Teaching during the holidays is an exciting time as well as a trying time for teachers. You need something to keep students engaged and on task during those hard days before break. I am going to share a game that I use every year during the holidays. It’s called Point Quest, and my students love playing it!
During this time of year, I still need to teach. Many times my students have checked out during December. It is hard to keep their attention. When I use the Point Quest math game they have fun while practicing math skills. I use the Christmas game board in December and they love it!
What is the Point Quest Math Game?
Point Quest is a game that can be used with any content area and any grade level. To play the game you need a set of questions with answers to ask your students as well as a PowerPoint Point Quest game board. We have game boards for every season available for FREE – see the information at the bottom of the page. We also have some games with questions already made in our TPT store.
Getting Ready to Play
Decide how you are going to play.
I usually play the game in groups. This game can also be played in pairs or individually. If I have a class that doesn’t work well in groups then I will split the class in half and create 2 large teams. Within each team, students will solve their problems and I will pick one student randomly to answer for the team.
How will you use the PowerPoint?
Before you play the game you need to decide on a few things. If you can read your questions to the students out loud then you can use the PowerPoint in presentation mode. If you need to have two screens open on your computer (the PowerPoint and the questions) you will need to keep the game out of presentations mode or in editing mode.
Playing the Point Quest Math Game
To start the game I will present a question. The groups should confer with each other and answer the question. I have them write their answer using a dry erase board. You could also use the Draw It feature on Nearpod and have them send in their answer.
I usually start with the first group and ask them a question. If they get the answer right they get a point and also get to pick a square from the Point Quest game board.
You have two choices of game boards to choose from. One set of boards has only positive points. The other game board has positive and negative points. I have someone from the group pick a square by uncovering it. Whatever number is revealed will be added to their score. If you use the game board with positive and negative numbers teams can have points deducted from their scores.
If the group misses the problem, I pick a random group by drawing sticks. I check their answer. If they get the question correct then they will get to pick a square from the game board. If they miss the question, I pick another group and continue until I get a group that has the answer correct. Each group that gets the question correct gets a point for the game, but only one group gets to pick from the Point Quest game for bonus points.
Another way I play this game is to let the group that has the answer first pick from the game board. When playing this way, I ask the class a question and each group answers it. One person from the group writes the answer to the problem on their dry-erase board and stands up. Once they are standing they cannot talk and they cannot change their answer unless they sit back down. I write down the order that the groups stand up.
Once every group has answered, I start checking. Using my list that shows the order in which the groups stood up, I start checking answers. The first group that has the answer correct will be allowed to remove a tile from the Point Quest board. Every group that has the correct answer will get a point but only the group that had the correct answer first will get to pick from the board. If you are using the game board with positive and negative numbers, the group can decide if they want to pick from the game board or if they want another group to pick.
Continue playing asking different questions. When time is up or all of the questions are used the group with the highest amount of points wins.
Conclusion
This game can be used any time of year. I have game boards that relate to holidays and I use those during that particular season. My students always enjoy playing this game and I love that they are helping each other with the math concepts.
If you would like to try this game you can get a FREE copy of our Winter Point Quest Boards. Each PowerPoint has 4 gameboards. Two with only positive points and two with positive and negative points.
