those fads that just swept away, or would they still love such a card?

Is there something about it that I don't know, that would make it inappropriate for the classroom?  It's not my culture, so you'd be surprised on what I miss.

I think that wearing sweatpants, over priced ugly shoes, and skinny jeans are definitely in style. For girls I have noticed a lot of them wearing yoga pants to school lately. Don't ask me how that go popular, but I just can't help but notice that every girl wears them to school now. 

Guys of course love taking their shoes to extreme measures, they have 200 dollar shoes and they walk around in skinny jeans that hang past their knees and I just think that is disgusting. I hate that style, it just looks so trashy. I never would dress like that in a million years, but this is just the style I have noticed is popular at school nowadays. Pretty weird if you ask me. 

Wow. I have never heard the word "hip" used like that before except in TV. . Twerking is definitely not appropriate. Your boss would probably hate you even more. Gangnam style is cool, but isn't really popular any more. Hmm... I don't really have nay ideas! Sorry! I will let you knoe if I think of any.

That stupid "What does the Fox Say" seems pretty popular to my age group right now.