Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land

Once, long ago, we played Chutes and Ladders in my class.  I found a C&L pic online, and then I proceeded to edit the pic by adding a question into EACH box!   CRAZY!!!!  Since then I have grown much wiser.

*We played Chutes & Ladders.  It was not the first time in my (teaching career) life that I thought Spongebob was taking over.  Many of the kids knew the game because of Eels and Escalators.
!!!
 = |

You just have to provide them the game board.  The cards are the questions.  Duh!



I found them online and printed them on my color printer.  I put them in a plastic sheet protector.  and then let them use random things as game pieces.  I have some pegs for a 'block game,' or erasers or paper clips.  I was a few pieces short, and told the kids they could provide their own pieces if they wanted.  They came up with a few pieces and it all worked out.

The came cards were various questions that the students had just been learning, just about to be tested over, or something in between.

I split the class into groups of 2-5, depending on how many supplies I have and how mature the students are.

The kid answers the question, and if s/he gets it right, then rolls the dice to figure out how many to move forward.  If s/he lands at the bottom of the ladder then s/he climbs it.  If s/he lands at the top of the chute, then s/he falls down it.
In Candy Land, you can play with the color cards, but I doubt you have enough.  It's just easier to roll the dice.


During a pedagogical epiphany, I decided that absent students should not 'get out' of doing the work for this.
I mostly just copied the same questions into worksheet form.  I didn't do them all because the game cards had several versions of each topic.

The kids got points for participating in the game.  The absent ones had to fill out the paper to receive the points.



Geometry Questions

 

College Algebra Questions



Calculus Questions



We played this game the last day of class before Thanksgiving!

Math Jenga

After seeing something like this online, I decided to make my own version of Jenga.

I have questions for Geometry, Advanced Algebra & Trigonometry, College Algebra, and Calculus.

For Calculus, I have implicit differentiation and slope of tangent line questions.
For College Algebra, I have horizontal, vertical, and oblique asymptote questions.
For Adv Alg & Trig, I have right triangle trig and inverse trig questions.
For Geometry, I have slope of parallel and perpendicular line questions.



I told the kids the tape and paper on the blocks were just part of the game, like referees in a football game.  If the tape or paper were to blame for the tower crashing, then whoever was 'up' then was responsible for losing.

Each question also had a point on it.  Answering it correctly would earn the student 1, 2, or 3 points.

Knocking the tower over earns the student -20 points.

Then they start over and continue playing.

You have to monitor them.  Some of them like to play Jenga w/o doing the math problems.
Some of them like to let only certain students pull out the blocks, not allowing everybody to have a turn.




I should have just done a more generic thing where the students pull out a block, and answer the 'next' question in a stack of 'cards.'  This way I can do it for one unit, and then again for any other unit I would like.  That is what I have been doing for Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land.

With the way it is, sometimes students try one block, and if it's only 1 point, then they decide to put it back and try another (maybe trickier) 3-point block.

This is for review.  With anything like this I always tell the students, "Between the 3 of you, you should be able to determine whether you're correct.  If not, let me know if you have questions."

Also, these things can be competitive, but they usually help each other out.  It's a better review session that way.