There are a variety of online games that can help students practice using the order of operations. Funbrain (funbrain.com) offers "Operation Order" to place numbers in the correct order in an equation to get a designated result. Math-Play.com offers "The Order of Operations Millionaire" game, based on the TV trivia show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Students are given an equation and four answer choices and must use the order of operations to choose the correct answer and earn points. This game can be played alone or in teams.
Provide each student with a standard bingo card from a regular bingo game. Instead of calling out numbers, place equations on the board whose answers correspond with the numbers on the bingo cards. After solving each equation, students should check their bingo cards to see if they contain the answer. If the card contains the answer to the equation, the student will place a marker on it. The first student to place five markers in a row wins the game.
Divide students into two teams and write a problem on the board. Have one member from each team race to solve the problem on the board using the order of operations and award a point to the first team to get the correct answer. Another option is to assign each team member one step of the order of operations to solve, having a different student solve for parentheses, another for exponents and so on, until the problem is complete.
Create a series of problems for which students must use the order of operations to solve and write each digit and symbol in the problem on a separate index card. Provide students with the answer to the problem, then have them arrange the index cards in an equation that would get that answer. For example, if the answer to the problem was 11 and the student had cards with 4, x, +, 3 and 2 on them, she would arrange them as 3+4x2 = 11. Create multiple index cards for problems and have students compete against one another to see who can get the most correct answers.