Super Bowl Fraction Football

Fraction Football was a success! We're ready for Super Bowl!

The students had a fantastic time playing with a partner and trying to score a touchdown by making equivalent fractions.


Each student was paired up and provided with a game board. Then, they drew cards and used mental math to find equivalent fractions. Each time they found an equivalent to the fraction on their ten-yard increment, they moved closer to the end zone.

They found the penalty cards to be a tremendous threat to their forward progress. So, each team had the option of pulling the penalty cards out of the fraction football deck. The teams seemed to move right along after the obstacle was removed.

I was making note of many learning skills taking place throughout the game. 

First, the partners were helping one another with the multiplication and division operations needed to complete the task of making an equivalent fraction. 
They were discussing the process and having "math talks". It was really cool!

Next, they were anticipating mathematical events. One of the students actually came up with the idea that it would be beneficial to remove the penalty cards. He said, he takes "two steps forward, and one step back". And he was afraid getting a touchdown would take all day. Well, it probably wouldn't have taken all day, but time at school is very limited. So his request was granted and provided for all students. 

Last, kids were having fun while learning math! Yay! mission accomplished. Movement and peer interaction is always a good thing...with given parameters. 

Follow the link below to preview the game.  It's a generic football game, so it doesn't matter which teams are playing. 

Super Bowl Fraction Football!

Cheers!

Math Fun

I've been having such fun creating math games for my class to play in the midst of boring NYS Module work.
The Modules do include some good instructional strategies, but the worksheets look like they were torn out of a college-level text book. No graphics, small type, no room for small people to write...and the list of issues goes on.

So, what's a fifth-teacher to do to liven up a math lesson? Make games! 

The "learning activities" (as I call them so as not to raise suspicion that we are actually having fun while learning) support module instruction while providing much needed movement and peer interaction.

One instructional component is drawing pictures to illustrate equations.  Tape diagrams, more specifically, are a key component of the math program.
To better help students learn how to place information in a tape diagram, I created a math power group lesson.  

In a math power group, kids are assembled into groups of 4-5 to work as a team. Each child has a job, as in a reading literature circle, and the jobs rotate for each new word problem.

One power group job is to manipulate the tape diagram cards that are cut out and placed in an envelope ahead of time. The blank tape diagram is used as the "game board" for the student to place the cards in a specific placement according to the word problem.

The students are picking up great habits, such as:

• working cooperatively
• reading thoroughly
• reasoning through discussion
• team accountability
• time management 
• and many more...

Look for many free downloads at my TpT store.

Next to come...Super Bowl Fraction Football! 

Cheers!