It’s review season, and that means teachers are getting ready for days and days and days of test prep. It’s not the most fun, by any stretch. We’re also at the end of the year so you’re getting the “please don’t make copies” or “we’re out of paper” message from the office, or you just don’t have the energy. This is an easy review activity to do with minimal prep, minimal copies, and lots of fun! You might have heard of it, it’s called a sprint.

What is a Sprint?

Okay, so when I first heard a veteran teacher talking about doing a sprint, I had ZERO clue what she was talking about. So, of course, being the baby teacher I was, I asked no questions and just nodded numbly. It actually took me three years to figure out what, exactly, she was talking about. Baby teachers, don’t be me. Ask the question. Seriously. Ask it. It’s fine.

Back to the question. What, exactly, is a sprint? A sprint is a race, using some sort of academic item, where students work in groups to answer questions. There might be a directed drawing or jenga or something involved as well but that’s optional. Students only get ONE question at a time and must get the question correct to move on. So they can rotate who is the “runner” and that “runner” will need to get the question, and then once the group has the answer, they will need to run (literally if you want) to the checker – AKA, the teacher. That’s it. That’s the whole process.

Math Sprint

So a math sprint is one of the easiest review things to do. First things with any sprint is to decide how many groups you want to have. For our example, lets say 5 groups. You will need 5 copies of each question – but they don’t have to be full page. I usually print my task card size or smaller! You can even use task cards. You separate your cards into a pile for each group. You can do questions in order or not. Then you explain to the students what they will do. One runner will come get a card, bring it back to the group, and everyone needs to solve it. Then the runner brings the card with the correct answer selected/circled/written to the “checker” (AKA – teacher). I also have mine bring up their work when the question calls for it. Then if the student is correct, they bring a new question back to their group to solve. If they are not correct, they go back to their group to try again. Once they have solved the next question, a new runner comes with that question and the process repeats itself until all the cards are done.

But what about…

Okay, so that all sounds great, but what about those kids that can’t? Or that struggle with math? Nothing is perfect, but the beauty of this is that though they are working in groups, the rule is that everyone has to solve the problem, and whoever the runner is has to bring up their work. So that student who can’t do multiplication might have gotten walked through that equal groups problem by the student who can. While I would prefer they all be able to solve it, this is not really all that terrible. Sometimes hearing the method from another student is that thing that helps something click. They’re more likely to listen to their peers than me, so this actually helps those kids. Even if they still struggle with multiplication, them hearing how to solve it is not going to hurt them. You may have to step in and make turning in work a requirement or something if you have some especially stubborn non-tryers. But because they are playing a game, you’ll find that most of your kids buy in and work willingly. Your strong math students suddenly have the patience of a saint explaining math to their less strong teammate.

This last part doesn’t always work. Kids are kids. Arguments are going to happen. By the time I do a sprint in my class, the expectations are so set that they know and if they get in trouble, I get almost no push-back because they know exactly why they are in trouble. So it is important to set the expectations before this – I have even told them that if I hear their group being unkind or bossy, that person is automatically out. If a group won’t stop arguing, the whole group will just complete the activity on their own, at their seats, with no fun race element.

How do they know which card to grab? A couple of ways. One, you could print them on a specific color paper (like one set is blue, one is yellow, etc). You can write a team name on each page. You can put theirs all in a specific basket or folder. Or you can do the “I have so many of these star stickers and only use the gold ones”. So before I laminated my sprint this year, I stuck either a red, green, silver, or blue star sticker on each page. (we use the gold stars for lunch room behavior so I always have sheets of leftover other color stars).

Finally, what about all that paper? Yes, you do need multiple copies BUT depending on how you print these, it’s still less than having the whole class get their own copy and you can laminate the sets so that you can use them year after year. I just did a sprint with my students using our state-provided online practice test. I used a total of 16 pieces of paper. If I had printed a paper for them all to individually do the test on their own and write down their answers (our practice test does not score them or save their answers), then I’d need at least 30 if not 40 pieces. And because the practice test is generally the same year-over-year, I laminated them. So next year, if I have a larger class, I might need to make another set, but otherwise, I’m ready to go.

Upping the Ante (and the Fun)

So if this is feeling like a scoot, or you just want to add something to make this more fun, there are a few things you can do. I have a large inflatable bowling set. I set it up in the hallway and if the student gets the answer correct, they get to bowl. They get one point for a correct answer and a point for each pin they knock down. My kids raced through 33 math problems and some groups were upset that they didn’t get to solve all the problems because they were having so much fun.

Another option is jenga. You can do this with multiple jenga sets or just one. So for each correct answer, a student gets to move a block. if the tower falls, they need to set up the tower again before solving any more problems. Since a sprint is essentially a race, this is time consuming and they want to avoid it. You could have each team have their own tower, or one tower for the class. Either method works fine.

You can also do a directed drawing. You need to set up an area for them to draw. You should also print off the directions and cut them into the steps. For each correct answer, the student gets to draw the next step. I’ve also seen teachers print one page of the directions and students need to do one and check it off each time.

Why?

Honestly, reviewing for state testing is the worst. I don’t like it, the kids don’t like it…it’s just not the best. But when you can make it fun (and easier on the teacher because set up can be very minimal) the buy in is better, the behaviors are better, and you actually get to review all the things!

Read Part 2 which goes into detail on how to do a sprint in reading!