Engaging End-of-Year Project: Student Created Games

Student-created games are a fun end-of-year classroom activity to keep students engaged and learning until the last day. From interactive games to student-led projects, find innovative ideas for a memorable end of the school year. Perfect for teachers seeking creative ways to wrap up the year.

Are You Smarter Than a 6th Grader?

As the academic year draws to a close, maintaining student engagement and enthusiasm for learning can pose a significant challenge. Once testing has concluded and grades finalized, students are tempted to check out. However, in my sixth-grade media elective class, we’ve found a unique way to keep the excitement alive until the end.

How Student-Created Games Developed:

Our final unit revolves around advertising, allowing students to delve into persuasive strategies and explore various ad formats. Typically, I encourage them to center their projects around school-related topics, as we aim to showcase their work during an end-of-year field trip for incoming fifth graders transitioning to sixth grade. Over the years, we’ve seen commercials covering everything from locker accessories to the importance of attendance and intriguing elective courses. Yet, this year, one student’s creativity truly stood out.

Instead of a conventional commercial, this student took a bold approach by developing a captivating mini-game using Google Slides. Her innovative spirit not only impressed me but also inspired this blog post. After all, with grades submitted and the year winding down, there’s no better time to encourage our students to explore their passions and use what they have learned.

The Plan for Presentation:

For her presentation to incoming fifth graders, she, as the student council president, proposed an interactive twist: a game of “Are You Smarter than a Sixth Grader?” Rather than a typical slide show outlining middle school expectations, she envisioned an engaging experience where the fifth graders would compete against selected sixth-grade representatives, testing their knowledge in a thrilling showdown. I was one hundred percent on board with supporting her idea.

I found this “Jeopardy” game by Eric Curts on Twitter. It’s a template in Google Slides, and the questions are linked to the main game board with answers linked to questions- all by linking to slides in the presentation. We had used it in my English class to create questions for a book/movie comparison. She remembered the game and asked if I could explain how the slides were linked, and off she went.

Student-created Game Show

What makes this project remarkable is the student’s decision to base the game questions on her sixth-grade learnings. It’s a fantastic way to encourage reflection, and it demonstrates the power of student-driven learning. Once again, a student has reminded me that when given the freedom to explore their interests, students never fail to surprise and impress.

Cassandra, thank you for teaching me a valuable lesson and providing a brilliant idea that I can incorporate into future lessons.

Student-created Games: Templates for 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade

Are you seeking fun and engaging activities to wrap up the school year? Are you interested in implementing “Are You Smarter than a Sixth Grader” in your classroom? Building upon my students’ ideas, I’ve developed versions for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

I have added a few additional elements like all-play, knockout, and bonus questions to increase the engagement factor.

Unlike traditional review methods, this game empowers students to take the lead. Using a step-by-step worksheet with examples, students will create their own game show questions, which include true/false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and vocabulary quiz formats.

To ensure a seamless experience, I’ve included an instructional video guiding students through the process—from identifying key elements in their textbooks to crafting questions using the provided guide. Beyond mere entertainment, “Are You Smarter than a Sixth Grader” is a powerful tool for enhancing classroom learning.

An instructional video that models how to write quiz questions for student-created games. Skills listed in the image: identify structural elements of a textbook, select a sentence to turn into a quiz question, explain how to choose keywords from the sentence, and use the printable page as a guide to write all four types of questions.

An image explaining what makes student-created games so engaging: Quiz show style format, competition, teamwork, buy-in because it's something they created, and surprises like all play, bonus, and knockout are listed.

Students sharpen their communication and collaboration skills and deepen their understanding of the material as they craft questions based on their studies. Its versatility allows for various implementations, whether teacher-led or student-designed. It is perfect for end-of-chapter reviews, year-end wrap-ups, or interactive parent nights. It was a big hit with the transitioning 5th-graders who visited our middle school for their year-end field trip.

Incorporate this resource into your end-of-year projects and watch as your students engage, learn, and, most importantly, have fun.

Get my “Are You Smarter Than A …” Templates:

The great thing about a student-created review game is that this template can be reused all year long. Try it for end of chapter reviews with your textbook.