Review Games Before Thanksgiving Break: 6 Ideas

The week before Thanksgiving break is short on attention in most schools. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26 this year, and many US schools start their break a day or two before it, so some teachers have a full week and others have three days. Either way, you are teaching students who are already somewhere else. A new topic introduced on Tuesday tends to be forgotten by Monday, and a quiet worksheet turns into a long afternoon for everyone.

A review fits this week better than almost anything else. The content is already taught, students can succeed at it, and a game gives the room a purpose. Below are six ideas for running one, followed by a plan for the last day before break. Break dates differ by district, so check your own calendar before you plan around any of this.

Before choosing a game, decide which of two jobs you are doing. One is to close out a unit before the break so that students return to a fresh start. The other is to keep material warm so that a unit does not fade over a long break. They need different questions.

For closing out, ask about the unit's main ideas and the mistakes students made on the last test. For keeping warm, ask about the things students will need first in December, and keep the questions easier than you think they need to be. A good break review leaves students feeling that they know the material. A hard one leaves them dreading Monday.

1. A cold read, then a second look

Run a ten-question live game on the unit with a timer of about 20 to 30 seconds per question, and use the explanation on each question to teach on the spot. Then, for the five questions the class missed most, ask students to turn to a neighbor and explain the right answer in one sentence before you reveal it again. The point is that students teach each other, which wakes the room up more reliably than a teacher repeating the answer. The steps for hosting are in how to run a live quiz game.

2. Teams, with a twist on scoring

Teams give a restless class something to belong to. In Kwizzy the host chooses two to six teams when creating the game, students are placed on the team with the fewest members, and a team's score is the average of its members, so a big team has no advantage. If the room is loud, teams can lift the noise into something useful. If it is already very loud, skip them and use idea 4. The details are in team quiz games for the classroom.

3. A holiday-themed round that is real content

A theme can carry the week without turning it into a party, if the questions are still curriculum. A few library quizzes fit with a light touch:

• US Symbols and Holidays suits younger students and a social studies connection.
• Holidays and Celebrations Around the World works as a gentle geography and culture review that does not center on a single holiday.
• Food Around the World is a low-pressure game for a Wednesday when students are thinking about dinner.
• The American Revolution is a better fit for a history class that wants to stay on content.

Not every family celebrates Thanksgiving, and for some students the holiday is complicated. Keep the focus on the subject, and you will avoid putting any student on the spot.

4. Homework with no pressure

Instead of an assignment over the break, consider a short optional quiz students can do on their own device with just a nickname and no account. Kwizzy homework runs until a deadline you choose from a list, and the deadline ends at 23:59 on that day in your time zone. If you set it, choose a day after the break so that nobody feels they must do it while traveling. Say clearly that it is practice. See how to assign a quiz as homework for the steps. Be realistic: students without a device at home, or with a busy week, will skip it, and that is fine for something optional.

5. Student-written questions

Give small groups a topic from the unit and ten minutes to write three questions, with one correct answer and two believable wrong ones. Then enter the strongest ones into a quiz yourself and play it after the break, or on the last day if time allows. Writing a good wrong option is harder than it looks, and students find out what they understand by trying to explain why an answer is wrong. Check each question before it is used, because students will occasionally invent a fact.

6. Stations and a confidence check

With a class that cannot sit still, move them. Set up three or four stations around the room: one with a live or solo quiz on a few devices, one with a card sort or a short writing task, one with a partner problem set, and one where you work with a small group on whatever they find hardest. Fifteen minutes a station is plenty. The quiz station can be a library quiz played solo, which needs no account for students.

A confidence check. Separately from the stations, ask students to choose a number from one to five that describes how confident they are about the unit, then run a quick game, then ask again. Compare the change with the class and not between students. It tells you something real about whether the review worked, and it takes under a minute. Avoid posting individual scores in a week when students are tired and some are already worried about the holiday.

What to avoid

Do not introduce new material in the last two days. Do not give a long quiz with a high cost for wrong answers on a day when half the class is out. Do not rely on every student having a phone or tablet: a few shared devices and a team format works better than a game that leaves some students watching. And do not turn the day into a pure party, because students tend to notice when a lesson has been abandoned, and a short, purposeful game is more enjoyable than none at all.

A plan for the last day before break

If you only want one thing to copy, copy this. It fits a normal period.

1. Five minutes: set the tone. Tell students what the game is for in one sentence and show the join code. Set the rules for nicknames before anyone has a device in hand.
2. Fifteen minutes: play. Ten questions, a timer of 20 to 30 seconds, teams if the room is lively. Read the explanation for every question that more than a third of the class missed.
3. Ten minutes: talk about the misses. Pick two questions and let students argue about them. You learn more from the argument than from the score.
4. Five minutes: one line to take home. Each student writes down one thing from the unit they want to remember after the break.

Where to go next

If you plan to make your own review questions for the next unit, the free tools let you write a quiz by hand, and the paid plans add AI drafting from your documents and more room for games and quizzes. The pricing page lists what each includes.