Doing Math the Routty Way: Engaging Activities from A to Z (Day 21)

Vocabulary SWAT-it!- This has been my class' favorite way to review vocabulary for years! It's a great way to get the students to learn all of their important vocabulary words. It's both engaging and fun and all of the students want to volunteer to be a swatter. 

Check out a sample Swat-it! board below!

Here's how to set it up: 
1. Use an 8.5 inch x 11 inch size paper to program a 3 x 3 unit rectangle with 9 vocabulary words.  
2. Project the rectangle onto your classroom whiteboard so that the students can reach all of the rectangles with a fly-swatter. 
3. Ask for two volunteers to come to the front of the room and stand on the left and right side of the Swat-it! board. 
4. Hand each student a fly-swatter. 
5. Read a definition. 
6. The students use the fly-swatter to swat the word that matches the definition. 
7. The first student to swat the correct word is the winner. 

Variations: Instead of vocabulary words, use numerical answers and read number sentences.

Doing Math the Routty Way: Engaging Activities from A to Z (Day 18)

Salute- This is one of my favorite activities! It's a great way to reinforce math facts and have some fun at the same time. 

Here's how to play: 

1. Use a set of large playing cards or create a set on large index cards. For this activity, Aces = 1, Jacks = 10, Queens = 11, and Kings = 12. The Jokers can be removed from the set or you can make them another one of the numbers. (Be sure to write the value of the face cards on the board for the students to see or take the face cards out of the deck if your students are not able to recall the values.)

2. Call two students up to the front of the room. Hand each student a playing card. 

3. Ask the students to hold the card face down in front of them. Students should not look at the card. 

4. The students then stand next to each other at the front of the room. 

5. On the teacher’s cue, the students hold the card up to their foreheads with the front of the card facing the teacher and the audience. 

6. The teacher looks at the students' cards and tells them the product of their numbers.  

7. When the teachers says, “Salute!,” both players face each other, look at the other person’s card, and try to guess the number that is on the front of their card. 

8. The first player to guess their number correctly is the winner of the round. 

Variations: 
a. Use addition for younger students. 
b. Try using three cards/digits for a multiplication or addition challenge. 

Clipart courtesy of: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Krista-Wallden

Doing Math the Routty Way: Engaging Activities from A to Z (Day 16)

Quiz Ball- The quiz ball is a great brain break strategy when your students need a kinesthetic movement break! 

Here's how to create one: 
1. Get a soccer ball. 
2. Label each section of the soccer ball with a computational fact or a question using blank labels. 


Here's how to play: 
1. Have students make a circle around the room. 
2. Toss the ball to a student and have him/her catch it with both hands. (The section where their right thumb lands is the question the student needs to answer.)
3. The student reads the question or problem aloud. 
4. The student answers the question or problem. 

The quiz ball works great for reinforcing many skills. Here are some ideas: 

• Program the ball with single-digit numbers. Have students add or multiply the numbers in the spaces where their thumbs land.
• Program the ball with subtraction or division facts.
• Program the ball with numbers that can be rounded to a variety of places. 
• Program the ball with vocabulary words.
• Program the ball with integer problems. 

The quiz ball below has integer addition and subtraction problems. I actually just wrote on this soccer ball with a dry-erase marker. For this activity, students could answer the problem under their right thumb or the left thumb if the right thumb is covering a black space.