A rainbow facts card game

 

We are on holidays in South Australia... this term they have felt so long overdue! My mind must've been super ready for holidays, it only took me a couple of days to forget which day of the week it was - I love it!

 

Today I thought I'd share a simple little card game that's great to  play with kids to develop their understanding of rainbow facts (or bonds to 10), it's basically a modified version of Go Fish.

 

This game is great to play in small groups (3 or 4) but it can work in pairs too. You'll need a pack of cards (Ace=1, picture cards removed) to play, and I also often give students a sheet with the rainbow facts on it for support if needed.

 

You can get a copy of this sheet here

 

 

The aim of the game is to have the most pairs at the end of the game, but instead of pairs being the traditional matching numbers, they are the numbers that go together to make 10. So for example, if I had a 4, the matching card would have a 6 on it.

 

The dealer gives each player 5 cards, and the rest of the cards are placed in a pile in the middle. Everyone then checks their cards, and sets aside any pairs that they already have. If a player ever has less than 5 cards, they will need to pick up cards from the middle pile, so that all players have 5 cards at all times.  Player 1 then chooses another player and asks them for a particular card.....


Start with five cards...



.....and make pairs....

 


..... 8 and 2 is 10

 
 

 

ie. Player 1 (who has an 8 already)-  'Sam, do you have a 2?'

 

If Sam does have a 2, she will give the card to Player 1, if not, they will need to pic up another card from the pile.

 

The game continues like this until all the cards are gone, then the person with the most pairs is the winner!

 

 

Roll, add and colour... an easy dice game

This week's game is a little bit late for Friday game day..... but better late than never! ;)

 

 

 

This game is great for practicing addition, but it can easily be adapted for subtraction or multiplication... and it's so easy to differentiate. To play, you need two players, a couple of dice (0-6 to start with, or 1-10 for those kids who are more confident with their addition), a different coloured pencil each and a photocopy of the game board.

 

Player 1 rolls the dice and then adds the numbers together. they then colour that number of squares on the game board. Player 2 then has a turn and the game continues until all squares are coloured in. The person with the most squares in their colour is the winner!

 

For older kids, I use graph paper, and have them multiply the numbers on the dice - it's a great way to reinforce multiplicative thinking using Arrays.

 

This game is great for early finishers, as a Maths warm up or for those times when you have a spare 10 minutes before the bell goes (not that this happens very often in my class though... we always seem to run over time!)

 

If you'd like to grab a copy of the game board, just click here :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Game Day - The Tens and Ones game

 

 

 

It might be holidays but I've remembered its Friday.... I obviously need a few more weeks holidays! I love it when I forget the day - a sign that I'm truly relaxed and enjoying holidays!

 

Today I thought I'd share a game that was actually taught to me by one of my Prac teachers when I was at uni... it's a game I've played with so many classes since and it's always really popular.

 

 

I call it the Tens and Ones game - not very creative, but it does the trick!

 

The game is played as a whole class, and is great to use as a 'warm up' game with your class at the beginning of you Maths lesson.

 

To start, you will need a pack of cards (Ace=1, picture cards=0) and you'll need to draw the following groups on the board:

 

 

 

The aim of the game is to get one number in each group before getting three strikes. One student takes two cards from the deck of cards and then makes a number from them (for example, if I pulled a 2 and a 4, I could make 24 or 42) and writes it in the correct group.

 

 

 

The next students than takes two cards and does the same, if you can't make a move (the group already has a number in it) a strike is recorded. you continue playing until either all groups are filled (game won!) or you get three strikes (game lost!).

 

 

An easy, fun card game that's great for developing place value concepts as well as strategic thinking :)

 

Which cards games do you like to play with your class?

 

Farm Freebie

 

Hi! I fell like it's been AGES since I've posted anything... the end of term has been pretty hectic, but I'm now on finally on holidays :)

 

Just a quick post today, I wanted to share a little game that's great for Receptions... Pigs and Chooks. I've mentioned before how I like to get the kids to play noughts and crosses to help develop their ability to think strategically, and this game is basically a prettied up version of that!

 

Basically, kids play in pairs - one person uses the chook cards, and another the pigs. the aim is to get four of your cards in a row, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally, just as you would for noughts and crosses.

 

You just need a game board....

 

Graphics c www.kpmdoodles.com

 

...and a copy of the cards for each pair.....

