a few favorite games

I like small games ... I am not a fan of whole class games. It's a personal classroom management issue.  Most of the games I used were to practice a specific skill.

Games and sites for finding 2-person or small games include these ...

Dots and Boxes ... you've played this before!  In this game students connect dots as in the typical game.  But when they close in a square and claim it for themselves, they have to work the problem in the square.  Their point value is the solution to the question.  So in this Logarithm Equation game, as students complete a box, they solve the equation and the solution to that equation is their score. My students also played one to practice synthetic division ... a game purchased on TpT.

Five In A Row BINGO ... In this game two students solve problems, claiming squares, trying to be the first to earn five in a row.  Here is an example solving square root equations. Another version of this type of game could be played in teams ... but also by pairs ... using powerpoint and linked squares.  This example reviews characteristics of exponential and logarithm functions.

Big Ideas Game Closet for middle school and for high school have several games that work well.  I especially like the Quadratics Quandary.

We played Risk Your Algebra Skills ... and students were thoroughly engaged!  Check out Math Mama's post on the game ... and here's my version.


Math War Games with many variations can be found on Denise Gaskins' site.  Check out this link!


This Slope Game looks like a lot of fun!


I especially love Row Games ... not really games but a great way for partners to practice. Students love to see their solutions matching!

What are your favorite two person games??

10 "game" style ways to review math

Re-engaging / Sharing / Quizlet Live

It's been too long since I last posted.

Spring fever
Allergies
Spring break
Kitchen remodel
the Stuff of life

I've been lurking ... reading Twitter, catching a blog post here and there ... but feeling like there really isn't much to write about.  But here goes anyway ...

Since the last post we tackled radical functions focusing on square root and cube root problems.  Then we explored exponential and logarithm functions, first graphically, and then algebraically.  We are testing tomorrow on solving exponential and logarithmic equations.

Activities included ...
M & M lab for illustrating growth and decay

• Lab Instructions
• Data Analysis

Desmos activities for building visual and conceptual understanding

• Growth and Decay
• A New Inverse
• Transformations

Two person games

• Dots and Boxes
• Five in a Row
• We Have a Match

Plenty of paper/pencil practice, including application problems.

But the new thing we tried was a new online game ... Quizlet Live.  Have you looked at it yet?!?  It's not just fun, it promotes team collaboration, engagement, and practice.

• First I put together 12 log/exponential equations and their answers.  Quizlet has it's own math type.
• Next, I clicked play live.
• Student join the game using a code.  It's what happens next that makes it different from Kahoot, Quizizz, and so on ... 
• Quizlet puts students in teams.  At this point the room breaks out in a bit of pandemonium and students find their teammates and get ready to work.
• When the game starts, all students see the same question, but on each team member's screen there are different answer choices.  Only one team member has the correct answer.  All teammates work together to solve the problem, finding the answer on one of the screens.
• And the race is off.
• But that's not all ... if a team misses a question, they are sent back to the start.  Now it's not helpful to just guess.
• After the game, you can review the questions that students missed.
• It's high energy, high involvement, fun practice.
• Here is a link to the log equation practice:  https://quizlet.com/_2719sm

I also put together a Quizlet Live game on finance vocabulary - one of the emphases in our solving log/exponential equations.  After listening to students work through the vocabulary I can see how Quizlet Live would be specifically helpful in vocabulary studies.

I'm working on a Quizlet Live game for a year-end review.  I haven't tried it out yet ... but here is the link.  You can adapt it for your own class.   https://quizlet.com/_27kq42

Just FYI ... I have a free membership to Quizlet.  Right now the use of Quizlet Live is free.  I hope it remains that way!

We are winding down.  Students will work on a data analysis, line of best fit project and explore sequences/series briefly before the end of the year.

I hope to share their projects ... we'll see how it goes.

Dots and Boxes - so much fun!

We are working on a unit on polynomials.  Today's target - dividing by long division and synthetic division.

I knew we would spend about half of our class time in direct instruction, I do ... you do, dividing polynomials.  We discussed the Factor Theorem and the Remainder Theorem.  Our challenge question ...

But it is the second half of class when students were excited, engaged, and enthused!  It's a dot and boxes game ... with a division problem in each square.  As students capture a square, they divide, and collect the remainder as points.  And that's where the best fun begins ... because the remainders might be quite large, and they may be very negative!  So students who enjoy the strategy of capturing the boxes were not necessarily the winners with points.

