Can you believe that the new school year is here? While it seems like the summer flew by, we’re excited for the new year and all the excitement it brings and we hope you are, too. There’s nothing like the thrill of the first day of school and if you’re a teacher, you’re probably looking for ways to spice up your lessons. Cue: trivia quizzes!
Why Should You Include Trivia Quizzes in Your Lesson Plan?
Trivia is played everywhere, from events and restaurants to the classroom and can cover everything from celebrity gossip to World Chocolate Day. This icebreaker is popular for good reason, too. Not only can trivia be hilarious and fun, but it’s also educational and gets everyone involved. Who knows what you’ll learn during a riveting game of trivia?
This is why trivia quizzes are a great way to supplement your lesson plan this school year. Whether you teach little ones or older teenagers, trivia is fun for every age and is a great way to:
- Help shy students open up
- Learn new things in a fun way
- Make a usually boring topic more interesting
- Gauge how much your students know starting the school year
- Provide a benchmark for learning opportunities
- Promote student engagement and team building
The New York Times provides a specific example of how audience response systems helped children learn in the classroom. They were much more engaged in AP Physics when they could answer questions live, see their answers in comparison to their peers, and compete against each other in a fun and exciting way.
The Different Types of Trivia Quizzes
Now that you know more about how trivia quizzes can be a powerful learning tool, let’s look at the different types of quizzes you can try in your classroom this school year.
Ice Breaker Trivia
While not technically trivia, icebreaker games are perfect for the new school year because they encourage students to open up and tell the class about themselves. Using a live polling software like Poll Everywhere, you can ask questions about what they did over the summer, what their favorite animal is, what they like to do for fun, and more. Then, using the answers, you can make a word cloud and show the whole class how their peers compare. Using that information, you can quickly draw connections and encourage students to make new friends with similar interests.
Silly Trivia
One of the best ways to start the school year off with a laugh is to play a silly trivia quiz that has nothing to do with the lesson plan and is only designed to lighten the mood. Some silly trivia questions might be:
- What is a group of unicorns called? A blessing.
- How old is the world’s oldest piece of chewing gum? 9,000 years old.
- Where were fortune cookies invented? America.
- What is a group of frogs known as? An army.
- What do honey bees collect? Pollen and nectar (not honey!).
- Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? Still Mt. Everest.
- How many months have 28 days in them? 12.
Want more fun trivia quiz questions? You can find a whole list here.
Educational Trivia
It’s also fun to start the school year off with some educational trivia (you are in school, after all!). It’s possible to make even boring topics fun with trivia quizzes. Plus, these trivia quizzes can be used as a benchmark to compare how many questions your students get right in the beginning of the year versus at the end of the year.
Trivia Quizzes To Ring in the New School Year
There are lots of different forms of trivia quizzes to incorporate in the classroom. Here are some of our favorites:
Jeopardy-Inspired Trivia
Using the Jeopardy format, set up various categories with different point values with the harder questions worth more points. You can also add a Double Jeopardy trivia quiz at the end to really raise the stakes. Whoever can answer the most correct wins a prize!
Snakes and Ladders Trivia
Inspired by the classic board game, Snakes and Ladders trivia challenges your students to make it all the way up the game board. You can draw the board on the whiteboard or print one out and hang it up. Then, ask the trivia questions using a polling software. If the kids get the question wrong, they have to slide back down the board. If they get it right, they get to move up. You could also play Snakes and Ladders throughout the classroom and designate a finish line that the kids have to get to.
Who Wants to be a Millionaire-Inspired Trivia
In this classic trivia quiz format, students have to answer progressively harder questions to earn more “money” or points. Using an interactive polling software, you can even customize the questions based on your lesson plan and create a leaderboard for the students.
Get your students excited about learning this school year with trivia quizzes that test their knowledge, make them laugh, and help them get to know the other students. Interactive learning is more fun, more enjoyable, and very effective. How will you incorporate interactive games and quizzes into your lesson plans this year.