Making math review fun and meaningful is exactly what students and teachers are looking for during test prep time. Think about bringing an Olympics theme to your room and have students compete in math games that review the skills that have already been taught! This theme is so easy to set up and modify. Those extra steps will engage your students in learning and reviewing math concepts. My students truly enjoy playing math games and love competition. Now, they are actually excited for math time! Be sure to download the Free Olympics Review Game printable here!
After a long break and right before the season of testing, I like to take some time during our math block to review the many math concepts we have already learned since the beginning of the school year. However, to have the students buy into this review, I had to make it fun. Since the Winter Olympics are right around the corner, I decided to have an Olympic themed math review day. 
As our "Opening Ceremony" the kids read about the Olympics and the different winter sports competitions that will be happening during the games. Reading these passages pumped them up so they were excited to compete in our very own class Math Olympics.
Instead of flipping my entire classroom, I took a short cut and simply added the Crowd Backdrop Banners all around the room. In addition, I handed out International Games Dog Tag Necklaces to all of the students who competed. Both of these made for a great photo-op especially when paired with the Inflatable Torches.
Our first event was a multiplying decimals review game. They picked a coin then, using the Football Toss Game, they threw the football into one of the nets. 
They had to correctly multiply the two numbers together to earn their participant Field Day Award Ribbons. This activity was especially powerful because it allowed the students to notice the decimal and place value shifts, which reinforced number sense.
For the next two events we used the Obstacle Course Ring Set. The first game they played was a Prime and Composite Number Sort. Knowing the difference between prime and composite numbers is such an important skill that sets them up for success for fractions. Whichever team sorted them the fastest and with the least amount of errors won. I loved hearing their rationale and seeing them work in pairs for this. If you want the printable we used to play this game, simply download it for free here.
The next event was a multiplication facts team challenge. I mounted two of the Obstacle Course Rings on the back whiteboard and wrote the number I wanted them to multiply out in the center of the ring. I wrote the number's multiples around the inside of the ring and when I said, "Go!", each team took turns and had one person go up to their ring to solve the fact. The team that completed their ring first won! This is a great game to differentiate based on ability. Since it is a team challenge, even the students who haven't yet mastered their math facts they can answer the easier problems. My students beg me to play this game with them whenever there is a free minute in the day.
The next event was to review adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. I set up this game in the hallway using the Obstacle Course Ring Set, Reinforced Bean Bags, Math Symbol Dice and some homemade fraction cards. I spread out the rings and they threw their bean bags into 2 hoops. After that, they rolled the Math Symbol Dice and it told them whether or not they needed to add, subtract, multiply or divide the fractions.
They solved the problems on their Dry Erase Paddles. I had them do this event in pairs because remembering which processes to do with fractions can be tricky for them.
The final event was a review of adding, subtracting and multiplying decimals. This was easy to set up because I didn't need to make any copies thanks to the Primary Top-Loading Dry Erase Sleeves. For this game, the students rolled the 10-Sided Dice in Dice and filled in the blanks on the Roll & Solve worksheet. Download this free worksheet here. Students made sure they put their decimal in the correct place before having their work checked. All in all, the students were 100% engaged, and were able to review several tricky math concepts in a non-traditional test prep way. Everyone received participant ribbons because they were all stellar math Olympians.