Here is a small sample of the gameboard ... purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers ... such a fun idea!

Students strategized, captured boxes, divided, moaned over negative remainders for 40 minutes!  Impressive!

Table War

We are reviewing attributes of rational functions.  The details require more memory work ... more understanding what part of the rational function discloses what details.  So we did some speed dating for routine work.  And today we played Table War.

I have 23 to 27 students in a class.  I set up "tables" for 3 students ... 9 tables.

All students have a whiteboard, marker ... all students must answer every question.

Students at tables help one another.

I project attribute problems on the screen (powerpoint).

When the table agrees on their answer, one person at the table stands up.  I'm watching to identify the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tables.

I reveal the answer, everyone checks their own work.  The tables with team members standing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd earn points if their answers are correct ... 10, 7, and 3 points respectively.

After every third problem, students draw chips from paper bags that I prepared in advance ... 2 black chips, 1 red chip in each bag.  The person drawing the red chip has to move to another table.

We completed 12 problems in about 30 minutes or so.

#70Days Working on fractions

Denise @letsplaymath posted a card game to practice fractions this week.  I plan to modify the game as we don't really have time to play a whole game.  My students are in Algebra 2 and advanced - and yet based on last year, fractions are a definite weakness!  Here's the gist:

Students will be sitting in groups of 3 or 4.  I'll put enough playing cards (minus the face cards) in their groups so that each student gets five cards.  On the first day I'll ask each student to choose from their five cards just two cards to create a fraction that is as close to one as possible (but not equal to one). In each group students will decide who has the closest fraction and justify their responses.  Next, the group will put their fractions in order from least to greatest.  Last, I'll ask them to find the sum of their fractions.

On subsequent days, I'll just change the target ... closest to 1/2, or 1/3, etc.

PS ... after reading Denise's post more carefully, I realize her game is a modification of games played at #TMC14 ... and the games are described here.

My goal is to use the game format to get at numeracy skills.  Facility with fractions is huge in pre-cal and calculus.

Blogosphere ... Good Ideas Round 2

I love summertime!  I love the sunshine, the down-time, swimming, reading ... and surfing!  Surfing the blogs, of course!


Here are 3 great ideas shared by bloggers recently!


Alwilda's Daughter writes about the game of spoons.  I had to read to figure out what she meant by spoons!  Turns out there is a card game by that name.  Sarah blogs about an adaptation to the card game that provides routine practice for students.  I like the game because it sounds like fun and doesn't require much set up.  In fact, you could use those ready made worksheets to make the game!

Speaking of ready made worksheets, Simplifying Radicals compiles several great online resources for creating a ready-made worksheet.  Sometimes students need extra practice.  We all know that worksheets are not for everyday/all the time.  As Marcia Tate, author/speaker says, worksheets don't grow dendrites!  But to build students facility with basic algebra skills, extra practice is  warranted!  Anyway, check out her awesome list ... including math-aid, kuta, and more!

Since we spend so much of the year on linear equations, I appreciated I Hope This Old Train Breaks Down's recent post on using visual patterns to introduce linear equations.  She provides a number of dot patterns from which her middle school students learned to write equations.  I'm thinking that this would be a great introduction ... and then I could follow up by using Visual Patterns regularly to keep those skills sharp!

As you visit the blogosphere, what great ideas are you discovering?  How are you organizing those finds??

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Powerpoint Game Reviewing Slope/Intercepts

I'm always looking for a way to involve students in mastering content through games.  The following game works well for practicing finding slope and intercepts of linear functions.  The game can be fast paced, and doesn't require extra materials.

Slope Intercept Gameboard by Beth Ferguson

Visit my Scribd site for other free algebra materials.  Also visit my TpT site for engaging algebra materials!

Math Games

Last night I listened in to the Global Math conference on games for the classroom.  I was intrigued and admittedly a bit intimidated.  Games are not my forte ... especially not online games.  I realize in this area I am behind the times!  I am a digital immigrant ... and doing fairly well with various productivity tools.  But I haven't spent much time with gaming.  Last night someone mentioned the Factor Game ... I have played that but had forgotten about it.  In going to the site today, I see that Illuminations has added a number of games at their Calculation Nation site.  Since all of our students are being issued laptops this week, I'm thinking about giving students the opportunity to earn a little extra credit if they will play these games and write a review of them for me.  

