January 4 is National Trivia Day. What better way to ease back into a new year of studies than to start things off with a trivia-style game. Separate the class into 2 or more groups. Have them name their group something unique. Then, gather a series of trivia questions. You can choose from a variety of subjects. For instance, you could do movie trivia, or pop culture, or go a little more educational and have science trivia, or world history. Below are a few options to get you started.
- At MomJunction.com, you can search through trivia questions and answers from different categories like sports, science, history, movies and music: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/trivia-questions-and-answers-for-kids_00418437/#gref
- TriviaCafe.com has a variety of questions about general education topics: https://www.triviacafe.com/trivia-questions/education/
- Chartcons.com also has a variety of questions stemming from literature to geography: https://chartcons.com/100-trivia-questions-kids-answers/
- TeachersFirst.com provides a trivia quiz geared towards breaking the ice for high school students: https://www.teachersfirst.com/content/knowyou/trivia.cfm
- FamilyEducation.com has even more topics to choose trivia questions from, like animals, food, holidays, math, seasons and television: https://www.familyeducation.com/quizzes
There are multiple ways to play a trivia-style game. Below are 3 different variations along with instructions.
1. In this first style, simply read out the questions and allow each team to answer quietly. Then, if they get the answer right, they get a point. In this style, every team gets to answer each question. In the event of a tie at the end of the game, you could include a lightning round. Each team gets 1 minute to answer as many questions as they can. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
2. In this second style, each team is asked a single question. Only the one team is allowed to answer the question. If the team answers correctly, they get a point and the next team is asked a question. If the team answers wrong, then they receive no point, and the next team is asked a question. In the event of a tie, you could include a lightning round, similar to what is used in the first style.
3. This third style is a variation of the second. In it, each team is asked a question that only they can answer. If they get the answer right, they get a point and are asked another question. The same team may answer questions until they answer one wrong. If the team answers a question wrong, then the next team has a chance to answer that same question. In this version, it is unlikely that a tie will occur, but in the event that it does, you can include a lightning round similar to what is used in the first style.
Additionally, you can check out our FREE CONTENT page to gather more information to add to your trivia game.