GameWize Language Arts

Use Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint to spice up lessons. Bring even the most hesitant learner out of their lazy daze. Invigorate your classroom with a learning-based, competitive enthusiasm that will have students begging to play (and learn) some more. Tailor each game to meet the needs of your unique classroom environment. Play as a whole class activity, or set up stations in the classroom for partner or small group competitions. Modify game components to make it relevant to current topics of study, and create a memorable learning experience for yourself and your students.

Includes 15 games!!

See below for the list of games, a brief description, and sample image from each game.

#1 Guess It For Words

Given the first letter of a four-letter word, students fill in the remaining three letters to form a word. If they guess a correct letter, but it is in the wrong place, then the letter will be red. When both the letter and its place in the word are correct, then the cell will be filled in with yellow. Students will have six guesses to determine the word. When all three cells turn yellow, they win.

#2 KaBlam!

The KaBlam board randomly displays numbers in colored squares. Numbers in the squares range in value from 1 to 20. There are also three special squares: the ½ square, the times 2 square, and the black KaBlam square. Teams answer teacher-prepared questions. For each correct response, they earn the chance to gain points from the KaBlam board, loose points (if they hit the ½ space), or get KaBlammed and start over at zero. As the game progresses through three rounds of play, there is an increased probability of a team being Kablammed.

#3 A Maze Zing

Roll a die to move through a maze toward the treasure, but choose the path carefully. Red portions of a wall indicate a way through the wall. Play it safe and pass it by, or answer a question to open up a shortcut. But beware. An incorrect answer and the shortcut is closed to you forever (or at least until you play again).

#4 Concentration

Teams take turns revealing what is hidden underneath cards by turning over two cards at a time. If the information “matches”, then they get a point for making a pair. Matched pairs could include pictures and their names, elements, body parts, etc. If the revealed pair doesn’t match, then the information is hidden and the next team gets a turn. Teams “concentrate” to remember what is hidden beneath the cards that have been revealed but not matched. The winning team is the one with the most correct matches.

#5 Connect 5

Two teams of students take turns answering questions. Each time a team correctly answers a question, they choose one of the yellow numbered circles. After clicking on it, the numbered circle will move to fill in a circle on the game board at the top of the slide. The first team to earn five yellow circles in a row either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally wins the game.

#6 Dragon Breath

Teams answer questions, and then roll a die to move their character toward the safety of the castle. But beware. A fire-breathing dragon lurks beneath the path. Step on the wrong stone, and its dragon breath will heat up the stone and send you back three spaces.

#7 Error E-Racer

Students select a question and use their language skills to determine which portion of a sentence contains an error. If they are correct, they click their team eraser to remove part of their line. The first team to find enough errors to erase the entire line wins the game.

#8 Face the Facts

Teams select a topic and money value from the game board. The higher the money value, the more difficult the question. If the team answers the question correctly, they are awarded the money value for that question. If the team is incorrect, another team gets a chance to answer the question. Play continues until the game board is cleared or until time is called.

#9 Go Fish

Given a hint at the top of the slide about the part of speech needed to fill in the blank, students select a word from five available words to complete a sentence. The catch: students don’t know what the sentence is until after they have selected a word. All the words could be appropriate (i.e. all verbs) for completing the sentence, or create a more challenging game that mixes nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. on one slide.

#10 Grammar Guru

A hint at the top of the slide tells students what part of speech they are looking for. After reading the sentence, students click on the correct word for the part of speech described. If they are correct, the word will be highlighted in purple.

#11 Hangperson

Students take turns guessing a letter. Clicking on the blue letters at the bottom reveals whether or not the letter is in the puzzle. Letters not in the puzzle appear at the top of the screen.

#12 Plink

Teams answer questions, and then select a plink chip to drop down the chute. The chip will bounce its way through the chute to land on one of the point value spaces. Point values range from 0 to 50. The team is awarded the value indicated by their selected chip.

#13 Smarter Than an Nth Grader

Students answer ten questions starting with topics learned in lower grade levels and progressing to topics covered during their current school year.

#14 Tic Tac Toe

Students are divided into two teams, the X team and the O team. They then answer questions to earn an X or an O for their team on a Tic Tac Toe board. The first team to earn three X’s in a row or O’s in a row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins the game.

#15 Who Wants to be a Zillionaire

Students progress through increasingly difficult multiple choice questions. For each question they have three helps available:
• 50/50 eliminates two incorrect answers
• Ask the Class allows the contestant to poll the class for the correct answer
• A third button links to an Internet site or other tool to help them find the answer