[ruthwickham]

There is one game that I have found works with every class, every level, every age group - and that is "Typhoon".
When I first read about it, the suggestion was to have a set of cards which were attached to the board in a grid with the score on each card facing the board. The students must answer a question for their team, and if correct they choose a card by grid reference and get a (fairly random) score for their team. The fun comes in the fact that some of the cards have a 'T' for 'Typhoon' which gives them no score but the right to 'blow away' another team's score.

This was great for all kinds of subject matter, and transformed even the dullest revision session into an exciting competition.

But I had trouble with the cards, and getting them arranged onto the board unseen etc.

Now I just draw a grid on the board, and the same grid on a piece of paper, and I fill in the scores on my paper (which I refer to when they choose a box, and write the score onto the board grid).
Some other changes and variations:
1. The axes of the grid are labeled with vocabulary words rather than just numbers/letters - although numbers and letters (and bigger numbers) are great practice for elementary students to read when they choose their box.
2. I often let one or two students run the show - draw up the grid on the board and paper and choose and fill in scores and axis labels. Then I just ask the questions.
3. You need at least three teams / players to make the 'T' 'choice of victim' exciting.
4. The scores can be varied greatly, using numbers in millions, decimals, money values, smaller or greater range etc.
5. Once the class has learnt the game I add other possibilities: 'S' for 'steal' - steal another team's score. 'D' for Double - double your own score. 'Swap' - you must swap scores with another team ... to name a few possibilities.

There is a lot of excitement when a team gets an answer wrong, or takes too long to answer. Sometimes I use a boring worksheet or workbook page as the basis for the questions. Our lessons here are four hours long, and many of my classes demand Typhoon as a fourth-hour activity.

Hope this works for you too.