Today I gave pre-assessments in all of my classes. It is a necessary evil in this world of data driven decisions. However, it also allowed my students the time to register for Remind and Khan Academy which is worthwhile. Two of my classes still had five minutes left at the end so I played “Guess My Number” and had a blast. When I first started teaching my arsenal of five minute games was pretty limited. Below are my favorites.
Guess My Number (Between 1 and 1000)
Though it sounds daunting it really isn’t. Students are in groups and ask yes/no questions to determine my number. Each group gets three guesses at any time that they turn in on a post-it note. The inspiration for this game came from the internet but I could not find the blog post to give it credit 😦
Sum Sudoku
I blogged about this fun one recently. It has a really quick set up and an endless array of possibilities on level of difficulty and scaffolding.
Tech and One Minute: Math Mayhem
My high school students STILL struggle with their multiplication facts. When I have out my Chromebooks and we have finished an online activity, I introduce them to Math Mayhem. It is elementary BUT after the first round when I DOMINATE them and they realize the challenge of beating me IT IS ON. My students will clammer for this activity. I will usually only do it once a year but it is a glorious one day.
24
My district bought us a set of these cards a long time ago and I will bust them out when I have five minutes in class. I’ll challenge students to find multiple ways to make 24 in their groups. This game is also a super fun way to talk about order of operations.
Draw the House
Again, a no set up game. I challenge my students to draw the following figure without lifting their pencil off of the page (in other words, one continuous line) and without retracing any lines.
Connect the Dots
Challenge your students to connect the dots without lifting their pencil off of the page, using only 4 lines, and no retracing any lines. It cracks me up to see them draw and redraw the same wrong answer over and over and over. I’ll give them a hint to “think outside the box” and they just have no idea.
Spelling Bee
I have Geometry so there is a TON of vocabulary. I will take students who want to participate and have them do a mini spelling bee of Geometry terms from class.
Integer Ball
I have a beach ball that I have written integers all over. We toss the ball and the students have to perform an integer operation with the numbers that their thumbs are touching. You can do this game as an elimination game or one for points for your team.
Math Meanderings 