Matching games are ideal for students to play independently while they wait for the rest of their classmates to complete an assignment. Create a collection of matching games that pertain to specific skills you want to reinforce, such as letter-sound recognition games in which students have to match pictures of items to the letters with which they begin or matching states to capitals. These games reinforce academic skills while providing students with something quietly entertaining to do while they wait for the rest of the class to complete the task.
Students can play word scramble games after they have completed their assignments. Print out lists of spelling words, vocabulary words or any other words you think are appropriate. Jumble up the letter order of the words and have students try to unscramble them. To add a bit more interest to this game idea, create a secret message using the letters from the words on the list. To solve the message, students have to plug in the letters after they have unscrambled the words.
For a game the whole class can play after completing an assignment, try bingo. Purchase a prefabricated bingo game or create your own by plugging in different skills or concepts you want to reinforce in your students. To play, randomly call out numbers, letters, words or whatever is associated with the bingo cards and have students mark off the section of space on their cards containing the information you called. The first student to fill in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line wins the game.
Another easy and engaging game to play with the whole class after an assignment is based on the box game Pictionary. Think of images for students to draw and write them down on index cards; the images can be items that pertain to a specific area of study to reinforce subject matter knowledge, or they can be generic items students can draw just for fun. Divide the class up into two teams. One student on a team is selected as the drawer. The drawer selects a card from the pile and tries to draw an image that will get her team to guess the word or words written on the card. If the team guesses correctly by the end of an allotted period of time, it earns a point; if not, the opposing team may make a guess. The team that earns the most points wins the game.