One of my very favorite ways to have my students practice word problems is by finding a game that my students love and creating a word problem version. SO… I took one of my favorite games to play as a child, BINGO, and created a math word problem version called MATHO. Let’s be real… I still like to play it as an adult, too 🙂 My students LOVED the game and I loved that I found a word problem practice activity that is easy to bring into my upper elementary classroom.
You may be thinking… I like this idea, but I am not sure when I would use it. Check out 5 of my favorite times to use MATHO and read about some tips to make it easy to use in your upper elementary classroom.
#1: Word Problem Wednesday:
Word Problem Wednesday is a fun way to schedule in some extra word problem practice weekly. Every Wednesday, I set aside a block of time 20-45 minutes (depends on your schedule) to do a fun word problem activity with my students. MATHO is a great activity to use for this because it can be started one week and continued the next week. It does not all have to be played in one day! To do this, I like to print 2 MATHO boards on one page and then have my students glue it in their math notebook (See an example below). Then, my students can just pull it out next time we play MATHO.
#2: Substitute Teacher Activity
I love to leave easy activities with substitute teachers and this is one of them! All you have to do is print the board and cards ahead of time. I recommend putting them in a gallon size ziploc bag or manilla envelope to store. Then, put the bag or folder in your substitute teacher binder or substitute teacher supplies. There are even directions you can leave with it, but luckily, most people already know how to play bingo. This is a great alternative to worksheets and you still know your students are getting meaningful practice when you are out.
#3: Small Group or Math Rotation Activity
This is a fun math rotation activity because students can easily do it on their own! I put the materials on a tray and put the word problem cards in a sandwich size ziplock baggie. Then, students take turns drawing a word problem card and reading it. Everyone solves it on their own and then they can use the answer key to check it if they do not all get the same answer. I liked to use this for my “Math Review” rotation. Click here if you want to hear more about how I set up my math rotations.
TIP: Since my rotations tend to be 12-15 minutes each, I would print them 2 on a page, like I mentioned in idea #1, and this way they can play it for that rotation throughout the whole week. This means you only have to prep. an activity for this rotation one time!!
#4: Test Review
Test review can be boring for students, but not when they are playing BINGO, or as I call it MATHO! I loved to use it not only for word problem review before unit tests, but also to help my students with identifying the correct operation when solving word problems. Sometimes, I let my students solve the word problems with a partner for some peer to peer teaching. Since there are a variety of boards, I pull this back out at the end of the year for test review, too.
#5: Day Leading Up to or After a Break
Let’s be real… we all know that the day after and before a break can be tough days for student engagement and focus. Instead of battling that all day, I have decided to use those days to bring in fun review games that I know will still be meaningful activities for my students. By doing this, I know my students are still getting some good math practice, but I am not battling their wiggles and excitement for a break as much. MATHO is a fun game that students do not have to just sit and do word problems all day. I let my students sit, or stand, wherever they like when we play, as long as they are solving the problems. Trust me, you will enjoy these days around break a lot better if you are going out of the box for math practice and review activities.
Ready to try it? Click on the photo below to check out all my MATHO Word Problem Bingo Boards that are available. I am working on creating more MATHO boards and will be adding those to my store soon, too. So, make sure you follow my store to see when more are released. I hope MATHO makes word problem practice more fun in your upper elementary classroom!
