Sunday, November 22, 2015

Practice Math Facts with SEQUENCE

Our school has created a 30 minute block four days a week for all students to participate in Practice, Intervention, and Enrichment (PIE).  Students who qualify for intervention or enrichment sign out and go for lessons with our interventionists (math and reading) or our Learning Resource Specialist (formerly known as G&T).

On Fridays I like to use that time to teach longer, more involved games to a group of students.  This week it was a game called Sequence.  While my other students were busy reading, practicing sight words, handwriting, or math, I pulled these four boys aside and taught them how to play.

I've never seen the board so full!

It was an exciting game!  They even stayed in when recess started to finish and see who the winner would be!  It's hard to tell, but blue got four in a row first!

This is a game I read about online and thought would be a great way to practice math facts.  My version is pretty simple.  There is a deck of cards with math facts, dragons, and unicorns.  Each player always has three cards.  Play a card and put a colored chip on the sum on the game board.  Then pick a new card.  The unicorns and dragons are what add the excitement!  Play a dragon card, and you get to take someone's chip off the board!  Play a unicorn, and you get to put a chip on ANY open space!  

It's so hard for them to hold onto the unicorns and dragons. They want to play them right away, but I encourage them to hang on to them until they need them.  They are very good to have when your opponent has three in a row and you need a dragon to stop him from winning. Or maybe you have three in a row and need a unicorn to get that last chip on the board.

I copied my board and cards on card stock and laminated them.  I use a snack box for the "draw from" and "discard" piles.  (You'll notice that they need help remembering to discard and take a new card each turn.)  I'm hoping that once enough kids know how to play, they can teach the rest!

To make my version, I used the font Rowdy Writing, which is one of my favorites, and free clip art I found online.  You can see and print it from HERE.  Have fun!