Transformation Tuesday: Critical Thinking Activities- Math Boggle Board

As we inch closer and closer to the end of the year, it’s important to keep our students engaged. The more engaged they are in tasks that are both developmentally appropriate and challenging, the less off-task behavior they will display. With these two goals in mind, today’s activity is called Boggle Math. It’s similar to the traditional Boggle game except that students create number sentences instead of words. 

I originally found this idea on Krista Wallden's Teachers Pay Teachers website. 

Here's how it works: 

1. Create a Boggle board with an empty bulletin board space or on poster board. See the picture below for an example. (Depending on the needs of your students, a larger or smaller square can be created as needed.)

2. Students look for and create number sentences using numbers that are touching in some way, i.e. sides or corners. 

3. Students earn points based on the difficulty and length of their number sentence, such as one point for each unique operation, one point for each additional number after the first three, and one point for each number that is squared. See the solutions below for an example.   

This activity is a great way to differentiate for students because the length of the number sentences they create is based on their individual ability and understanding of the task. This activity can also be transformed into a class game where teams of students complete to create number sentences and then earn points based on the length of the sentence. 

Note: I originally wrote about Boggle Math as part of my "Doing Math the Routty Way: Engaging Activities from A to Z. See the post here. 

Sound Off! What number sentences can you make using the Boggle Math board above?