Skills Tested: Addition, subtraction, types of facts

Materials Needed: 100 chart, deck of Change Cards, 12 markers of one color, game piece for each player, paper. Aside from markers, materials are contained here.

Directions: The object of the game is to collect 5 game markers.

1. Place 12 markers on the 100 chart, so each marker is on a different number. Deal 5 Change Cards to each player or team and place the remaining cards face down. Players put their game pieces anywhere on the 100 chart.

2. On a turn, move your game piece using any combination of your Change Cards to land on a square with a marker. You can use any number of cards from 1 to 5.

3. If you exactly land on a square with a marker, capture it by taking it off the board. You can only capture one marker during a turn, and it must be the last square you land on.

4. Record your moves in an equation. If you begin on 45, and use the cards: +2, +10, +3, you record: 45 + 2 + 10 + 3 = 60.

5. Place the Change Cards you used face down in a discard pile. Take cards from the top of the deck to replace them. If the deck of Change Cards is used up, shuffle the discard pile and turn it face down again.

6. The first player or team to capture 5 markers wins.

Skills tested:

Ability to represent 100 as different sums.

Materials needed:

Many ways to see ___  sheet.

100 arrays (available on pages 16 and 17 of MindsetMath2_Activies.pdf via this link).

Markers, crayons, or pencils with many different colors.

Directions:

Goal:  Have students use colors to represent 100 in different ways and to see the equivalence of these different representations.

1.  Show students the Many ways to see ___ sheet and ask how many squares there are.   Wait until the agree that there are 100. 

2.  Give students the 100 array sheets and the markers or crayons with multiple different colors.   Ask them to color rectangular areas to show that 100 can be thought as a sum of equal-sized groups.   For example, 50 + 50, or 10 + 10 + 10 +10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 +10, and so on.  The students should fill in an array and write out a sum.

3.  After the students have done different colorings, ask them to discuss their results.  For example, why is

50 + 50 = 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 +10 +10 +10 + 10 + 10?

Skills Tested: Counting forward, addition, subtraction

Materials Needed: Any of the following worksheets

Directions: Print out any number of the worksheets and hand them to the students to work on.

Skills Tested: Addition, Currency

Materials Needed: Coins, which can be taken from a money board game available at Reading Team

Directions: First, hand out one of each coin and let them discuss what they know and don't know about coins. Discuss their size, weight, color, etc.

1. Give each pair of kids a cup of coins containing pennies, nickels, and dimes.

2. Have them roll a dice and take that many coins.

3. Take turns until they get greater than or equal to 25 cents.

4. Have them explain their thinking aloud.

5. See if kids will regroup the pennies to larger coins by giving them less than 25 pennies.

Skills Tested: Addition

Materials Needed: A deck of cards with 1-10 and multiples of 10 up to 90. A recording sheet.

Directions: The goal is to earn the greater amount of points by collecting numbers to make sets with totals less than or equal to one hundred.

1. Put the cards face down between the teams. Spread them out and mix them up to shuffle them. Leave them spread out for the game.

2. Take turns.

3. Begin each turn by turning over two cards. Add the numbers. If you choose to turn over another card, you must also add that number to your total.

4. Decide when to stop turning over a card and adding the number to your total.

5. If your total is less than one hundred when you stop, you get 1 point for each card you used. If it is equal to one hundred, you get 1 point for each card and a 10 point bonus. If it is greater than 100, you get 0 points.

6. Record a number sentence for this turn, the points it was worth, and your total points.

7. Put the cards back face down and mix them all up again before the other team takes its turn.

8. The team with the greater total score after six rounds wins.

Variations:

1. Add cards with multiples of one hundred and have students play Yahoo! 1,000

2. Don't have players mix the cards up after a turn; rather, have them put the cards facedown, with both teams able to see where they have been placed. This change will make memory more important and allow for more strategic moves.

3. Include a few wild cards that may represent any other card in the deck to encourage students to think about how they might, if possible, make a sum of one hundred from their current total.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Skills Tested: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division

Materials Needed: 4 dice per group of players. 1 two-minute timer per group. 1 recording sheet.

Directions: The goal is to roll dice and use each of the numbers shown to write expressions equal to a number in each of the decades ones through nineties.

1. Choose one student to roll four dice. 

2. Each team has two minutes to privately use the numbers rolled to make expressions that equal numbers in each decade from ones to nineties. Each expression must use each of the numbers rolled exactly once. The numbers can be used as single digits or be combined to form two- or three-digit numbers.

3. You may use any of the four operations in the equations. More than one operation may be used. So, if you roll dice showing the numbers 4,5, 1, and 6 and wanted to write an equation for a number in the teens, possibilities would include 4 + 5 + 1 + 6 = 16, 61- 45 = 16, 4 x 5 - 1 - 6 = 13, and 5 + 1 x 6 + 4 = 15.

4. Write the equations on a recording sheet. Be sure to include parentheses if needed.

5. When the time is finished, trade papers and check each other's equations. The winner is the team with the greater number of correct equations.

Skills Tested: Generating mathematical expressions, addition

Materials Needed: 1 deck of Equal Values cards per group. 1 Equal Values recording sheet per team. Number scale available at reading team.

Directions: The goal is to get the most pairs of cards that have equal values.

1. Give each team a card with the equal sign.

2. Shuffle the remaining cards. Deal each team four cards faceup for all to see. Put the other cards facedown in a pile.

3. Decide which team goes first.

4. On each turn, you can do one of three things:

   • Find two of your cards that have an equal value. Set this pair beside you. Replace them with two cards from the top of the pile.

   • Trade one of your cards with one of the other team's cards when that lets you make a pair. Set this pair beside you. Replace your card with a card from the top of the pile.

   • Draw a card from the top of the deck and add it to your cards.

5. When a team makes a pair, both teams must agree that the sums are equal and then the team that made the pair must record the expressions on its recording sheet.

6. If no cards are left in the pile, you can still have a turn, but you can't take a card from the pile. 

7. The game ends when no team can make another pair.

8. The team with more pairs wins.

Variations:

1. Have students only use the cards on page A-35, with sums to five, and deal only two cards to each team. Or, have students use the cards on pages A-36 and A-37, and deal three cards to each team.

2. Create cards with two- or three-digit numbers. To support mental math strategies, emphasize the commutative property, for example, 42 + 36 and 36 + 42. Also include expressions that encourage students to think about relationships among the numbers, such as 89 + 45 and 90 + 44.

3. Have students play with subtraction expressions and then with both addition and subtraction expressions, allowing students to note inverse relationships, such as 3 + 4 = 7 and 7 - 4 = 3.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Skills Tested: Number sense, estimation, addition, combining numbers, adding two and three-digit numbers

Materials Needed: 3 dice per group; 1 deck of playing cards, with the face cards removed, per group; 1 On Target recording sheet per team.

Directions: The goal is to place digits in a number sentence to get as close as possible to a given sum.

1. Mix up the cards.

2. Give each team six cards. Roll the three dice, one at a time. The first one rolled shows hundreds, the second shows tens, and the third shows ones. This is the target sum. Write it on your recording sheets.

3. Each team places its cards to form two three-digit numbers, writes the numbers on its recording sheet, and records the sum.

4. Teams compare the sums. Circle the one that is closer to the target sum.

5. Play five rounds. The team with more sums closer to the target numbers wins.

Variations:

1. Have students work with two-digit numbers. The group rolls two dice to represent tens and ones, and each team gets four cards.

2. Allow each team to arrange the numbers shown on the dice to form the target sum after the players have seen the six digits they can use. Note that in this version, the teams might be trying for different target sums.

3. Have students use the digits to form addends with one-, two-, or three-digit numbers, whichever produces the closest total.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Skills Tested: Number sense, comparing, place-value

Materials Needed: A guess my number number line.

Directions: The goal is to have students guess a number by asking questions about the type of number it is.

1. Break up students into groups of 2, 3, or 4.

2. Distribute the number line to every student.

3. Designate one person to pick a number. That person circles the number on their sheet and hides it. 

4. Every other student must ask questions to lead them to a better guess. Valid questions include "is the 10s place digit ___?," "is it even?," "is it greater than ___?" 

5. Once someone is able to correctly guess the number, the person to their right will pick a new number and start over.

Adapted from Any-Lemons Number Line Favorites

Skills Tested: Addition

Materials Needed: A worksheet for each student, which can be generated from the addition maze website.

Directions: Distribute the worksheets and have students work on them individually. Assigned teachers may provide guided help.

Skills Tested: Addition (double digit with regrouping)

Materials Needed: Worksheets with coloring directions.

Directions: Distribute the worksheets to students and have them work individually. Assigned teachers may provide guided help.

Skills Tested: Addition (single-digit, double-digit without regrouping, and double-digit with regrouping)

Materials Needed: Enough bingo boards for each student and decks of cards. Bingo boards can be randomly generated on this website. You may also print them from this pdf file.

Directions: The goal of this activity is to have students continually practice their addition, while still having an end objective in mind. That end of objective in this case is to obtain bingo by filling in 5 squares in a row.

1. Distribute the bingo boards to each student.

2. Draw 4 cards from the deck. The first two cards form the first number and the last two cards form the last number.

3. Have students add the two numbers and see if they have the resulting sum on their board. If they do, they are able to fill in that square.

4. The first student to achieve bingo wins!

Variations:

1. Have them subtract numbers instead of add numbers!

2. Use single digit addition if double digit addition is too challenging.

Skills Tested: Double-digit addition

Materials Needed: The following board game and cards. You may also get counters either at reading team or bring them from a spare Monopoly set if you have one. 

Directions: The goal of this activity to get the students to practice double digit addition as much as possible. It is recommended that they have white boards ready to show their work if needed.

1. Shuffle the cards and lay them face down beside the board.

2. Place counters on the start square. 

3. The first player picks up a card and answers the equation.

4. If the answer is correct, they get to move onto the next square on the game board that corresponds to the color at the top of the card.

5. The second player has their turn.

6. Continue until one player arrives at the finish square.

Variations: There are empty cards that come in the PDF. You can add your own problems and adjust the level of difficulty!

Adapted from https://www.123homeschool4me.com/. Visiting the blog supports the blog!

Skills Tested: Finding differences from totals to nineteen

Materials Needed:

• 1 set of Take the Numbers Board Number Cards per group

• 1 deck of playing cards, without the face cards (aces stand for 1), per group

• 1 Take the Numbers Recording Sheet per group (page A-54)

Directions: The goal is collect the greater number of playing cards.

1. Put the nine board numbers faceup in a row so everyone can see them.

2. Mix up the playing cards. Put them facedown in a deck.

3. Deal four playing cards to each team faceup for all to see.

4. Take turns. On each turn, you place one of your playing cards below one of the board numbers. You can put your playing card below a board number that already has a playing card there or below one that does not. Then, look at the recording sheet for that number.

5. If you put the first card below a number, subtract the value of your playing card from the board number you chose. Cross out the board number on the recording sheet and write the difference you found in that column. Then, take a new playing card from the deck to add to your hand.

6. When there is already a card below the board number you chose, check the recording sheet. If your card is less than that last number in the column on the recroding sheet for the board number you chose, subtract your card from that number. Cross out the last number in that column and record the new difference.

7. If your card is equal to the last number in the column, subtract and record the zero difference. Turn over that game board number, as it is no longer in play, and take all of its playing cards. Put them facedown near your team. Take a card from the deck to put in your hand. Your turn is over.

8. If you can't place a number that gives a difference greater than or equal to zero, you lose your turn.

9. The game ends when neither team can place a card. The team that has collected the greater number of playing cards wins.

Variations:

1. Change the rules so that if a team gets a difference of zero, the other team gets those playing cards.

2. The students in one class suggested that teams place their initials next to a zero difference when their card resulted in that difference. Then the team with the greater number of initialed zeros would win.

3. Have students play without using the recording sheet to see how they determine the difference that remains when more than one card has been placed beneath a number on the game board.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Skills Tested: Identifying subtraction statements, subtraction

Materials Needed: A sufficient number of worksheets downloadable by level of difficulty from this website. Note that this is actually quite challenging so do not give your students a large maze!

Directions: Distribute the worksheets to each individual student. Have a teacher help them through sticking points.

Skills Tested: Subtraction, Collaboration, Math Logic

Materials Needed: 

1. A set of Name That Number cards for each group (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2. Whiteboards and markers available at the Reading Team

Directions: The goal is to use the clues to find the mystery number.

1. Work as a team of three puzzle solvers.

2. Place the clues facedown. Each solver randomly takes two of the clues.

3. Decide how to share the clues.

4. Work together, read the clues as many times as necessary, and talk about what you know. Try to find the number that fits all the clues.

5. When you think you have the solution, read the clues again to check.

Variations:

1. Have solvers show their clues one at a time, without talking or gesturing. After all the clues have been shown, each solver may rearrange the order of one of the clues. Through eye contact, rather than talking, solvers communicate that they think they have a solution. Solvers may then talk to check the clues.

2. If you choose to make your own Name That Number cards, you could create examples that would result in two or four numbers that met all criteria and change the question to What are the numbers?

3. Have groups record their thinking of how they used their clues to figure out the puzzle. They may use number lines to record their steps, for example.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Learning objectives

Seeing how visual representations of some numbers contain representations of other numbers.

Materials needed

Number visuals sheet.  See page 3 at link below.

Directions

See page 2 of the Number Visuals sheet, available at this link Activities.

Skills Tested: Estimation and Subtraction

Materials Needed:

1. A sufficient number of copies of the tic-tac-toe game board. I recommend bringing at least 2 for each student (easy, medium, hard)

2. Whiteboards and markers to work on

3. Optional: Hundreds tables or number lines

Directions: The goal is to have students use estimation skills to choose pairs of numbers to subtract in order to mark three differences in a row, column, or diagonal on the answer board.

1. Decide which team will be X and which team will be O. Take turns.

2. On each turn, the team picks a number from Sign A and one from Sign B. Then, both teams subtract the number on Sign B from the number on Sign A. Once both teams agree on the difference, the team whose turn it is finds it on the answer board and writes its X or O on the number.

3. If the team gets a difference that is already marked with an X or O, it loses its turn.

4. The first team to write X or in three touching differences in a row, column, or diagonal is the winner.

Variations:

1. Add a game rule: If a team find an incorrect difference, it loses its turn.

2. For game boards B or C, you can add more challenge by changing the goal to marking four differences in a row, column, or diagonal.

3. By changing the numbers on the signs and the game board, you can vary the difficulty level of the game.

4. You can also create a version of the game in which the players choose addends on signs to get sums on the answer board.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Creating addition and subtraction equations

2. Finding relationships and making generalizations

3. Use inductive and deductive reasoning

Materials Needed:

1. A "Make Sense" Puzzle (easy and difficult)

Directions: The goal is to place the given numbers so that all the equations in the puzzle make sense.

1. Work as a team.

2. Write each of the given numbers in only one space in the puzzle.

3. Check the math. Do all of the equations make sense? If not, try again.

4. Check your solution with another team.

Adapted from "Well Played" by Dacey et al.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify shapes based on the number of edges, number of vertices, and length of the sizes. 

2. Differentiate shapes based on edges, vertices, and length sizes.

Materials Needed: A whiteboard and markers

Directions: Divide students up into groups of 2.

1. A teacher draws a shape and its name on the whiteboard without letting the students look at it.

2. One student takes the whiteboard and places it on their forehead.

3. That same student then asks the other student questions about the shape on their forehead. Some example questions include:

   • Am I a 2D or 3D shape?

   • Do I have 4 sides?

   • Are all my sides of equal length?

   • Am I square?

4. Once the student figures out the shape, move onto a new shape.

Adapted from Kayla Bernardez.

Learning objectives

Using a number line to represent subtraction problems.

Using base 10 system to carryout subtraction.

Materials needed

Number line with life span of animals drawn on a board.  A model is available on p. 34 of MindsetMath2_Activities. 

Life span task cards, available at pages 35 and 36 of MindsetMath2_Activities. 

Directions

1.    Show the number line.  Ask the students what it shows.  Make sure they understand the term life span.

2.    Provide a pair of students with blocks and ask them, how much longer does a hippopotamus live than a boa constrictor?

3.    Give the students one of the life-span task cards and ask them to locate the animal on the number line.   Ask them, how do they know?   When you are satisfied that the location is correct, draw the new animal on the line.  Ask, how much longer does the new animal live than another animal?  Ask, how much longer another animal lives than the new animal.  Encourage the students to think in 10s and 1s.

4.    Repeat with the cards of other animals.