The new question-of-the-week is:
What are your favorite classroom games?
I’m taking a break from finishing the series on teacher observations and, instead, sharing this series on classroom-learning games.
In the midst of the pandemic, I’m finding games an essential part of classroom instruction. They serve two (and many more) purposes: engagement in learning and distraction from COVID.
Today, Shannon Jones, Jennifer Bay-Williams, Molly Ness, and Sheniqua Johnson share their favorites.
You might also be interested in several game collections I’ve created. You can find all the updated lists here, and here are a few key ones:
The Best Online Learning Games to Play During Distance Learning
The Best Ideas for Using Games in the ESL/EFL/ELL Classroom
The Best Websites for Creating Online Learning Games
Now, to today’s guests:
Math Games
Shannon Jones is a 15-year educator working in Wheaton, Md. She is a focus teacher for students in kindergarten through 5th grades. She can be reached at shannon.l.jones@mcpsmd.net or @MsJonesLuvsMath:
Learning games are an effective way for students to review current and previously taught content. Zaretta Hammond states that: “The very act of playing the game encourages the brain to strengthen the new neural pathways by making the learner continuously search his memory for information.” I typically use learning games during my small-group time. I also may use them at the beginning of a lesson to spark engagement and raise the energy level in my classroom.
The text Mini-lessons for Math Practice by Rusty Bresser and Caren Holtzman is full of quick and engaging math games that are great for brain breaks in the classroom and time fillers for the very end of the school day. Several of my favorites from this text include: Digit Place, Estimation Jar, Whole-Class Pig, and Guess My Rule.
Mall Math from The Great Big Book of Super-Fun Math Activities’ Jean Liccione is year after year one of my students’ favorite games. Students are provided with a menu of items from different stores at the mall that they can buy. Students use the spinner to choose a store from which to buy or return items. The game reinforces adding and subtracting decimals, but the students love the shopping and choosing aspect.
Battleship can be played with either the coordinate grid system or place value. In the place-value version, each player builds a secret nine-digit number, and students take turns guessing the place value of their partner’s digits. This is a great way to fortify knowledge of place value because students are required to use place-value language on each of their turns.
Rio, from A Month-to-Month Guide: Fourth-Grade Math by Lainie Schuster or the game Knock It Off are games that focus on the most challenging of the multiplication facts. Typically, I choose the 6s, 7s, 8s, or 9s to set up the board due to the challenging nature of these facts. Focusing on just one set of facts at a time, students roll a 12-sided dice or find the sum of two six-sided dice, then they multiply their number by 6, 7, 8, or 9 depending on the game board they’ve chosen. They win by using all of their 10 “chips.”
Fraction War is played with the same rules as the popular card game War. Students have a deck of like or unlike fractions. They take turns flipping over a card, then they compare the size of their fractions to determine a winner for each round.
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