Tuesday, September 20, 2011

GAME Time!!!

But instead of watching the "game" on TV, I am talking about having games in the classroom.   Not just any classroom... the MIDDLE SCHOOL classroom.

Da-Da-Da-Da..... however you spell that scary sound....

Anyway... ADD moment....

Games.  Yes Games.  I am only going to focus on the one we are playing in class now, which we started last week.  I am reviewing factoring and prime and composite numbers before I get into prime factorization and GCF.  As I googled around, I read about the idea of a game called "Factor War."

It's based on the old school card game war, but you add in a stack of composite number cards.  The kids flip over a composite number card (you can make these using index cards even if you want to) and then flip their cards one by one until one of the students spots a factor of that composite number.  He or she says (but really shouts) out "Factor!" but they have to say the number sentence in order to keep the cards.  If they get it right, they get the stack of cards.  If they get it wrong, their opponet can steal by saying the correct number sentence. The one with the the most cards at the end wins. 
They are trying to find factors of 32.  One of the students just said "Factor" when I took this. Then she said, "8 times 4 is 32."  So she got the 2 playing cards to keep in her deck.

This has been our 10 min warm up since last week, and the kids cant wait to play.  If you read my post on dice and card game organization then you know how I feel about the whole...one for me....one for you dealing of the deck.  There is not much time so, I tell the kids is mix up the cards, split the deck in half and let your partner choose which set he/she wants.  It'll keep those kids from cheating by making their deck bigger.  Little stinkers.  And it gets them playing in less than 30 seconds... learning time!

I'll be sure to post some more games as I make them or come across them on google.  Have fun during GAME TIME!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Leslie!

    I am so glad that someone else believes that games are a good way to teach math! (For some of our struggling learners, sometimes it's the only way!)

    I've got a "dice game" you might like, and I'll be posting a decimal "card game" at the end of the week.

    I'd love to share it with someone!

    Come on over to http://joyin6th.blogspot.com

    I'm new to blogging, but I am trying hard to learn.

    Have a great "end of the week."

    Kim

    ReplyDelete