Tuesday 15 October 2019

Maths on the Move

Since it is Maths Week, it is nice to do some fun Maths activities away from the book.  This activity can be done with any class level outdoors or in a hall (or even the classroom if you wish!).
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How I structure it:

1. Choose a Maths topic (e.g. addition facts, long multiplication)
2. Create question cards and matching answer cards.



 

3. Arrange your class into teams/pairs.
4. Hide the answer cards around the area you will be playing in (if outdoors I put them under cones so they don't blow away).
5. Give each team/pair their first question card.  Together, they work out the answer and then run to find the matching answer card, which they return to you.
6. Give them the next question card and see how many they can complete in a set amount of time or the team to complete a certain amount of them first wins.


Variations/Tips


  • Print the questions on different coloured pages (one colour per team) so that you can use the same questions with all teams.  Each team must find the answer card to the question card that matches their team colour (e.g. if the answer to my question is 10 and my team colour is orange, I can't take a 10 printed on a blue page back to my team, I must find the orange one!)  The first team to have completed all their question and found the matching cards wins.
  • Teams complete the question behind their cone and only one child from the group runs to find the answer each time.
  • Give one question to each team at a time rather than giving them all the questions together, which encourages them to work together to figure them out.
  • Give a sandwich bag to each group to gather their question and answer cards.
  • It facilitates differentiate, for example, one group could be doing long multiplication but another group may be doing short multiplication.


What can I use the game for?


It can literally be used for all Maths topics but ones that I have used it for include:
  • matching fractions and decimals
  • long multiplication (figure it out and find the answer)
  • matching analogue and digital time


Feel free to share other ideas below!