So this week, we went to the elementary school to work with the 5th graders on our family math night game. My game is "Make it, Take it"
I expected this game to go over very well with the 5th graders. I knew that they would have a pretty good grasp about money and how to add it up. I did however think that there would be a little more "competition" within the game. I think that at first it was kind of boring to them. What Rachel and I did was the first time through, we only put 4 quarters, 6 dimes, 5 nickles, and 10 pennies out. We had other change but didn't out it out we explained the rules of the game and the students seemed to really like it. After the first round was over and we established a winner, we told the students that there were a few different ways that we could "up the stakes." They loved that. We offered to the students to 1. add all of the other change, 2. Play in teams, and 3. make change. In most cases, we ended up doing all three. Over all the game went really well and we got really really great feedback from the students, much better than i expected to get.
After listening to their feedback, there are a few changes that i would possibly want to make.
1. for the 5th graders, i would want to make a separate deck of cards to draw from. Instead of just saying "37 cents" i think it would be cool to do little types of equations on the cards. For example, 17+20 cents. I think that would bring another cool aspect into the game.
2. Another thing that i would like to add would be some type of time element, kind of like a race feel. I think it would be cool to do 1 against 1 and the first one to get so much money in 30 seconds wins the round., I think that the students would agree that the game that we brought was too slow of a pace for them,. They almost all said that they felt it would be a really good game for the younger grades like 1-3.
3. I think another cool thing to do would be maybe to add some dollars into the mix, all of the students suggested that as well.
Finally, the last thing that i think would be cool to incorporate is like a tournament style of the game with the time limit,
Overall i think that the game went really really well. I think that Rachel and I are definitely going to make some changes and it will be super interesting to see how it goes with the new set of students!
I expected this game to go over very well with the 5th graders. I knew that they would have a pretty good grasp about money and how to add it up. I did however think that there would be a little more "competition" within the game. I think that at first it was kind of boring to them. What Rachel and I did was the first time through, we only put 4 quarters, 6 dimes, 5 nickles, and 10 pennies out. We had other change but didn't out it out we explained the rules of the game and the students seemed to really like it. After the first round was over and we established a winner, we told the students that there were a few different ways that we could "up the stakes." They loved that. We offered to the students to 1. add all of the other change, 2. Play in teams, and 3. make change. In most cases, we ended up doing all three. Over all the game went really well and we got really really great feedback from the students, much better than i expected to get.
After listening to their feedback, there are a few changes that i would possibly want to make.
1. for the 5th graders, i would want to make a separate deck of cards to draw from. Instead of just saying "37 cents" i think it would be cool to do little types of equations on the cards. For example, 17+20 cents. I think that would bring another cool aspect into the game.
2. Another thing that i would like to add would be some type of time element, kind of like a race feel. I think it would be cool to do 1 against 1 and the first one to get so much money in 30 seconds wins the round., I think that the students would agree that the game that we brought was too slow of a pace for them,. They almost all said that they felt it would be a really good game for the younger grades like 1-3.
3. I think another cool thing to do would be maybe to add some dollars into the mix, all of the students suggested that as well.
Finally, the last thing that i think would be cool to incorporate is like a tournament style of the game with the time limit,
Overall i think that the game went really really well. I think that Rachel and I are definitely going to make some changes and it will be super interesting to see how it goes with the new set of students!