Math Activities

Great Math Ideas from Alison Hislop
In this magazine we welcome guest author Alison Hislop. Alison is a teacher from Australia. Check out these great math ideas that she has on her blog - http://MathsWithMeaning.blogspot.com
Measuring with a Scarf!
A fabulous winter activity as it starts to get cold.... burrr!
From my "Great Ideas" page at
http://mathswithmeaning.blogspot.com/p/great-ideas.html
One of my favourite activities to do heading into winter is
to get children to bring in a scarf from home. We talk about expansion (when we stretch our scarfs), line them up next to each other from biggest to smallest, join them together to measure huge distances, measure and compare using measuring tapes, work out the area and perimeter, guess and check how many times we can wrap it around a tree etc. etc.. Who knew you could do so much measuring with a scarf?
Asking the Children....
Today we were consolidating our understanding of place value. We were doing an activity where we needed a 4 digit number and then figured out which number was 10 more, 100 more and 1000 more using MAB.
I had planned for children to turn over 4 playing cards (or 3 or 5 as I differentiated the activity for specific needs) but then I thought,
"Why not ask the children how they could come up with a 4 digit number to use?". So I asked.....
This was their response:
- choosing 4 of our favourite numbers
- picking 4 random numbers
- rolling 4 10-sided dice
- turning over 4 playing cards
- using a calculator, closing your eyes, pushing 4 numbers and then seeing what you pushed (this was by far my favourite, such great thinking!)
Children amaze me with their thinking on a daily basis!

Addition Top-It
Do you know the game Addition Top-It? I have a few different versions but recently discovered another one!
With younger children I play in partners. Each child turns over a card (so there are two showing at once), then have a race to add the cards together and say the answer. The first to say the answer wins the card (if it's a draw, each player gets a card).
As children progress with their understanding of addition and subtraction you can play in groups of three. One person is the dealer and two are the players. The dealer gives each player a card. Players don't look at their card and put it on their forehead so the other player can see their card. Then the dealer adds the two cards together and tells the players the answer. The fastest player to work out what card they have on their head wins. (So many great number strategies are used in this game - best thing is all children playing have to do some Maths!).
Recently, I tried playing this game as purely subtraction practice. Children were in their groups of three and instead the dealer would say "When I subtract this card (pointing to one) from this card (pointing to the other) I get an answer of..." and the players had to guess what card they had. It worked great! Children definitely had to think and remember to always subtract from the big number!! I was so glad I altered this game - it worked so well! I was so proud of the kiddos!
I love Alison’s ideas. She is obviously passionate about making math fun for kids! Shehasloadsmoregreatideasonherblog.Teaching Maths With Meaning
She also has lots of great math products at her TPT store.
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Alimath 

Roll the Dice for Place Value Fun
Let’s look at how dice can be used for teaching and reviewing place value.
There are lots and lots of different ways to use dice to help reinforce place value concepts.
Make the Largest Number
A really simple game for 2 or more players is to have players create
numbers by rolling dice. To create a 2 digit number, they roll 2 dice,
to make a 3 digit number they roll 3 dice. Start the game by seeing
who can make the largest number. The numbers for each round can be recorded on the board or on a piece of paper.
If one player rolls 5 and 3, they would make 53. The other player might roll 1 and 6 and they could make 61. Record both and then award one point to the player with the largest number. After a few rounds of ‘Make the largest number’ with the winner being the one who creates the largest number, try a few different variations.
-Make the smallest number
-Make the number closest to ... (this could be 50 if using 2 digits numbers or 200 if using 2 digit numbers.
-Make an odd number (anyone who can do this scores a point)
-Make a multiple of ... (This might be 5 or 2 for an easy game or 7 or 9 for more advanced students. (anyone who can do this scores a point)
Roll and Write
Another way to use dice to help with place value concepts is the have the dice tell the student what action they are to perform on a number.
You will need dice, Roll and Write Chart, Roll and Write Number Chart and Roll and Write Record Sheet. You will find all of these on the following pages.
There are 3 sets of the charts provided! 2 digit numbers – purple set
3 digit numbers – blue set
4 digit numbers – yellow set
The same Roll and Write Record Sheet is used for all of the above. Hope the kids enjoy
having the dice tell them what to do!

Roll and Write Chart Numbers with 2 Digits

Roll
Write the number as a word.
e.g. forty-nine
Roll
What number is 10 less?
e.g. 49 – 10 = 39
Roll
Expand the number. e.g. 49 = 40 + 9

Roll
What number is 1 more?

e.g. 49 + 1 = 50

Roll
What number is 10 more?
e.g. 49 + 10 = 59
Roll
What number is 1 less?

e.g. 49 – 1 = 48

www.makingmathmorefun.com

www.math-board-games.com 7

Roll and Write Number Chart Numbers with 2 Digits Roll the dice onto the number chart. Write the number you land on. Write the number on the dice. Do the activity for this number.
23	71	59	65	36
41	64	13	80	48
87	21	96	63	27
53	72	51	30	82
94	18	91	49	79
60	77	39	42	17

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Roll and Write Chart Numbers with 3 Digits

 

Write the number as a word.
e.g. two hundred thirty-seven

Roll
What number is 1 more?
e.g. 237 + 1 = 238
Roll
What number is 10 more?
e.g. 237 + 10 = 247
Roll
Expand the number. e.g. 237 = 200 + 30 + 7

Roll
What number is 10 less?
e.g. 237 - 10 = 227
Roll
What number is 100 less?
e.g. 237 – 100 = 137

www.makingmathmorefun.com

www.math-board-games.com 9

Roll and Write Number Chart Numbers with 3 Digits Roll the dice onto the number chart. Write the number you land on. Write the number on the dice. Do the activity for this number.
213	471	359	665	506
141	564	134	480	648
870	721	396	663	277
153	802	951	230	782
294	318	991	849	797
560	417	939	402	817

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Roll
Write the number as a word.
e.g. five thousand three hundred twenty-seven
Roll
What number is 10 less?
e.g. 5327 - 10 = 5317
Roll
What number is 1000 more?
e.g. 5327 + 1000 = 6327

Roll
What number is 1 more?
e.g. 5327 + 1 = 5328
Roll
What number is 100 less?
e.g. 5327 – 100 = 5227
Roll
Expand the number. e.g. 5327 = 5000+300+20+7

Roll and Write Number Chart Numbers with 4 Digits Roll the dice onto the number chart. Write the number you land on. Write the number on the dice. Do the activity for this number.
2133	4071	4359	3665	536
3141	5614	1134	4080	4648
6887	7201	5396	6613	2077
1053	8772	9051	6230	7820
2294	8318	9901	8849	7917
5360	1477	9939	4702	4817

www.makingmathmorefun.com www.math-board-games.com 12

Roll and Write Record Sheet Roll the dice onto the Number Sheet. Write the number it lands on. Write the number on the dice. Do the activity for this number.
My Number	Number I rolled	My activity for this number.

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