Unlock Learning Fun: 4 Best End-of-Year Review Games for Grades K-3

It’s that time of year. End-of-year assessments or tests are looming. You have to finish compiling student portfolios, schedule final conferences, and the checklists for both students and yourself somehow keep expanding. How are you supposed to get everything you need done while continuing to educate and engage your students? The answer is simple: end of the year review games!

Why Do I Need to Use End of Year Review Games?

Do you have busy little kindergarten and first-grade students that you are trying to keep learning while you do individual timed assessments? Maybe you have older second or third-graders but they are preparing to take end-of-year assessments and you need to utilize every minute to make sure they remember all the strategies you taught this year. Our end of year review games are perfect for helping them remember instructions, practicing skills, and keeping them from interrupting your assessments.

End of Year Review Games for Math and ELA

With games to cover both mathematics and ELA, you will have enough options to have your students playing and learning throughout the day. The games are fast-paced and action-packed, and your students won’t even realize they are busy reviewing content and preparing for final assessments. Make your final lesson plans simpler by including these review games that you, your students, and your administration will all love.

How Does it Work?

How are these end of year review games easy enough that kindergarten students can play them yet engaging enough to keep third graders entertained? Well, it’s because the game is called Knockout! It is super simple to learn and all we have to do is change up the content! How do you play Knockout?

Divide your class into two teams with each team in its own line. You will project the slides on your whiteboard and each team will have their section to look at. The first two students in line will solve the problem on the board and the first person to answer correctly will head to the back of the line to go again later. The other student sits down on their side but has to pay attention because they could be called back at any point! They turn into cheerleaders for their team, practice good sportsmanship, and wait patiently as they attend to the rest of the game.

There are special slides included such as Pick a Pal where students can call a team member back into the game and Knockout where the student with that slide on their side has to sit out. Double Knockout, requires both students to sit out while Free Pass means the student or students get to go to the back of the line without answering anything. Students play until one entire team is out and then you can play another round or start a brand new activity.

What Is Included?

Every game in the Knockout collection is formatted the same way. This makes it easy for students to learn the game structure and be able to play any of the games. Three game formats are included so you can choose the method that works best for your classroom: Google Slides, Powerpoint, or PDF. Each Knockout game normally has 30+ slides, a teacher manual, and answer keys. Our end of year review game bundles for kindergarten through third grade include the following games:

Kinder EOY Bundle: 22 games where students practice letter and number recognition, phoneme segmentation, adding and subtracting within 5, and subitizing. These crucial kindergarten skills would be great to practice at any point of the year to reinforce the basic concepts our learners need when learning reading and number sense.

First Grade EOY Bundle: 21 games where students focus on CVC and CVCe words, digraphs, r-controlled vowels, adding and subtracting multiples of 10, 2D and 3D shapes, telling time on analog clocks and more. Your first graders won’t even realize they are learning as they will be too busy trying to answer the questions as fast as possible and cheering their team on to victory.

Second Grade EOY Bundle: 15 games for students to practice vowel teams, contractions, singular and plural nouns, telling time on analog clocks, adding three-digit numbers, comparing three-digit numbers, and other important skills. Watch your second graders conquer these games and know that you have taught them everything they need to know this year.

Third Grade EOY Bundle: 15 games where students will focus on putting words in ABC order, different parts of speech such as contractions and irregular plural nouns, telling time, rounding, related facts, money and measurement, fractions, and more. Third grade is often the first time students take big end of year standardized tests and these end of year review games can help them practice and prepare without adding any extra pressure.

Benefits of End of Year Review Games

The benefits of end of year review games are for both teachers and students. Teachers need engaging ways to review curriculum with students at a time when they have even more than the normal amount of things to do. They need students to be engaged in learning activities while they complete individual assessments or end-of-year closing activities that they are on a timeline for.

Students need to remember the content they have been trying to master all year so they can demonstrate that mastery on end-of-year assessments and tests. They also need to have a refresher of this content before they go into summer where they might have a long break from academic content.

Students can be either worried about the change of routine with summer coming or excited about taking a break from coming to school so these fun end of year review games can help make the last weeks of school more exciting and curb behaviors that might arise from the anxiety or complacency. Since the games are pretty independent for students after they have mastered the structure, teachers can also use this game time to have private conversations with students they may be concerned about.

What Teachers are Saying

“We used these as an end of year review and my kiddos loved playing against one another in a friendly challenge. Great resource!”

— Jamie D. ★★★★★

“So much fun! My firsties LOVED playing this at the end of the year and I loved how much fun they were having! I will definitely purchase other versions for this school year!”

— Kerri S. ★★★★★

“This was a great end-of-the-year review resource!! My students loved playing and it was a good way to keep them engaged during those last few weeks when they are losing their momentum!”

— Katie R. ★★★★★

“My kids LOVE playing these knockout games. It’s a great way to get in practice and review, but making it FUN!”

— Linsey H. ★★★★★

“This product is an excellent tool for engaging students and enhancing their learning experience with interactive and easy-to-use features.”

— Shelby B. ★★★★★

“Thank you for saving my sanity at the end of the year! My students would come in at the end of the year and request to play these! They keep the learning going all the way to the end of the school year. A fabulous way to review all the things learned in kindergarten!”

— Rachel K. ★★★★★

Find out more about how Knockout is simply the best math game!

Try A Free Sample of End of Year Review Games

Check out this page to select your personal Knockout Sampler Pack. Your students might love these so much that you realize you need to start playing them all year long!

Why Should You Use End of Year Review Games with Your Students?

• Easily incorporate into your day. Use these games as a warm-up, brain break, transition activity, or review activity, or leave them with your emergency sub plans. This no-prep resource will keep your students engaged and motivated while reviewing important math and ELA concepts.
• Learn through movement and play. Engage students in kindergarten through third grade with fun games where they are having such a good time they don’t even realize they’re still learning.
• Use all year long. Grab these end of year review games to prepare for final assessments and have them ready to use throughout the entire next year as your students learn each concept.

Continue reading here for more ways to use Knockout games in your classroom! Are you ready to continue the love of learning into summer with some extra fun review games?