I am exploring Manga High as another option for online game playing.  I'm not familiar with the games there enough to comment on them yet.  But I am hoping they can serve as a tool for review of basic algebra skills. 

I am familiar with a few math games that are not computerized like Set and Equate.   I used to play Set with students often.  (The students I worked with didn't enjoy the Equate game!)  I am in a different environment now and there is so little down time so I haven't explored Set with my current students.  In reviewing the game today, I discovered there is a daily Set puzzle online ... might have to strain my brain a bit with this!

An interesting coincident today ... checked my email for my daily news from NCTM ... and yes, there is an article about games!  (Do you subscribe to the NCTM Smartbrief news service??  I highly recommend it).  The article today is about Girls and Games: What's the Attraction!

“When we asked them about springs and levers, they had no understanding of why they were important in the real world,” Van Voorhis said. “But when we were able to situate those kinds of tools in a real-world context, where they were solving a problem that was directed towards social good, we saw the engagement numbers pop.”  girls were talking about physics or game play 76 percent of the time and were only off topic 5 percent of the time."

Embedded in the article about girls and games is a link from April 2012 entitled, What’s the Secret Sauce to a Great Educational Game?  The article highlights the game, Zombie Division.  Their research is summarized in this sentence, "The results were clear: The children who had played the intrinsically-rewarding game learned more math."

It's time for me to catch up!  Looks like there is some gaming in my future!

Sunday Funday Team Review Game

Team Review

I found this game at this site:  http://www.kutasoftware.com/activities.html

I haven't used it yet ... but I plan to do so in our next unit.  I like the game because it involves all students all the time, and it is also possible to use ready-made worksheets to create the game.  There are times when creating materials is more than I have time for!

Group activity  /  Groups of 3 - 4 students  /  Suitable for single topics, units, or whole course reviews  /  15-30 min

Overview - Groups of 3 - 4 students will race to see which can first correctly answer all of the questions on their worksheet.

Planning - Create a worksheet that has six questions on it. Print 30 different versions, each with an answer sheet and with a version ID number. Separate the answer keys and the worksheets.  (You can cut up textbook workbook pages for this activity or create your own problem sets.)

Classroom Setup - Divide the class into groups of 3 – 4 students. Have them move their desks together. Ask each group to choose a name. Write these names on the board and use them to keep score. Ask each group to choose a runner. The runner is the student who will bring the group's answers to you.  (The job of runner could rotate in the group.  The other job responsibilities could be recorder, analyst (checking work), and task manager (keeping the team on task).

Play - Give each group a worksheet. They must correctly answer each question on the worksheet as quickly as they can. They can divide the questions any way they wish. All of the answers must be written on the paper you gave them. When they have solved all of the questions and written the answers on the paper, the runner brings the paper to you. Check the answers, stopping as soon as you find one that is wrong. Give the paper back to the runner and tell them which question was wrong (Note: there might be other questions that are wrong that you didn't get to check yet.) The first group to get all of their questions correct wins three points. The second place team wins two points. If a team submits wrong answers three times then they are disqualified from that round. Once the first two teams are done, stop the round, record the points on the board and begin a new round.

To maintain discipline, tell the class that if a group is too loud, then all of the other groups will be given one point.

Reward the winning team (I keep a big bag of Jolly Ranchers for rewards).

This 'n That Thursday (1)

Played a vocabulary game this week in "new teacher" orientation that I liked called Moving Words.  Choose enough vocabulary words so that you have one per 2 students.  Ask each pair to come up with a movement or signal  for their assigned word.  When all pairs are ready, stand in a circle.  The teacher leads by illustrating a word with a movement.  The class repeats her movement.  The next pair in the circle illustrates their word.  The class repeats it.  Then the class repeats the teacher's word and the first pair's word.  The 2nd pair illustrates their word.  The class repeats it.  Then the class repeats the teacher's word, the 1st pair's word, and the 2nd pair's word.  The process continues around the circle.   After the movement exercise, ask students to sit down and make notes on the vocabulary words.

Discovered a whole world of math bloggers online (this is just one list!) ... such great help not to mention very interesting people!

Attended a free online conference on foldables ... great fun!  I'm experimenting with interactive notebook foldables ... hope to post a pic soon!

Decided to have an estimation jar in my classroom ... maybe one per unit ... now to find a jar and something to fill it with!

Discovered I can print poster size enlargements (B/W) fairly cheaply at Office Depot!