3 Teacher-Created Games for Math Assessment Prep in Middle School

At the beginning of my teaching career as a middle school math teacher, test prep days were dreadful. Students would write down what I was writing on their review that hadn’t been touched since they received it the week prior. They weren’t engaged, and some even fell asleep. I set it as my goal to figure out how to review class content in a much more fun and impactful way that both my students and I would enjoy.

My solution? I developed creative content review games that use everyday class materials and engage my students’ natural excitement over friendly competition. I’ve found that in my seventh- and eighth-grade classroom, the following three games have been most motivating and effective for my students in preparing for assessments, all without any boring worksheets to fill out.

1. Dinosaur Egg Hunt

Materials needed:

• Plastic eggs in various colors, colored-paper eggs, or printed egg cutouts (include at least five different colors)
• A basket or bowl for the eggs’ “nest”
• Math problems prepared in advance (handouts, slides, or written on the board)
• Timer (if you’re setting a time limit)

Teacher tips:

• Keep the point values of each egg color hidden until the end of the game to build excitement.
• If you’re using paper eggs but don’t have colored paper, write the color names on the paper eggs so students can still select eggs in the color they want.
• Encourage groups to rotate who acts as the runner so more students get a chance to move around and engage with the teacher.
• Consider giving partial credit or a second attempt if groups show strong reasoning but miss a detail—this keeps motivation high.
• For variety, you can swap out eggs for other objects (pumpkins in October, snowballs in December, flowers in spring) while keeping the same rules.

Step 1: Assign groups. Divide students into small, equal-sized groups that include students with different strengths. Each group will work through a set number of questions, solving them one by one. To earn credit, students must show their work on each problem.

Step 2: Check answers. When a group finishes a problem, one student (the “runner”) brings the solution to the teacher. The teacher checks the answer for accuracy.

Step 3: Collect eggs. If the group answered correctly, the runner chooses one of the five colored eggs from the teacher’s “nest.” Each color will be worth a different point value, though students won’t know those values until the game ends.

Step 4: Steal eggs. If the teacher runs out of eggs in the nest, groups can begin stealing eggs from other teams—but only if they solve the problem correctly.

Step 5: Reveal point values. The game can end when a set timer goes off or after students have completed a certain number of problems. At that point, reveal the point values for each colored egg.

Step 6: Tally points and declare a winner! Groups tally their points based on the eggs they collected. For example, if a group has two purple eggs worth 20 points each, and one pink egg worth 30 points, then that team would have earned a total of 70 points.

2. Ghosts in the Graveyard

This is a Halloween version of a basic game called Pencils in the Backpack (instructions for the base game are below). I change it up for different seasons.

Materials needed:

• Printed or cut-out ghost shapes (enough for all groups; each group should have a distinct ghost shape or color)
• Magnets or tape (for attaching ghosts to the board)
• A whiteboard or bulletin board to serve as the “graveyard”
• Tombstone cutouts or drawings (each labeled with a hidden point value on the back)
• Math problems prepared in advance (handout, slides, or written on the board)
• Timer

Teacher tips:

• Keep ghosts simple. Different outline styles (round, spiky, wavy) work well to distinguish groups. Using different colors for each group also works.
• Hide tombstone values until the end of the game to keep the suspense and engagement high.
• Adjust the number of questions and time limit to match the needs of your students.
• For a seasonal twist, swap the ghosts with snowflakes, shamrocks, candy hearts, or other festive icons.
• Consider adding bonus rounds (e.g., lightning questions) to give teams extra chances to earn ghosts if you need to reenergize the group.

Step 1: Assign groups. Divide students into small, equal-sized groups that include students with different strengths. Decide on the number of problems and the amount of time that students will have to solve them (for example, five questions in 10 minutes or three questions in five minutes, depending on difficulty).

Step 2: Timed collaborative problem-solving. Students work in groups to solve as many problems as they can within the set time.

Step 3: Teams earn ghosts. When the timer goes off, award each group a cut-out ghost for every correct answer they completed (one correct answer = one ghost).

Step 4: Put ghosts to rest. Each group places their ghosts under tombstones on the board. To differentiate teams, give each group a unique ghost shape. Attaching magnets to the back of the ghosts makes placement on the whiteboard “graveyard” easy. Each tombstone on the board has a hidden point value. Students won’t know the values until the end of the game.

Step 5: Tally points and declare a winner! Once the game ends, reveal the values of the tombstones. Scoring works the same way as in Dinosaur Egg Hunt. For example, if a tombstone is worth two points and a group placed three ghosts on that tombstone, they would earn six points.

3. Grungeball

Materials needed:

• Whiteboard or poster paper to track each team’s Xs
• Markers for tracking scores
• Prepared math questions (projecting with slides or writing on the board works well)
• Scratch paper for students to show their work (also doubles as the “basketball” for the bonus shot)
• A trashcan for the bonus shot
• Tape to mark a “shooting line” on the floor

Teacher tips:

• Use equal-sized teams to keep gameplay fair and competitive.
• Keep the pace brisk by limiting discussion time for each question.
• Adjust the shooting distance for the bonus shot based on your students’ age and energy.
• Encourage sportsmanship by reminding students that the goal is to have fun and practice math, not just take down other teams.
• Consider a quick warm-up round so that students can practice the toss before the real game begins.

Step 1: Set up the teams. Divide students into equal-sized teams and invite them to choose a team name. On the board, write down 10 Xs under each team’s name to start with.

Step 2: Pose a problem. Present one question to solve at a time to the whole class. All teams work on the same problem simultaneously.

Step 3: Score correct answers. If a team answers correctly, they can erase two Xs from another team’s tally. Teams cannot remove their own Xs to save points.

Step 4: Bonus shots. After answering correctly, a team can earn two additional Xs to take away from another team if they toss their question paper into the trashcan from a designated line on the floor (like shooting a three-point shot in basketball). If they make the shot: They remove four total Xs from another team. If they miss: They still remove the original two Xs.

Step 5: Continue problem-solving. Keep playing rounds with one question at a time until you run out of questions or class time.

Step 6: Tally points and declare a winner! At the end of the game, the team with the most Xs remaining on the board is the winner. Even if a team loses all their Xs, they can still continue to play and remove Xs from other teams, which keeps them engaged.

Review Games Build Life Skills

With all of these games, you can use any amount or kinds of questions to fit your content review needs, and you can also increase the difficulty of the questions as the year goes on.

Because students don’t know the value of each of the objects until the end of the game with Ghosts in the Graveyard and Dinosaur Egg Hunt, the competition is a bit more intense. This keeps engagement high because the teams are working to acquire as many ghosts or eggs or whatever as possible.

It’s important to remind students that as with any game, the most important thing is not winning, but having fun while playing and learning. I have found that the friendly competition of our review games helps students build important life skills. When students are upset that their team didn’t win because of how the points landed, I remind them that they had fun and did their best, and that’s all I can ask for as their teacher.