Slap Math and Other Games

So it's about 1am but I'm still up even though I should really catch up on some much needed rest since long weekends don't come around that often...but I'm up so I figured I'd post something on my brand new blog *twirls*

So what's the biggest thrill to a kid in a classroom alone? Usually it involves destruction of the class or writing on the board. Well, a few of the games I play during my lessons involve a bit of both!

Slap Math is the latest craze in my class. I was googling almost everyday for ideas to make math and language a little more enjoyable, especially for the fidgety kids who give up at the sign of a worksheet or just can't sit still long enough to write down an answer.

Hence the discovery of Slap Math...it was actually an idea given by a teacher who used fly swatters but with my limited resources I just let them slap their hands on the blackboard instead. I tried it on a whim a couple of weeks ago and it has been a total success every single time we play. I've also managed to adapt it to a variety of different lessons in language too.

Okay so how do you play? Well it's really up to you, but the main focus is to get your kids out of their chairs and actively learning and correcting each other in a positive way.

For our first few math lessons I focused on numbers spelled out. I'd write one, two, etc. all around a board and have two contestants come up with their backs to the board. I then call out a number and the person who turns around the fastest and slaps the correct number wins. Initially, I recorded individual points but later I changed it to class teams so the winners and losers enjoyed the group experience rather than the actual win. ( The purpose of the game is just to practice in a more active way not to get sore losers...I never give prizes for these kind of games because there are usually a few kids who are behind while others pulverize lol )

I've managed to use this method for polygon shapes being slapped and even addition & subtraction to a certain extent. I have potential answers up on the board and give them equations to work out. E.g. "What's 3-2?" and they have to slap it on 1 the quickest.

For language, I've recently used it to help the kids divide up nouns into 3 categories: persons, places and things. After they'd mastered that, I added in a verb category so that they learned to differentiate between nouns and verbs. (Btw, I'm having trouble figuring out a name for the language slap game so any suggestions are welcome. Slap Language is just not as cool as Slap Math!)

If students get stuck, I encourage their teams to help them out and ask the class to help me explain why some answers are wrong and why some are tricky, etc. For the finale, I make sure everyone gives a round of applause for a job well done, despite who won or lost.

It's amazing how some chalk on a board and enthusiasm can make these kids actually look forward to math or language arts time.

Another alternative is to have the kids draw or write things down two at a time. Early on in my shape unit, shapes like hexagon and pentagon were left up on the board at the top as a sort of cheat if they got stuck. But most relied on their memory or their classmates to help them draw out the shapes I called out.

The Math is Right was another treasure I found randomly while googling as well. (Next time I will try to bookmark these pages so I can reference them and give them their due credit.) With my grade ones I have two "contestants" come up and face their "audience".

Behind them I have a number written down from a certain range, e.g. 1-10, 1-20 etc. The aim of the game is to guess which number is behind them. After each guess the audience will either yell "higher" or "lower" to help guide them to the right number. I try to stick with a smaller range of numbers until I know that it's getting too easy for them.

It's a lot of fun to play...especially in the first few weeks of school because grade ones usually have a hard time trying to determine which numbers are bigger or smaller in comparison to one another. I had one student guess 20 and when the audience told him lower he guessed 30 haha... But it's definitely great practice, gets them nice and awake if we have math in the morning and makes them (eventually) learn the value of numbers.

So this is basically what I've been using all summer to keep my kids engaged. The names aren't exactly the ones I found on google...but they ended up being the names my kids use. I told a grade seven teacher at my camp about Slap Math and now her class (of mostly boys) can't get enough of it either. I hope some of you found this useful...try it out and you will definitely see how versatile a slap on the board can be in a class lesson :P

Tomorrow I might work on making some homemade matching card games for polygon shapes with their corresponding words, and maybe the same with numbers and/or something with nouns and verbs with their matching image. We shall see... in the meantime I should get some shut eye.

Night!