What I did was break the students into 5 groups after choral repeating "times"/"equal(s)"/"divided by"/"plus"/"minus" so that they could get those words into their heads.
After the repeats, I would put students at the back of the class and verbally state an algebra problem. They would run to the front and solve the problem and the first student who solved the problem correctly would win a point for his team. At the beginning, I gave only simple problems, but as it went on I would build up the excitement by giving harder problems. The most complicated thing we did was a simultaneous system of equations (solving for two variables at once).