Name | Description | Equipment | Grades |
Arm Link | Stand at front of room. Say “I have 2 brothers”. Anyone else in the room that has 2 brothers joins you – linking arms. One of them states another attribute. Etc. | Nil. | F to 6 |
Back-to-Back | 2 students sit back-to-back. Give each the same number and the same number of each color of pieces. One builds a shape and then gives instructions to the other so he/she builds the same shape. | 2 sets of 9 to 10 pieces of construction material. | F to 6 |
Blind Tic-Tac-Toe | A B C As for regular tic-tac-toe, 1__/__/__ here 2 competitors cannot 2__/__/__ look at the board. Have to 3__/__/__ give grid references, eg. B2 | Nil. | 2 to 6 |
Button Sort | In pairs, ask the children to sort the buttons provided to them by one attribute. Now by 2 attributes (eg. shape and number of button holes). Now 3. | Large container of mixed buttons of all shapes & sizes. | F to 6 |
Buzz | Skip counting, students must say “buzz” on designated multiples or on designated final numbers (eg. “buzz” on any numbers that end in a 0 or 2 when counting by 4s). | Nil. | 2 to 6 |
Calculator v Computator | Choose 2 students. One student gets the calculator. The other has to work out the mental computation problems you ask in their head. First to score 3 points. | A calculator. | 3 to 6 |
Coin Combinations | Have some coins totaling $1, 50c, 30 or 20c in your pocket. For example, tell the students you have 30c. What coins do I have? See if they can match your coins. | Some coins, try 50c – 1 x 20c, 1 x 10c and 4 x 5c. | 1 to 6 |
Date Maths | Using only the numbers in that day’s date (eg. 16/02/12) the students (in pairs or as a class) must make a number sentence for all the numbers 1 to 20. | Nil. | 3 to 6 |
Follow My Directions | Ask a student to stand outside of the room. Now hide an object within the room. Student returns. Now, using clear directions such a right/left, quarter turn, forward/back, etc. lead him/her to object. | Nil. | F to 6 |
Four Corners | In each corner of the room attach a clearly seen Club, Spade, Diamond and Heart. Tell students you are going to turn over one from a deck of cards. They go to the corner of the suite they believe will be turned over. | Deck of playing cards. | F to 6 |
Guess the Attribute | Ask a group of students to stand in one corner. Now choose some more to form another group. Continue until all students are grouped. Ask students – how did I group you? What attribute? Use color of clothing/shoe type/same letter in first name, etc. | Nil. | F to 6 |
Heads and Tails | Use 1 coin. What can occur? 10 flips – record on board. What happened? Using 2 coins – what combinations could occur? 2 heads – put hands on head. 2 tails – put hands on tail. 1 head and 1 tail – put 1 hand on head, 1 on tail. | 2 x 20c coins. | 2 to 6 |
Hear My Shape | Choose a student to look away from the board. On the board draw a regular shape slowly and so that the student can hear it being drawn (eg. a rectangle). What was the shape? How do you know? | Nil. | F to 6 |
How Much In My Pocket? | “I have some money in my pocket. You have 8 questions that you can ask me to find out how much I have. After 8 questions you can guess." Emphasize the importance of not guessing numbers haphazardly. | An amount of notes and gold coins in your pocket. | 1 to 6 |
Human Birthday Graph | Students need to find ways to stand and literally organize themselves into their birthday months at the front of the room. At grades 3 to 5 – do this without talking at all. | Nil. | F to 6 |
Human Number Line | Give a number (0 to 9) each to 10 students. Can you line yourselves up smallest to largest? Find a partner so your numbers add to 10. Odd and even. Straight numbers/curved numbers. 4 and 3 - make the largest number you can, etc | Numbers 0 to 9 on medium sized pieces of card. | F to 2 |
Magic 8 | Students make digital numbers using popsticks and following a calculator display. Start with 0, then 1, 2, etc. When they start running out of sticks – “I think there’s a number that all digital numbers can be made from – I wonder what it is?” | Calculator, 14 -15 popsticks between each two students. | F to 2 |
Mastermind | Write a 3 to 5 digit number on a piece of paper - unseen. Students have 5 guesses to work out what the number is. For example, your number is 8 326. Child guesses 5 372. So 5x 3/ 7x 2o. x = not in my number; / = correct number, correct place; o = correct number, wrong place. | Nil. | 2 to 6 |
Mindreader | Give children (in groups or whole class) 4 or 5 clues to the number you’re thinking of. Children should wait until you have provided all the clues before guessing. “I am a 2 digit number; I am an odd number; the first digit is even; my digits add up to 7”. What's the number? | Nil. | 1 to 6 |
Ninny Ninny | Place 3 blue, 3 red and 3 green counters, or similar, in a container. Students need to guess/predict what color counter you will draw from the container. Once drawn, colour stays out. For each of the nine draws students need to predict the color. | 3 blue, 3 red, 3 green counters or teddy bears, etc. | 2 to 6 |
Pendulum Predictions | Ask students to consider then record how many full swings the pendulum will make in 30 seconds. Students count the swings. Compare with prediction. Now halve the length of string. Predict again. Swing and count. Compare. Halve again. | Ball of blu-tak attached to an 18cm ball of string. | 1 to 6 |
Pick It Out | Pull numbers (0 to 9) one at a time from a container. Students try to make the largest number possible. Play from tens and ones (Foundation) up to millions (Grades 4,5,6) | Numbers 0 to 9 on small cards, container. | F to 5 |
Probability Lines | Children line up or place stickers on a pre-made probability line 0_______1 to show what they think is the likelihood of an event happening. | Nil. | F to 5 |
Talking Heads | Using Post-Its or similar, place an unseen number on students’ foreheads or backs. They can ask yes/no questions of others to work out their number | Post-Its. | 2 to 6 |
Tell Me Something About… | Choose a number (for example, 11). Tell the children that you want all of them to think of something special about number 11. It can be what the number means to them, it can be how the number looks, it can be mathematical. | Nil. | F to 6 |
Ten Second Walk | Students, in turn, take as close to ten seconds as possible to walk a designated distance (eg. across the room). Before declaring the time, students guess how long it took. | Stopwatch. | 2 to 6 |
The answer is... What could the question be? | The answer is 13. What could the question be? What is 3 times 4 plus 1? What is an unlucky date? What is a baker’s dozen? What is 20 – 7? | Nil. | 2 to 6 |