Playing Four Corners in the Classroom

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for engaging review activities for your students. If you need some new strategies, especially ones that get your kids up and moving around the classroom, playing the Four Corners game is definitely something you need to try!

This fun review activity for the classroom is a take on the classic Four Corners game. Students love playing it to review content in any subject and it’s pretty easy to set up. I also like that you can do it a lot of different ways. I’ve only used it with elementary students, but I think you can try it at any level!

How Does Four Corners Work?

• Label four areas in your classroom (you can use numbers 1-4, letters A-D, cardinal directions, etc.). Read to the end to grab a free set of signs!
• Display a pre-made question that has four labeled answer options. (I recommend projecting questions in large font so they’re easy to see from anywhere in the classroom.)
• Students quietly walk to the corner of the room that shows their answer choice.

There you go! Four corners is a really easy way to do a quick assessment and kids love that they get to move around the room!

Now, the down side is that you will have some students who decide to follow other kids rather than choose their own answers. To cut down on this, I try to emphasize making your own choice and that it’s okay if you’re wrong! I also debrief after each question and we see that occasionally the majority chooses the wrong answer!

How Can I Use Four Corners in the Classroom?

I’ve used the Four Corners game to review content in every subject. Polygons in math, text features in reading, continents in geography, planets in science… But you can use it in other ways, too.

• Label the corners with signs that say, “Agree,” “Strongly Agree,” “Disagree,” “Strongly Disagree,” or “Uncertain.” Display a statement or opinion and have students move to a corner to show their response. This is an interesting way to pre-assess students as you start a new unit or to use as a getting-to-know-you activity.
• Label the corners with signs that say, “I’ve got this,” “I’m okay,” “I need some help,” and “I’m not there yet” (or some variation). Use these to have students self-assess where they are with skills and strategies that you’re teaching, have already taught, or are going to teach soon.

You can also get creative and make specific signs for the corners. Here are some ideas:

• make signs for the four operations. Display word problems and ask students to identify which operation they need to do to solve the problem.
• make signs for different nonfiction topics in order to create reading groups or to assign topics for a research project

I’ve also given students sticky notes with their names and asked them to put them on the sign that applies to them.

So that’s it! Four Corners is a fun, active whole class strategy whether you use it as a test prep activity, icebreaker, or assessment. Click here or on the image below to get the four corners review game signs.