This year, I have been challenging myself to "gamify" more of my lessons. My students, and I'm sure many other students, truly respond to lessons when they are turned into a game. On Monday afternoon I began to research ways to make problem solving more engaging and meaningful, and I came across a blog post from Karla Baldonado (Life and Pancakes). In this post titled, "Make Math Fun: Word Problem Scavenger Hunt", she spoke of using a collaborative game to motivate and excite them! I love collaboration, and use it as often as possible. As she says in her post, "If you're a teacher, whether in a regular classroom or if you homeschool, there is true value in interaction." Although I loved her lesson, I changed it a bit to better serve my students. I also included some Duck Dynasty Questions! You heard me right-Duck Dynasty! Most of my kids are huge fans of the show, and when I found these task cards on TpT, I knew I had to have them!
I gave each table group a set of 6 cards, but realized pretty quick that my students could've handled a couple more. They were asked to work as a table to solve each problem, one at a time. For every correct answer, they received a letter. I LOVED hearing the students talk through the problems as a table. I really LOVED watching them work together to solve the problem. I really, really LOVED witnessing students teach their friends how to use a division strategy. Music to my ears!
There were 24 letters to pass out; 6 letters per table. At the end of the game, we added all 24 letters to our SMART Board. The students had to unscramble the letters to form a sentence, or in this case, a question! I drew out some blanks (like Hangman), and the students started to work as an entire class to solve the mystery phrase. This part was a ton of fun!! I wish I would have taken a video of them! The mystery phrase was:
WHO WANTS ICE CREAM THIS WEEK?
Today was a fun one!! We will be working with interpreting remainders tomorrow...and brownies!!
