Math Games To Use In Middle School and High School Classrooms.

 

Since I work in a place with 2G cell phone service and questionable internet, I like to keep a few games around in my room just incase I need a filler, or the kids are having an off day.  There is nothing worse than having a fire drill in the middle of math and trying to resume study when we get back so its nice having a few games around.

So I am always on the lookout for games that one can just pull out. There are several I've found that I'll share with you today.  I like making folders that contain several copies of the games so they are ready to go as needed. There are some games that will use online sources and I'll include a link to those.

First is a math tic-tac-toe game.  This one can be used for just about any math topic but for this example, I'll talk about it using decimals.  Begin by creating a worksheet with problems such as addition or with all four operations.  The class is divided into groups of two.  Each person is given a worksheet and assigned a color. The students take turns answering the questions.  If they find the correct answer, they get to color in a box, if they are wrong, they do not color in a cell.  The winner is the one who establishes three in a row first.  This is one that would be good to have laminated tic-tac-toe boards and dry erase markers.

Next is math baseball which is a game to get students up and moving around. First thing is to divide the students into two teams.  Next have each team create a bunch of questions and rank the questions as worth one base, two bases, or three bases based on difficulty. When the game starts, the first team asks the second team a question.  They announce the value of the question, give the question, and the other team tries to solve the question correctly.  If the team gets it, they get that many points, if they miss it they get nothing.  The teacher acts as scorekeeper and the winner is the team who reaches 10 or 15 points first.  The teams alternate back and forth asking questions rather than waiting for three outs.

Think about setting up a trasketball game one day.  First step is to create a supply of questions. Then divide the classroom up into teams of 4 to 5 people. Each team is given a response sheet and one student is designated as team captain who is the only one who can answer questions. Decide the value of a correct answer such as one correct answer gives the team two chances to make a basket.  As the questions are asked, the students work together to correctly solve the problem.  If the answer given by the captain is correct, the team wins the opportunity to shoot a ball into a basket or trash basket.  If the teacher wants to, they could designate the team that is behind, call "Shoot!" so the team has a chance to equalize the score using their basketball playing ability.

Although the next game is set for trigonometry, it could easily be used with families of graphs and similar groups of math items.  For this game, make up two sets of cards with the six trig functions, with their associated graphs, graphs, period, domain and range.  These cards are distributed among all the students.  Then students take time to match up the equation with the graph, period, domain, and range held by other people.  If someone makes an incorrect match, the others get to say "Go Fish." The student with the most matches is the winner.  

Check back Wednesday for more games.  I will finish off this grouping then.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.