Have you ever wanted to sprinkle more magic and fun into your math block? Have you ever thought, "I wish I could easily gamify my math class?" Have you ever wondered how you could get your students engaged during math time? If you answered yes to any or all of those questions, then stay tuned, because I want to introduce you to one way that I am making this a reality in my classroom and how it could work for you too.
Figure out Which Math Concepts your Students Struggle with Most
What would you say are some of the hardest math concepts that your students learn? I currently teach math for grades 3-5 and some of the hardest are these:
In third grade: rounding and fractions
In fourth grade: long division and fractions
in 5th grade: decimals and fractions
Turn Difficult Math Concepts into Engaging Activities
Once you have identified some concepts that trip your students up and are difficult for them to learn, you have some targeted standards to create engaging activities around. If you have been teaching for longer than a year or two, I am sure you could already identify these difficult concepts. They usually are the same from year-to-year.
Now you need to look at the standards and skills the students cover under these concepts. You want to use as many of these as you can in planning your engaging activities. Usually I like to find about four main concepts that I can use for each activity. I like to do it this way because I love using the engaging activities at the end of a unit, as not only a review, but also as something for students to look forward to. They are more willing to put in the hard work and learn what they need to if they know they will be able to apply their skills in a fun and engaging way at the end of the unit. Of course, it is also possible to sprinkle some fun in throughout the unit, but for now, I want to focus on the culminating activity.
Examples of Concepts to Include in a Math Activity
For these examples, I am going to use the concepts from our fraction units.
In third grade, I chose these skills:
- Equal or Unequal
- Unit Fractions
- Fraction Models
- Fraction Lines
In fourth grade, these are the skills I chose:
- Comparing Fractions
- Finding Equivalent Fractions with Dividing
- Equivalent Fraction Models
- Finding Equivalent Fractions with Multiplying
In fifth grade, I zeroed in on these skills:
- Simplest Form
- Subtracting Fractions with Unlike Denominators
- Adding Fractions with Unlike Denominators
- Adding and Subtracting Mixed Numbers with and without regrouping
Choose a Theme for your Math Activity
Keep in mind that you are doing this for the students. Think about what they would enjoy or what would benefit them. Sure, you can bring your passions to the table. That is one way to connect what you love to their curriculum. I have done this many times, but don't forget to consider their hobbies, passions and interests as well.
Some examples of passions of some of my students past and present are:
- Space
- Soccer
- Football
- Sharks
- Superheroes
- Video Games
- Certain Movies
- Certain Games
- Certain Books
Choose your Math Activity Type
When gamifying your classroom consider some of the following ideas:
- Escape Rooms
- Break Outs
- Mystery Activities
- Interactive Centers
- Games (Board or Card)
Putting my Math Activity Together
For this activity, I knew I wanted to try a mystery theme. I also knew that I wanted to do something with superheroes. I had names like "The Fractionator" Swirling around in my head. Superhero fraction names were coming at me left and right. So that's what I decided to go with. I also have a little boy in my third grade class who is absolutely in love with superheroes. That was an added bonus.
Once I had my ideas, I had to come up with a premise for my activity. Since superheroes save cities, I decided to twist this around and make all of the superheroes undercover bad guys and only one was a good guy. The trick was for each student to figure out which one was the good superhero and they had to find out quickly because time was running out to save the the city.
With a set up like that, students were engaged immediately and ready to help save the city by solving math mystery puzzles using their newly acquired math skills.
Math Content Activities
Students engaged in four different challenges to reveal a mystery clue. Each clue told them one of the superheroes that was an imposter. Their job was to solve each clue and reveal the real superhero, saving the city from certain disaster! As students completed a challenge, I checked their secret code and if they were right, they received the next challenge to solve.
When all four challenges were solved, students earned a prize. More about that later.
Setting the Stage to Engage
One thing I love doing is transforming my classroom and this was an easy one. I did not spend a ton of money to do this. I was able to print out a banner that said "Mathopolis" which was our fictional city that was under attack. I purchased a banner from Amazon to hang on my board. I covered a few boxes with colored bulletin board paper and added some squares to make them look like windows on buildings. I used the boxes to create a skyline for the city of Mathopolis. These were free to make using things we already had at the school. I had some masks that I had purchased a couple of years ago that I placed on balloons. I taped one to each desk to look like a colorful superhero. I attached a paper cape to the back of each balloon. Each desk had another mask that each student could use to get into character during our math activity. We had superhero music playing in the background. When students completed that challenge and solved the mystery, they received a Tootsie Roll Pop that had been turned into a simple superhero with colorful paper.
That's it. That was the whole set up. You could do it all, or part of it, or not use any props at all, keeping it very basic. Here are some affiliate links to things I used in this transformation. I love finding pieces that I can reuse from year to year or use form other transformations as well. You can click the pictures to be taken to my Amazon storefront.
The masks I purchased are no longer available, but these are similar to mine.
