As a child, I wanted to be a teacher in order to make school cool! I had the opportunity to teach for nine years before having our kiddoes. I would often send home the math and reading workbooks and have the students use them for homework only. My goal was for them to think we were playing at school and requested that the parents would inform me when their children mentioned this… as it takes MANY more hours to plan leveled games, in place of worksheets. It worked wonders and helped so many children, not only learn the skills, but develop a love for math!
Fast forward 12 years and I’m working together with a dear friend to homeschool our 6 babies, that are now in 2nd, 3rd, 5th (two), 6th, and 7th. I’m using my same theory again and so far, it’s working. They are achieving goals and begging to do play these games longer.
I have these topics covered on https://fbimomma.com/learningsongs/ and https://fbimomma.com/fun-websites/, which has proven to be engaging and successful methods.
MULTIPLICATION
- https://royalbaloo.com/minecraft-multiplication-game/ is a website with INCREDIBLE and FREE resources. I used post-it notes for the equations, so that we can reuse the game board for many different topics. I also sorted them by 3 different levels.
- Race to 100- roll 2 dice, get that amount in coins, exchange if needed, first one to $1 wins
- Sidewalk Chalk Tic Tac Toe- draw a tic tac toe large enough that they can jump into far edges at once, write in numbers 1-9, call out numbers between 3-17 for addition practice, and do the math for multiplication practice, where they jump to show you the two numbers that could be the equation
- Headbands- kids either hold up equation on their head without looking or a regular playing card, their partner gives them either the sum/product or an equation for them to solve
- Shaving Cream Race- put a pile in front of each child and go through flash cards on their level, they “write” the answer with their finger
- Painting Petals- they draw 4-8 circles on a page with numbers in the middle, each petal surrounding that sum/product needs to be a different equation
- Cups Search- I put the answers of their leveled equations on cups and throw them all over the yard (or even hide them around your house), they solve top card, find cup, race back to solve as many as they can
- I Have, Who Has- I write out notecards in order with sum/ product on top half and new equation below for them to read out, “I have 7, who has 3+9?”
- Square Challenge- draw as many squares as they are capable of completing, they roll some dice and decide where to put those numbers in order to create as many correct equations as possible
- Slap Doubles- partners each flip up a playing card, first one to add correctly get to keep both cards, every time they get a double- they slap it (or high five each other) and chant the equation that many times (7+7=14… 14 times)
- Quick Draw Duel- two children will stand with backs touching, they will walk away as they solve a problem on their clipboard, when finished they will turn around and grab a Nerf gun, if correct- they get to shoot at the other person’s feet and get a point for every time they hit, if different answers- they need to debate and explain why theirs is correct
- https://games4learning.com/math-card-games/ I’m excited to try some of these, especially for place value.
FRACTIONS
- Start by asking if fractions are important. Bring up someone that says ‘no’ and offer 1/80 or 1/3 of something fun, like a bag of Skittles. Then, present a Hershey candy bar to each child and explain that they cannot eat until they prove that they understand that fractions are “part of a whole, so the bigger the denominator- the smaller your piece of chocolate.”
- Make rainbow fraction strips and have the younger kids glue pieces together and write equations such as 1/2 plus 1/2 equals one whole, while older ones need to combine 1/2,1/4, and 1/8 and write the common denominator underneath. They can also convert to decimal and percentage.
- Kids stand back to back and pull a fraction strip, say name, decide who is bigger, turn and check, bigger wins both. Older kids pull two and add on a marker board before spinning around to check.
- Set up bases for baseball and give an equation. They get 3 strikes before they are out. Outfielders need to check responses to see if correct. After 3 outs, switch teams to bat.
- Flip 2 cards and place smaller number above a pencil and larger below. Compete with partner where larger fraction gets to keep all four cards. Older kids can have improper fractions with larger number on top. Have a calculator nearby to convert to decimal (top number divided by bottom number) to check.
- Buy different flavors of chips and have the students draw lines to represent eighths on their plates. Then, they request 3/8 nacho flavor, 2/8 ranch flavor, and 3/8 BBQ.
- Play “Pizza Party Fraction Game” where they spin a fraction and gain that size. Child with the most whole pizzas at the end wins.
- Use Legos to represent the fractions and/or equations listed on the notecards. For example, 4/5 of your Legos are blue. Remind them that all pieces MUST be the same size.
- Play Pictionary where one child draws a picture representing a fraction and teammates must answer.
- Paste a bunch of fun pictures (I recently did Perry Gripp song characters) to a poster board and cover with leveled post it notes. When they answer correctly, they remove and try to guess the picture exposed.
- Sort 12 Orbeez into egg carton to list fractions by color.
- Create (or find) a “fraction hunt” gives clues like “first half of food plus last quarter of door” to create a secret message.
- Give 5 coins, toss, call heads or tails, bigger fraction wins. Older kids need 10 coins and must simplify and determine decimal and percentage.
- Create a workout plan where they need to determine which fraction/ percentage they want to complete of each activity: push ups, sit ups, burpies, jumping jacks, lunges, high knees, side leg raises, mountain climbers, bicycles, and squats.
MEASUREMENT
- feet=one syllable=’, inches= two syllables=”, use rulers to discuss length and how much inches=feet=yard, play “Find It,” where you call out “2 inches” and the first person to bring back something that is closest to 2 inches wins a point
- measure perimeter of candy bar in cm/in, desk in inches, classroom in ft/ m, playground in yd/ m, discuss differences of metric and standard
- use butcher paper to trace teacher as “minecraft shaped blocks,” use one inch squares to find the area of the sketch
- have them measure partner height by laying on ground from head to toes and again from arms spread wide (it’s almost identical), also you foot is same length as forearm, and you wide of nose is typically one inch
- measure distance of how far they can crab walk without falling
- make measurement capacity man by pouring cups into pints into quarts into gallons to determine how many of each that they need (can color some old beans or rice in a large bucket)
- play Headbands with vocabulary words, then use definitions on a Jeopardy board to play together
- measure whose Silly String travels the furthest
- create a treasure hunt with a partner, where level 1 lists steps in feet and level 3 needs to create fractions of a yard
- divide paper into 6 sections: ounce, pound, ton, milligram, gram, and kilogram- create pictures to represent something that weighs that much
- each player puts a dot on a poster board, rolls dice and draws a line that length, the winner being someone that can end their line on someone else’s ending point
- use yarn to find the largest round items circumference, then weigh the mass to determine heaviest
- give each child one roll of wrapping paper and similar sized boxes, discuss surface area and discuss ways to waste the least amount of paper
- bake two batches of cookies- one where they follow the recipe and measure and the other where they guess
- students will build an open box out of poster board, sharing the volume (length x width x height) they predicted to hold exactly 100 pieces of popcorn- bonus for anyone that figures out the shape that won’t require more cuts
- children glue together marshmallows to represent their cube that equals 25 cubic marshmallows
- predict how many ounces to fill multiple containers, then put in order from smallest to largest capacity, measure to determine if accurate
Alright, I have so many more, but just wanted to get a feel for if this is something others are interested in.
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