Fraction Jenga War

Yesterday I cruising the "Interwebs" and I came across this post from Math Coach's Corner about working with fractions and making them fun. 

I took a look at the Fraction War and thought, "This would be a great activity to do with my kids at the Boys and Girls Club."  I printed off the fraction cards and was all set and then I found my old Jenga game. 

I thought, "Maybe I could combine the two in some way to make this fun and exciting as well as educational." 

So, I set up the Jenga game as usual and placed the fraction cards in the center of the table. I posted the following on the board: 

Fraction Jenga War

1. Pass out cards to all players.

2. Play a card from your hand without looking.

3. Player with the largest fraction wins. 

4. Winner then picks Jenga piece. 

I picked up the students and explained the rules to them. Immediately, I was met with resistance: "This is going to be boring!", one of them exclaimed. 

I asked them how would they know unless they tried. 

Reluctantly we began to play. They had a blast! 

They were so engaged with the game and learning about fractional relationships! We will revisiting this activity again!  

Thanks to the Math Coach!  

100 Starburst Candy Drop

I know it has been awhile since my last post but with a new baby, life gets pretty busy. Here is a reflection on something I did with my tutoring students last Thursday. 

I love Starburst candy chews! I actually came up with an idea to have some fun with my tutoring group using them. 

There was a game show about 4 years ago called, "The Million Dollar Money Drop" hosted by actor and comedian Kevin Pollak. The premise was that two contestants, usually connected in some way, were given $1,000,000 to start the game and were given 7 multiple choice questions. As each round progressed the questions get harder and the choices get less and less. 

For example, Round 1 they are given a question and 4 answer choices. Then in Round 2, they are given a question and 3 possible answers and so forth until the 4th round where they are given a question and only 2 possible answers. For each question, they have to shift their money around to the answer they think is correct or if they are not sure, they can do multiple answers. They have to leave one answer choice empty if they decide to do more than 1 answer. With 4 choices, they can fill 3, 3 they can fill 2 and so on..

Now the fun part, as answers are revealed, if they put money on any incorrect answer, they lost that amount of money. If they lose all their money, the game is over. 

So, I decided to use this concept with the kids that I tutor at the Boys and Girls Club. I got some questions, some Starburst candies and got everything set up. 

I arrived on Thursday and explained the rules and they were eager to get started. They had to work together as a group (there were 4 kids today, usually I have 5) and I counted out 100 Starburst candies and started asking questions. 

I would like to say they got every question correct, but this was not the case but it was fun watching them try to decide on answers and moving all those candies around (good thing they are individually wrapped). 

They lost the whole pile a few times but I gave them second chances on some of the questions and at the end I gave them some Starburst as a consolation prize. I may do this again with them but we will see.

I am a visual learner..your students could be too!

      

     I am a visual learner and I know that a good number of people out there are as well. It has been stated that VISUAL learners make up approximately 65 percent of the population. We need to be able to give students a visual to connect with as they learn concepts that are very abstract. I have created 4 MS Publisher files that are visuals for different Math Concepts (Order of Operations, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, and Long Division) that can be very abstract for children to understand. Each visual explains the procedures to solves these types of problems. Check these resources out in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Making a List and Checking it Twice

             

 (4th Grade)

      Today’s product spotlight is actually two products. Here are a couple checklists for introducing Common Core Standards. 

 We have a 3^rd and 4^th grade list available for download for a dollar each! 

          

    These easy-to-use checklists allow you to enter a date and see at a glance when you introduced or covered a standard in an easy-to-read format. 

    It is always a good idea to make sure that you are always ready to give an account for when you covered a particular standard in your classroom to your principal or Director of Educational Services. Check them out today!

(3rd Grade)