How to Play Knockout

This story begins outside a Long John Silvers. (I know, stay with me here). I was driving down the road one day after school on my way to pick up my son from daycare and, as usual, deep in thought about my students. I was trying my hardest to find yet another math game that would help my students build their fact fluency. It was an ongoing battle that I wasn’t winning.

Then I passed the Long John Silvers. For whatever reason, that place makes me think of being young. I was never really allowed to eat out and for some reason, those LJS commercials really appealed to me. The food just looked so good. As an adult, it’s a different story, but one of those weird nostalgic things that will always stick with me. And since our brains are funny things, it also led me to thinking about Knockout. The basketball game. You know the one–where you stood in two lines in front of the hoop and when it was your turn you hoped on everything holy you made it before your opponent did.

And that’s how Knockout Learning (TM) games were born. It mimics the old-school format but there are no basketballs involved. In fact, it all takes place on one screen. It’s no secret that this game has been wildly popular and it’s actually the reason for this post. One of the #1 questions I get is how to play Knockout. What are the rules? How do you decide which student is out? And on it goes. So I’ve put together all of that information for you in one 3-minute video.

You can also check out a dropdown menu of rules here.

Watch How to Play Knockout:

Browse the Collection:

If you’re sitting here wondering, “Okay I need this, show me all the Knockout games” then your wish is my command:

I’m consistently adding new games so you can also follow my store to get alerted when there are new options.

Last but not least, I’ve put together a Knockout sample pack. Like a fight of beers at the brewery but more PG and (only slightly) less fun. You can find your tasting menu here: