Things have changed A LOT in the last few weeks and everyone’s norm is looking very different to usual.
One of the biggest changes for many families is children not being able to go to school. This is causing some stress and anxiety for parents as we don’t yet know what the rest of the school year will look like. Many children thrive off routine and habit, and therefore some may struggle to be thrown out of their normal school day routine. It can also be difficult to keep our children’s brains active whilst they are out of the classroom. I’ve compiled a list of 10 activities and games that I use in my classroom to warm up the students’ brains, and they can all be done at home! #1 - Bulls and Cows This game is based on Mastermind but with numbers instead of colours. Person A writes down a secret number and Person B has to guess what it is. After each guess, Person A marks the bulls and cows to help Person B with their next guess. The aim is to get to the correct number in as few guesses as possible. B for Bull - means the right number, in the right spot C for Cow - means the right number, in the wrong spot Dash (-) means that number isn’t in it. You can make this game as easy or as hard as you like. In Grade 5, we usually do 4 or 5 digit numbers. #2 - Guess the Missing Number Have two people stand facing away from each other. Give each person a card with a number on it (they can’t see each other’s). Multiply both numbers together and yell out this number. The players need to use this to guess the other person’s number. The winner is the first person to guess their opponent’s number. #3 - Higher or Lower Choose a number based on the age of your children. Give them two numbers that your magic number is between e.g. if your number is 175, you could say “my number is between 100 and 200”. If your number is 12 850, you could say “my number is between 12 000 and 13 000. Two players take it in turns to guess your number and you can only reply with “higher” or “lower”. #4 - Greedy Pigs My students LOVE playing this one during Maths Groups. Best played in pairs, children have two dice. They roll the dice and add the two together. They can have up to five rolls before their turn ends. Children add up their total and record it. The aim of the game is to be the first to reach 100. However, if a player rolls doubles during a turn, their score for that round is zero. Therefore you don’t HAVE to use all five rolls, you can lock in a score at any time during that turn. #5 - Make the Biggest Number You will need the dice for this one. Children take it in turns to roll one dice. They must then choose which place value column to lock in that number. Once a number is locked in it cannot be changed. Continue playing until all columns are filled. The aim can be to create either the largest or smallest number. To make this one trickier for older children, introduce decimal numbers with tenths, hundredths etc. #6 - All About Me Children draw themselves in the middle of the page. All around their drawing, they need to write down numbers that relate to themselves in some way, as well as equations to equal those numbers. These could include house number, shoe size, age, number of siblings, year they were born etc. So an example could be: Year I was born: 1000 x 2 + 12 = 2012 I hope you find these useful! Enjoy! x Mel x ~ The Aussie Teacher Mum ~
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