 

 

....and they're ready to play!

 

 

You can grab a copy of this game here if you'd like :)

 

Happy holidays to everyone on school holidays!

 

 

Friday Game Day... I love Maths!

Happy Friday! I can't believe we're nearly half way through the year... only two more weeks until end of term!

 

For today's game, I wanted to share a game that a colleague told me about just the other day, and I thought it sounded really great!

 

It's called 'I love maths' and is a really simple game for practicing fluency in a fun and active way.

 

The game is played in pairs, and it's similar to Rock, Paper Scissors. Each player makes a fist with a hand and shakes their hand three times, as they say 'I....love....Maths!' On the third shake, each player holds out some fingers. The players then have to find the total number of fingers and say the answer out loud as quickly as they can.

 

Here's an example of me playing with my daughter :)

 



Both players shake their fist and say 'I....

....(shake fist again) love.....

.....Maths!' (and hold out some fingers)

For the example above, we called out '3!'.

The game can easily be adjusted to practice other number facts.... you could subtract the smaller number from the larger number, multiply the numbers together, make the smallest fraction possible with the two numbers, make the biggest two digit number... and I'm sure there's many more alternatives!

 

 

Friday Game Day... practicing fluency

 

This week, I had a couple of training days, one of the sessions I went to was about Peter Sullivan's six principles for teaching mathematics... it was an awesome session!

 

One of the principles that the presenter (Matt... I'm not sure of his last name, sorry!) talked about was fluency.... and a great way to develop fluency with number is through short daily tasks that require mental computation or manipulating number.

 

He shared one of Peter's games with us... it was so easy, needed no prep and can be easily differentiated, just the sort of game I love :)

 

So, I thought I'd share it with you too...

 

Students work in pairs, they'll need a piece of paper to share and a pencil each  (we have individual whiteboards for the kids, which I'm planning to use instead).

 

The first person writes down either a 0 or a 1 - the second person can either add on 1 or 2, then the first person has another turn. This continues until one player can write 10 - they are the winner! Super simple, super easy, and you can play 5 or more games in a few minutes. This is really handy for developing fluency because kids need to do the +1/+2 quickly in their head, but also, they'll soon realise that they need to plan ahead and predict moves, which involves even more mental computation and strategy. 

 

 

 

(Spoiler alert..... there's a number quite early on in the sequence that you should try to get because it can guarantee that you'll win..... it's interesting to see which kids pick up on this!)

 

To make the game more difficult, students can play first to 20 or 50, or they could add 3 and 4 or 5 and 10 - any numbers really... there are so many possibilities! It can also be played to practice fractions (first to 5 1/2... adding 1/4 or 1/2) or decimals or even units of measurement (first to 1 metre... adding 5 or 10 cm). I'm really looking forward to trying this with some of the classes I work with... I think the kids will love it!

 

I'd love to hear about how you develop fluency in your classroom too :)

A Domino game for Friday Game Day!

Friday Game day again! (Actually it's Saturday but better late than never right?!)

 

A little while ago, I saw an absolute BARGAIN on dominoes... I think they were something like a dollar a pack, so (naturally) I just HAD to get a class set! They are a great addition to Maths Tool kits - there's so many ways they can be used. Today I want to share a really quick little game that's great for practicing number order (and it's really easy to adapt to use for addition/subtraction skills too).

You play this game in pairs, each player taking half a pack of dominoes. The dominoes are placed face down, and at the same time, each player turns over one of their pieces. The person that turns over the piece with the most dots then takes both domino pieces. If both players pieces have the same number of dots, each keep their own and the game continues. 

Players keep on turning over dominoes until one person has all of the pieces... they are the winner! Sometimes I put a timer on and the winner is the person who has the most dominoes when the buzzer rings (especially handy for when you just want a quick 5 minute filler game).

It's a pretty easy game to differentiate too... you could have the person with the least number of dots collecting the dominoes, or ask kids to add the dominoes together and call out the total, or even have kids find the difference between the two halves of the domino.

If you give it a go with your class, I hope they enjoy it :)

Countdown....Guess The Number Game

I am in true holiday mode.... I nearly forgot it was Friday! Don't you love when that happens?!

This game is one that I haven't played with my kids this year.. probably easier for slightly older kids, or at least Receptions who have been at school a little longer than a term! It is fun though and dead simple to set up and play.. you only need pencil and paper! 

