Must have Math games

It’s the last few weeks of school and summer is just around the corner. Which means one thing.... Kids. Are. Done! As teachers we have to find ways to deal with this. Mixing it up from your normal routine is an easy way to keep kids engaged and you from going crazy. That is important too!!!

I have 2 “games” I want to share with you.

The first is Coordinate Plane Battleship
Surprisingly, many students have never played old school Battleship! So if they have never played the original, this will take a little extra explanation. You can also show them this video.
I provide the template below for my students, to save on time. There are 2 boards per page. You can also download the PDF version of this here.

Rules:
-your boats can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal
-your boats can’t intersect (that means they have crashed which is bad)
-you can’t plot any part of your boat on the outside border (no value should be 5 or -5)
-when your opponent sinks your ship, you must tell them what ship they sank

You might notice that there are only 4 boats. In normal battleship there is also a submarine (3 spaces) but I have left that one off in this version. It helps the game extend a little longer. 
When you are explaining the game be sure to give students tips on how to track what they have guessed in addition to marking when their opponent has hit a part of their ship. It is IMPERATIVE that students track their own guesses as hits or misses in case there is a discrepancy. The point of this game is for students to be proficient in plotting points on the coordinate plane. While students are playing, I walk around and make sure students are correctly plotting the points they are saying as well as helping students who aren’t sure if they have the right point. 


The second game is Integer Battles
The beauty of this game is all you need is playing cards, preferably between 18-22 cards per pair of students. 
This game has multiple versions...
Version A - addition
Version B - multiplication
Version C - subtraction
Version D - which is smaller

Students pair up (either on their own or your choice) and receive either 18 or 22 cards. Players will deal the deck so that each player has the same number of cards. You want to make sure each student gets an odd number of cards so that a clear winner can be determined. Players start with their cards in a pile face down. Players flip their top card at the same time and then, depending on the version, do the math. Black cards (spades and clubs) are positive numbers, red cards (hearts and diamonds) are negative numbers. All face cards (King, Queen, Jack) are 10 and Aces are 1. For higher difficulty you could change the Jack to 11, Queen to 12, and King to 13. The first person to answer correctly wins that round. Play continues until all cards have been played. When a player wins a round, those cards are set aside and NOT returned to their deck. At the end of play one player will have more cards and is the winner. If players say the correct answer at exactly the same time they can rock, paper, scissors for the win or shuffle those cards back into the remaining deck. 

For addition and multiplication, as we know, order doesn’t matter. (Something to discuss with students before)

For subtraction, make sure students are sitting right next to each other and not across from each other so that they are both reading the problem from left to right. You could also have students write a (-) on a piece of paper, or with dry erase marker on their desk, to help them. 

The last version would be good for lower grades. Also, you could use only black cards if you haven’t worked with negative numbers yet.

I have done this tournament style as well as just telling students they must play “x” number of different players. If you would like to play tournament style, this link is helpful in creating a bracket.

These games are great fillers and a great way to mix it up at the end of the year but don’t be afraid to bring them out early!! I teach freshmen and sophomores and I promise, even they love it. Anytime a kid loves what they are doing in math class is a win for me! 

Do you have any other games we should know about???? Share in the comments!!
​Finish strong and never stop growing!!

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