Ste. Genevieve Elementary Students Collaborate to Escape Emoji Island

Ste. Genevieve Elementary third grade students found themselves on an island of emojis, where their only means of escape was to work in small groups and successfully answer review questions dealing with mathematics.

Teachers Whitney Hilbert and Tiffany Wolk came up with the review game the last full week of school. Their students were handed review puzzles and quiz questions on multiplication and division, addition and subtraction, time and area, among others. As the small teams successfully answered questions, their team icon was moved along the path on the island, one step closer to freedom.

“We were looking for an activity that would not only keep them motivated during review, but one that would be exciting and fun for them to accomplish,” Mrs. Wolk says. “The key to success is to collaborate, because the game is set up to where everyone on the team has to participate in order to win. So not only are we reviewing important concepts, but we’re also focusing on how to work as a team.”