Engaging Activities

This page will include engaging activities that my students enjoy! I have only included the activities that work well and keep all students working. Email me with any questions!

~ Math Basketball ~

In this review activity, students are given white boards and markers and a problem is shown to the class on the overhead. The problem will be determined to be a "2-point" question or a "3-point" depending on it's difficulty. Every student is to complete the problem and at random, a student's name is called. This student has the opportunity to answer the question and then shoot from the "2-point" line or the "3-point" line. If the class works with "class cash" the student will receive money for the correct answer, and more if they make the shot. This is usually done with a plush angry bird stuffed animal and a trash can. 2-point shots are closer to the basket and the 3-point is done further away. Great for review!

~ Face Off ~

In this activity, students line up on both sides of the classroom and they “face off”. The teacher sits in the middle of the classroom where the two lines meet and provides the class with a problem. The teacher presents the problem and the two students race to see who can produce the answer quicker. If watching the “face off” isn’t enough to hold the attention of the whole class, the teacher could randomly call on students to quickly provide the question given and the answer to make sure they are all listening.

~ Find It ~

Here students either are paired up strategically or they are allowed to choose their partners. Around the room are cards with answer on the top portion of the card and a problem on the inside of the card. Students are to work with their partner to solve the problem and then they search the room for the card with the matching answer. Once they have found the answer, they are to do the problem inside. This works best when students have paper given to them with numbered boxes where each problem is to be worked out.

~ Jeopardy ~

Working in cooperative groups of four, students select a problem from the jeopardy board displayed on the screen. Groups then quietly solve the problem on white boards and one “gopher” brings the board to the front of the classroom and hides the answer by turning the white board towards the wall. The teacher turns over the boards one by one, revealing the answers. Points are given accordingly.

~ Las Vegas Game ~

In this activity, students work in groups and place bets in dollar increments on a sheet of paper. Then the problem is shown and teams are to solve it quietly on a white board. This works best when students are told that all students must participate and each round the students rotate the board clockwise so that everyone can have a turn writing. Once the time is up, the teacher will go around and say yes or no to the group’s answers. If the team got the answer correct, they can add up their money. If they did not get the right answer, they must deduct that amount from whatever they started with. It’s also noteworthy to say that if the team bets all their money and reaches $0, they will be removed from the game, given a worksheet and will not participate. 

~ Facing Math ~
This activity lets students be creative while solving math problems. A two-sided paper is given to each student containing problems to solve. Within each problem box, there are two possible answers. After showing work, students can decide if they agree with answer a or answer b. Each answer correlates with a feature and that feature is what they draw onto a given face. The resulting image will quickly tell the teacher if all the questions were correct or not. Check out this website for more information.  


~ Bingo ~
Give students a blank bingo paper and show random answers on the board for them to fill their sheet with. Then, provide questions one by one and have them show their work. The first to get a row, a diagonal line, a column or whatever the teacher chooses will win!

~Whip Around ~ 
In this activity, students each are given cards that contain two portions to each one. The top will say, "I have..." and will contain an answer and the bottom will say "who has..." and will include a question. Starting with one students "who has..." question, the class is to 'whip around' the room back to the student who first began the activity. Students love to be timed to see how fast they can go. 

~ Quiz Me ~ 
Students are placed into groups of four and are given a set of flashcards. One student will be the leader and they will quiz the students in the group. Each student who gets the answer right the fastest is given the card to hold onto. Once all the cards have been gone through, the students count up how many cards each student has received and this is tallied on a sheet of paper. Then the leader changes in a clockwise rotation. This continues until all students have been the leader.