I love math. I understand that there are not a lot of people who feel the same way. I think math is fun. I know that that concept is hard for others to grasp. I can make math fun. I have made math fun.
In my previous post, I talked about attending the TIES conference in 2014. It was a very eye-opening experience. One of the things I learned about was coding. I learned about Scratch. I learned to code. I learned to make a few math games for practice, and one for assessment of multiplication fluency. I understand that not everyone will be motivated to learn a little bit of coding to do what I did, so I am sharing what I have made. If you find them useful, great. If not, think about how you can make it better. It is okay to "remix" someone else's work in Scratch.
Multiplication Fact Fluency with DCPM (Digits Correct Per Minute): This game requires 5th graders to achieve or surpass 36 DCPM, and 4th graders to get at least 28 DCPM.
Exploding Dragon Games (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, with immediate feedback): This shows the correct answer if a student answers incorrectly.
I also have games for rewards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Again, you can remix these to fit whatever reward you are offering. A "caught you" is a piece of paper given to students who are "caught being exceptional"; these pieces of paper are placed in a classroom raffle, and winners get to pick a prize in the principal's office on Fridays. I used these games in child care during parent-teacher conferences. I have actually made it a given that I work in child care during conferences, and I have math games and prizes. I recommend telling students to play for at least 3 minutes, but no more than 5.
As a math tutor, I also created a couple of board games for my students to play. I ended up having 4th and 5th graders reserving recess time to come in and play games (even in nice weather). The first one is modeled after chutes and ladders, except I had snakes instead of chutes. If they landed on a "Draw a Card" spot, they had to do math. Wrong answers meant losing a turn, correct answers moved them forward to a specified spot on the board. I like to tell students that I have gone down the big snake twice in one game, just so they don't feel defeated after being "eaten".
My second game is more difficult, and therefore less popular. It is called blackholes and wormholes. I used different dice within the game: 6-, 10-, 12-, and 20-sided. On the board, there are different operations to be carried out, if a player lands on certain spots. For example, if it said d20÷d20, they had to roll 2 20-sided dice and divide the bigger number by the smaller number to get the quotient and the remainder. If they answer correctly, they move to the next empty space. Colorful wormholes moved teleported them up or down to the wormhole of a matching color. Blackholes meant they lose a turn and have choices as to how to get out on their next turn. While not as popular, this game was preferred by my more advanced students, because it was more challenging.
I am aware that teachers do not always have time to create their own teaching materials. I will admit that each of these board games took over 6 hours to finish. However, I do encourage teachers to find fun ways to teach math and practice skills, especially if there are students who will most likely be more engaged when games are used.
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