Live trivia game show HQ Trivia is gaining huge popularity in students’ home lives. If kids are so engaged by learning trivia, why can’t teachers harness this by not only playing games in class together, but taking them beyond the classroom too?! We spoke to Michelle Underwood, Computer lab teacher at Manila Elementary school in Pleasant Grove, Utah, who supports students making their own trivia quizzes to play at home.
Making assessment engaging
Michelle only recently discovered Kahoot! but was immediately hooked.
“I first tried Kahoot! after it was introduced in a professional development session in my district. We played it together and the hype was real! I started using it before Thanksgiving with my classes. We loved playing the Kahoot! Studio Thanksgiving games for math!
I love that Kahoot! can be adapted to almost any topic and the various ways you can format questions and answers – they can be multiple choice, true or false, or you can include more than one correct answer. I use it for pre-tests and formative assessment: my favorite aspect of Kahoot! is that it’s such a versatile tool. My students love the points element and they love to play the same games over and over – they never get tired of them.”
Michelle’s students aren’t the only ones who love to play kahoot games again and again. Savvy educators can have their students download the Kahoot! app so they can practice and review key kahoots at home – great for revision before a test! Here’s a quick recap of how to send a kahoot as a challenge for students to play in the app:
1. Choose your kahoot, open it on your computer and hit Challenge. Or – open it in our mobile app, tap Play and then Challenge friends
2. Set when you want your challenge to end
3. Copy the challenge link or PIN and share with your students (they need the Kahoot! app to complete the challenge)
4. Check progress and results with our neat new reports!
Games and challenges for family night
“Family night is a cultural phenomenon that’s very common in Utah – it’s found in the LDS (Mormon) faith and takes place on Monday nights from 5pm. It usually consists of an at-home gathering with a family lesson, activity and dessert treats.
My students are in 6th grade but are very capable of creating their own quizzes. So, as a class, we take a look at a few kahoots together and based on these, they create their own trivia games to play during family night. So far, they have created kahoots about sports trivia, their favorite foods, their hobbies, and other subjects they’d like to quizz their families about. It’s very rewarding to see them doing this!”
That’s an awesome classroom activity right there! Students can also take this one step further by challenging their friends and family to play the games they created together in class in the app to play as single players, asynchronously!
Challenges over the holiday season
“As a computer lab teacher, I also host kahoots on holiday topics as a fun break for the whole class – it gives us joy and helps us learn new facts!”
With the holidays right around the corner, our themed kahoots are perfect to play in class – but the fun doesn’t have to stop when school is off! You can treat your students with fun Kahoot! challenges to play over the holiday break – simply assign the kahoot challenge and set the deadline for when students come back to school in the new year.
Here are some of our top picks for the holiday season! Check out the full collection, too!
