Maybe you want to promote a healthier classroom by getting your students up and moving through an activity, maybe your students are more tactile learners, or maybe you find that if your students are active they are more focused and well-behaved throughout the rest of the day. Whatever your motivation, we’ve got some “active” math games to get your students up and moving… Plus you don’t even have to leave the classroom!
Bowling Math
Get an inexpensive bowling kit from the toy section and set up a lane or two in your classroom. On the bottom of each pin write numbers (depending on your student’s level make the numbers as small or large as you’d like). Have students take turns rolling the ball down to the pins. After one student rolls the ball down to the pins, have that student walk, lunge, or skip down to the pins. Have that student add up the numbers on the bottom of their pins–that’s their score for that round. If you’d rather not keep score, just have students work the math problem. They can either add, subtract, or multiply all of the numbers or just the two largest numbers.
Active Stations
As students make their way through your normal math stations, have them do lunges, crab walking, or wheel barrels to get to the next station.
Bean Bag Toss
Use these simple instructions (from Dirt & Boogers Blog) to make your own Bean Bag Toss easily and with very few materials. Adjust the design with a few extra holes to make this game educational. Simply cut several holes into the box and label each hole with a number. Give students a math equation and have them toss the bean bag into the hole with the correct answer. Or assign word problems to each number. Whichever hole the bean bag lands in, that is the word problem the student must answer.
Workout Word Problems
Have student act out the actions to solve each math equation in these word problems (free worksheet download). Students will be adding pushups, completing jumping jacks with a partner, and more to find the answers. Once everyone has the hang of it, ask students to make up their own Work Out Word Problems to share with a friend.
Student Clocks
Get students up and out of their seat with this tactile way to practice telling time. Using tape, create a large clock on the floor of your classroom. You or other students can call out times for students to take turns displaying on the floor clock.
Twister Math
To play this, get your hands on an old Twister game and have a group of students no larger than 4 at a time playing. On each color dot write a number. You can determine what numbers (and math equations) you use based on your students’ level.
To start, give each student a different number to place their right foot on. For example: 6, 4, and 3. Then ask the students to put their left foot on the corresponding number that would make 8. Therefore the students would move their left foot to 2, 4, and 5. Repeat this concept with the hands. Ask student to put their right hand on the number that would make 10 based on the number that their left foot is on. Therefore students would put their right hand on 8, 6, and 5. Keep going until someone falls!
These 7 get-up-&-move activities will make math fun & engaging for students!
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Math Mat Challenge
This action-packed quiz game makes practicing math facts fun! Using tape, tape-off a 3×3 grid (like tic-tac-toe) on the floor. In each square (using tape) put a number in the square. You can call out equations. Then have students take turns jumping to the square that contains the correct answer.
Want to get out of the classroom?
Try these great activities that take you out the class and get you and your students movin’!