I actually play it as a 'warm up' for our Maths lessons, but it works well in pairs too.

The game is called Countdown. To play, one person thinks of a number and writes it down. The other player writes the numbers 1-7 down (this is the number of questions they can ask, so you can adjust the number to alter the difficulty of the game). When we play it as a class on the IWB, I use this template instead of just writing the numbers down...

We 'pop' a balloon every time a question is asked... the aim is to guess the number before all the balloons are gone

Basically, the player who is guessing asks yes/no questions to try and work out which number the other player has written down. Each time a question is asked, a number is crossed off. In a way, it's like hangman, but without the picture and using numbers instead of words!

It's a really great game for getting kids to think strategically, it's worth spending a bit of time talking about the different types of questions you can ask and discussing which type of questions are most 'efficient' and can get you to the answer the quickest. It's also an awesome way to use a whole range of maths language... less than/more than/ in between/factor of....and heaps more!

 

An easy, fun positional language game!

Wow! I can't believe it's Friday already! I think having a three day weekend always helps the week go faster though ;)

For this week's game, I'm sharing one that I use to develop positional language... it's basically a barrier game with a bit of a shape flavour.

Kids work in pairs for this game, they'll each need a copy of the game board. With slightly older kids, I get them to draw their own grid, but I find with new Receptions, it's just easier to give them one that's already made... I'm sure you understand :)

The game can be made easier/more complex by changing the number of squares in the grid

The kids sit back-to-back, so that they can't see each other's work. One player draws different shapes (or lines) in each of the boxes, and they then need to describe where the shapes are to their partner. The aim of the game is to have two pictures that look the same.... sooo much easier than it sounds! We generally play the game as a whole class (with one person up the front, trying to draw the pictures that we have on the whiteboard) quite a few times before they play it in pairs, just to model the type of language to use and the questions to ask.

To make the game more difficult, I say that kids can't name the shapes either.. they need to describe them, which can be a real challenge!

Once the kids have the hang of it, this is a fun and simple to set up game, great for when you have a few minutes spare at the end of a day as well as a great way to 'warm up' for your Maths lesson. :)

Noughts and Crosses with a twist

Today's game is.......

Noughts and crosses with a twist!

I learnt this game from a lady who has a ton of Maths games and ideas, Sandra Knox. I tried to find a link to her web site but couldn't, if you ever get the chance to go to a training session with her though, jump at it!

It has the same idea as normal noughts and crosses - you have the grid and the aim in to get three in a row but this is a game the whole class can play!

Start by drawing a grid on your board, the larger you make it, the more complex and longer the game. For my Receptions, I usually start with a 4x4 grid. You then label the grid, either with coordinates or with a small number in each box for the younger ones.

This is the format I use for my littlies

I use this one with older kids.. from about Year 2

I divide the class into two teams as they sit on the floor, one team is 'noughts' and the other 'crosses'. Each person in the team takes turns in saying where they would like their nought (or cross) to go, and I draw it on the board for them (great for practicing coordinates and number recognition)

Just a tip- I usually give each team a glue stick or something to pass on so that we know who's turn it is... I learnt this the hard way after getting TOTALLY confused about who was supposed to be having a turn!

Mid -game!

We play the game until the board is filled, and the winner is the team with the most lots of '3 in a row'. At the end of the game, we work as a whole class to find all the '3 in a rows'. I ask kids to tell me where on the board they can see them (using coordinates or numbers) and I circle them. We keep a tally so that we know how many each team has.

Tallying up the score... my class gets very 'enthusiastic' about this!

 

If you have older kids you can make the game more tricky by giving one point for 3 in a rows, 2 points for 4 in a rows and 3 points for 5 in a rows... it can make for a pretty complex and fun game!

So there you go, a game with heaps of Maths in it and one that I find kids love! Thanks Sandra :)

Friday Game Day

Hello again :)

I've just finished my two days back at school. We go back for the Thursday and Friday before the kiddies start back - they are always such busy days, filled with meetings, planning, setting up classrooms etc... I know you know what its' like!

For today's Friday Game Day game, I thought I'd share' Pass the ball'. This game is great for practicing skip counting, or simply counting by ones and catches kids interest as there is a ball throwing involved!

