One of my favorite ways to review, with my students, at the end of a math unit, is through the use of high engagement, hands on activities. I LOVE to use my math escape rooms. They are all themed and perfect to use with a classroom transformation, if that is the sort of thing you like doing in your classroom. But, even if it isn't, these escape rooms are still engaging without transforming your room. For the example I am going to show you, I used my Mission to Mars escape room, which was a review of addition skills. Each escape room themed activity comes with three levels of play that include third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade skills for easy differentiation. I kept the decorations very simple this time. I simply covered a table with a black tablecloth, added my packets and other supplies, laid out the drink ingredients (more on that in a bit), and added some star garland...super simple. The students were instantly asking questions as soon as they walked into the room...instant engagement.
How to Prep the Review Game Materials
I usually prep the packs for each team a few days ahead, or the day before. You just have to print everything for each challenge, cut and place in an envelope. I like to laminate all the puzzles so I can use them from year-to-year, so that is what I have been doing. This would be great to give to a parent who wants to be involved in the classroom, but really, the cutting itself did not take me too long.
Take a Look at the Math Escape Challenges
When I introduce the escape to the students, I read off the introduction. It sets up the challenges and the goal for the challenge. I also tell them about what they earn at the end of each challenge. In this case, the addition escape room was a Mission to Mars theme. Students earned Star Bucks for each challenge they completed. After they completed each challenge, students were able to visit the Galactic Cafe' to make a special drink using their Star Bucks to pay for it. They were instantly hooked and worked so hard to figure out the secret codes for each challenge. The majority of my groups used about an hour of time, which was perfect for my math block. However, it could be split up where students do one or two challenges each day for a few days if you did not have that long.
In the first challenge, students first rounded the numbers and solve the equations, matching puzzle pieces to the answers. Each puzzle piece had a letter on it and once the puzzle was complete, they asked for the decoder and were able to use it to find the secret code. This challenge generally takes the longest of any of them.
Challenge 2 includes a true/false worksheet for each student. Once students figure out which equations are true and which are false, they find the space ships that have the numbers matching the true equations. They put those space ships in numerical order and find their next code.
For challenge three, students work to find the sums on each astronaut card. Once they figure out the sums, they will put those in order from least to greatest to reveal the next code phrase/word.
Challenge four has students engaging in a game of memory match. Once students match the equations to the sums, they will line up the number cards and place the matching card underneath, revealing their final code.
This has honestly been such an engaging review activity for my students.
Galactic Cafe'
For the Galactic Cafe' you need just a few items. There are labels to cover those items, to give everything a space theme. Here's a look at the final product.
I have been hard at work creating a challenge for each math unit for my own classroom. I started with one for multiplication a couple of years ago, but this summer, I added the rest. I currently have:
Place Value Safari
Mission to Mars Addition
Racing Subtraction
Circus Multiplicaiton
Dive-iding Down Under (Ocean themed dividing)
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