Activities For The Beginning Of School In Math,

 

The summer is rapidly speeding by and the first day of school is not too far off. Often on the first day or two of class, I provide a few activities to get them back into school rather than diving straight in. I find it takes a couple days for students to transition into the right mind set.

One activity I enjoy having my students do is to think of something mathematical for each letter of the alphabet. I pass out a sheet of paper with instructions at the top and the alphabet down the side. They have say 10 minutes to come up with something math for each letter. For instance they might say add for A, or base for B. The time could be longer or shorter depending on your students. 

When the time is up, have students leave their answers on their desk and get up and look at other peoples answers. At the end of a minute (again, the time is up to you) they go back to their desks and fill out any missing letters. Then go through all the letters, having students share out answers that you write on the board. 

Want to get to know your students? Ask them to complete a more about me math activity. In this activity, students tell you all about themselves and their family but via mathematical equations. Instead of giving their age as 16, they might say my age is 4^2 or sqrt 64 x 2. They might tell you they have ( 5-4) brothers and 24/8 sisters. All numerical info must be conveyed using mathematical equations.

Set up a “which would you rather?” School based activity that has a bit of silly. A question might be “which would you rather”….. wear a superhero outfit to school or wear a cowboy hat with a fake mustache. It is not a serious game, just something to break the ice and add a twist of fun to the class.

Another fun activity is to create equation puzzles where each puzzle piece has equations or answers along the sides that match up. In groups students are expected to match up the equation with the correct answer without using a calculator or pen and paper. They are only allowed to talk about it. You can make puzzles out of a large triangle divided into smaller triangles or a large square or rectangle subdivided into smaller quadrilaterals. If you make them out of paper and laminate the pieces, you can use them every year.

Start the year off with writing prompts such as “I want to become better at math so I can ……” or “people who are good at math …..” or “ I used math this summer when I ……….”. Writing is an important way to communicate and it doesn’t hurt to begin having them do a night of writing on the first day.

Finally, think about emoji logic puzzles. The ones that have three lines of math but instead of numbers, there are emojis or other characters. An example might be:

😀 + 😀 + 😀 = 45

👀 + 👀 + 😀 = 35

👀 + 😀 + 🙈 = 30

Find the value for each character.

I will be back with some more activities you can use the first day of school. Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear. Have a great day.