Middle School Biology Semester Review and Winter Party Lesson Plan

Jan 11, 2024

Middle School Biology Semester Review and Winter Party Lesson

This is the 15th lesson in a series of 32 hands-on Christian lessons covering middle school biology. This lesson focuses on a semester review game and end of the semester party. I used this plan while teaching a 55 minute middle school biology class. Each lesson plan includes homework assignments and a variety of hands-on activities to make each lesson engaging & memorable. Use these fun lessons with your classroom, homeschool, after-school program, or co-op!

These lessons are written for a class that meets once a week. If your class meets 5 days a week, simply do this lesson one day a week and use the homework assignments (at the bottom of the page) for the work for the other days of the week.

Homework & Presentation

Go over the homework questions from the book. (I give out tickets for students who volunteer to answer the questions.)

Have each student share a couple interesting facts they found while researching their mammals. Allow for students who did the extra credit of creating 3D models of their animals to show them.

Semester Review Game

Play Semester Review Trivia.

Have students hand in their tickets and then list them in order by how many tickets they earned.

Divide students into teams of about 5 each. I divided the teams by listing the students in order by how many tickets they have earned and then going down the list 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc.

A student from the first team will select a question. (I simply used the multiple choice questions from the A Beka Science Order and Design book & cut each question into an individual strip). He or she will answer the question.

If they answer it without the multiple choice options, they get 2 points. If they want multiple choice options & get the answer correct, they get 1 point. If they get it wrong, the player from the next team who has the next turn has a chance to answer the question for a bonus point.

Groups are not allowed to help whoever is answering. They may not look at their homework or textbook for answers.

Each team will get a chance to answer a question and then the next student from each team will answer.

I passed out candy as prizes: 3 pieces for the winning team, 2 for the 2nd place team, & 1 for the 3rd place team.

You will need:

review questions cut on slips of paper (such as the multiple choice questions from the A Beka Science Order and Design book)

container to hold the questions

prizes such as candy (blow-pops, air heads, snack-size candy bars, etc.)

Snacks

Christmas Party Snacks

Allow students to get snacks and drinks. Students were each supposed to have brought snacks to share. I also brought items from the requests I had gotten after asking them what they’d like: sodas, cookies (Oreo & grasshopper), chips, & brownies.

You will need:

plates, cups, napkins, snacks, & drinks

Redeeming Tickets: Ticket Raffle

Ticket Raffle

I handed out a $10 gift card to the student who had the most tickets. I handed out $5 gift cards to the students who had the 2nd & 3rd highest numbers of tickets from this semester.

You will need:

a $10 gift card & two $5 gift cards (Chick Fil-A & Dairy Queen are popular here.)

Ticket Raffle:

For every 5 tickets a student got, they can write their name on a ticket. For example, if a student got 30 tickets, they would write their name on 6 tickets. They put the tickets they wrote their name on in a basket.

I raffled off a few prizes such as $5 Dairy Queen cards, candy, Swiss army knife, etc.

You will need:

a few prizes that are each in a small gift bag – Ideas include $5 Dairy Queen cards, candy, Swiss army knife, etc.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

To play the gift exchange game:

Lay all the wrapped gifts the students brought in the front of the class.

Have students hand in their tickets. On the board list the students in order by who had the most tickets to who had the least.

The student who had the most tickets gets to pick & open the first gift. (This student will get to go again at the end of the game.)

I added the rule that the students cannot steal from the 2 students who had the most tickets.

Then the student with the fewest number of tickets gets to select a wrapped gift.

The next student with the next to last number of tickets can either steal the opened gift or select and open a wrapped gift.

This continues up the list.

If a student’s gift is stolen, they always have the option of either stealing an opened gift or opening an unopened gift.

A gift is not allowed to be stolen back from the student who stole the gift. Also, there is a limit of stealing a particular gift more than 2 times in each round.

After everyone has opened the gifts, the student who had the most tickets gets to either steal an opened gift or keep what he or she got at the beginning.