Pass the Ball

Students stand in a circle, with one person holding a ball. They start by saying ‘Zero’. They then throw the ball to another class member, who, upon catching the ball says ‘Two’. They then throw the ball to another student and the skip counting continues until a person gets the number wrong. The counting then starts again from zero. Alternatively, you can have the person who said the wrong number to sit down, with the game then continuing until there is only one person standing (this can make for a very long game though!)

As you might have guessed from my previous posts, I like easy to set up games that can be easily differentiated - this game fits that bill to a tee! It is takes 30 seconds to grab a ball and get the class in a circle (or as we say to be mathematically correct, make a perimeter around the mat!). It's great to play when you've got a spare five or ten minutes at the end of the day too. 

This game can be modified to practice a wide range of maths knowledge. Instead of counting by twos, you could count by ones, threes, fours etc, say the days of the week/months of the year,  count backwards or start counting by 10 off the decade, or a combination (counting backwards by twos etc)

Let me know how you go if you give it a try with your class!

A few easy Maths activities and a freebie :)

Well, there are two days left of holidays... staff at my school head back on Thursday though my mind is already well and truly at school!

I'll be teaching Receptions again this year (love it!) and I'll have a combination of brand newies and kids who have already been at school for a term or two. I've been getting some Maths games organised so lots of laminating, cutting and sorting.... my hands are already sore! Our Reception classes are quite small to start with, so its a perfect time to teach kids how to play games that they'll be using throughout the year. It also means I can get stuck into the formative assessment...  I learn so much about what the kids know just from watching them playing.

 Because there we quite a range of abilities, I want to have simple games that can be easily differentiated for the kids' ability levels. I love it if I can use the same equipment with all (or most) of the class and just tweak the activity to suit the individual... so much easier than setting up ten different activities!

 I thought I'd share a couple of simple Maths games/activities to do with number that I'm planning to use with the kiddos in the first days back at school....

So... here are a couple of the activities that I've organised :)

Ice Cream Scoop

This simple matching activity is great for start of the year. Simply match the ten frame with the numeral and you have your ice cream!

Each kiddo will have a with a laminated copy of 1 - 10 Ten frame strip as a reference on their desk, so they can use this as support if needed.

For those kids who have been at school for a while and are confident with 

1 - 10, I will use the same cards, but ask them to make a number using 2 scoops (so simple addition to 10 with two addends) or even three scoops (3 addends). As for those kids who are fine with this, I'll ask them to show me all the different ways they can make 10 (using the 10 cone) or, use the blank cone to make a larger amount.

This next activity was Pinterest inspired - I saw the Lego blocks being used to make words for spelling and I thought I'd adjust it for Maths!

Lego Maths

Again, easy to differentiate... you could do skip counting, using larger numbers, counting backwards... ideas are endless!

Roll and Colour

And finally, a Roll and Colour game - two versions, one for practicing 1 - 10 (or 1 - 6 if you use a 1 - 6 die) and one for doubles.

You can download a copy of Roll and Colour games here, I have included an Australian and US version, with 'colour' spelt differently :)

I hope you find these useful, if you're heading back to school later on in the week, I hope you have a lovely last few days of summer holidays!

 

Subitising Game

Hello again!

I was browsing pinterest the other day (as I tend to do - a lot!) and I found this nifty idea that got me thinking. It is from Mrs T's First Grade Class and is a really simple but effective and fun way that your kiddies can practice  subitising.

Subitising is an essential skill for developing number sense, we do so much of it in my class so I am always on the look out for new ways to practice these skills!
 

To play, you need two players. a game board and tiles/counters to cover each of the subitising patterns on the board. Once the board is covered with tiles, player 1 points to a tile and player 2 lifts the tile for one second. Player one then has to say how many dots they saw. If they get it correct, they keep the tile, if not the tile is replaced. Player 2 then has a turn. this continues until all tiles are removed, the winner is the person with the  most tiles at the end of the game.

You can find the link to the original game board here

This is the simpler copy that I made for my Receptions

What a fun and easy way for kids to practice subitising! I'm planning on adding this game to the list of activities that kids can play when they get to school, before the bell goes. I think it will be a winner!

I'm teaching Reception this year, so I think that many of the kids in my class will find the patterns on the original board too difficult, so I have made a board game that uses patterns up to 5 dots.   

Here is the simpler version (subitising to 5) that I have made for my class. 

I hope you find these games useful! Once again, thanks to Mrs T for the great idea :)