Three Card Collector

What You’ll Need:
Number cards (1–10)

Cut out and shuffle the number cards. Place the cards face down in a pile. Then share these instructions with students:
Play with a partner or in small groups. Each player picks up five cards. Choose three of your five cards with a sum as close to 20 as you can get. The player with a sum closest to 20 wins 1 point. If two or more players are closest by the same amount, each of those players win 1 point. Play until someone wins 5 points.

Example:
Hugo picks up five cards and gets 4, 7, 5, 6, and 3. He chooses 7, 5, and 6. Hugo’s cards have a sum of 18. He is 2 away from 20.
Nathalie picks up five cards and gets 1, 8, 3, 10, and 4. Nathalie chooses 10, 8, and 3. Nathalie’s cards make a sum of 21. She is 1 away from 20.
Nathalie’s cards have a sum closest to 20, so she wins 1 point.

Toothpick Trestles

What You’ll Need: No materials necessary You use 23 toothpicks to make some triangles and some squares. How many triangles and how many squares might you make? Sample answer: I decided to make 2 squares using 8 toothpicks and 5 triangles using 15 toothpicks.

Distance Dots

What You’ll Need:
Distance Dots printout

Show the Distance Dots printout far away from students so that they can’t touch it to count the dots. Ask students what might be a good way to figure out how many dots they see.

Sample answer:
I counted by imagining I could move the 2 dots on the left to the right side. I could then count by grouping the dots into 3 sets of 3.

Fill in the Pattern

What You’ll Need:
Pattern blocks

Below are the first 8 terms of a pattern. Fill in the blanks with pattern blocks. You can include more than 8 items in the pattern if you want to.

Sample answer:
I made this pattern:
Red trapezoid, green triangle, green triangle, blue parallelogram, red trapezoid, green triangle, green triangle, blue parallelogram.

Hopscotch

What You’ll Need: Hopscotch printout Cut out the player pieces from the Hopscotch printout. Then share these instructions with students: Play with a partner or in small groups. Each player picks a player piece and places it on the start box. On your turn, roll the four number cubes. Use all four numbers to make an equation that has an answer that matches the number to the right of your player piece. If you can make that number, move your player piece onto that box. If you cannot make that number, the next player takes their turn. The player who gets to 10 first wins. Example: Alejandra is on the 3 box and has to make the number 4. She rolls the number cubes and gets a 6, 4, 1, and 2. Alejandra makes this equation: (6 ÷ 1) – 4 + 2. She checks her answer and gets a 4. Alejandra moves her piece to the 4 box. Wayne is on the 5 box and has to make the number 6. He rolls the number cubes and gets a 5, 6, 2, and 3. Wayne makes this equation: (5 + 6) – (2 + 3). He checks his answer and gets a 6. Wayne moves his piece to the 6 box.

Just One More

What You’ll Need: No materials necessary Create a set of five numbers so that the mean is exactly one more than the median. Sample answer: I chose 7, 8, 10, 15, and 15 as my set. Mean: 11 Median: 10

Solution Swap

What You’ll Need: Number cube (1–6) Play with a partner or in small groups. Each player in the game rolls a number cube twice to get two numbers to fill in the blanks in the equation: ☐x + ☐ = 15. Each player solves each of their possible equations and chooses the equation with the greatest solution. Players then compare their solutions. The player with the greatest solution gets 1 point. If more than one player has the same greatest value, all those players receive 1 point. The first player to get 5 points wins. Example: Abdan rolls 2 and 5. He could make either 2x + 5 = 15 OR 5x + 2 = 15. The solution of his first equation is 5. The solution of his second equation is between 2 and 3. Abdan chooses the first solution since it is greater than his second. Flynn rolls 3 and 1. He could make either 3x + 1 = 15 OR 1x + 3 = 15. The solution of his first equation is between 4 and 5. The solution of his second equation is 12. Flynn chooses his second solution since it is greater than his first. Flynn’s solution is greater than Abdan’s, so Flynn gets 1 point.

Clockwork Angles

What You’ll Need: No materials necessary The minute hand and hour hand on a clock are approximately 120° apart. Think of three different times this could be possible. Sample answers: 10:10 5:45 3:35

Reflection Perfection

What You’ll Need: Grid paper and pencil Pattern blocks or shapes Trace a simple shape on a piece of paper. Then trace it somewhere else on the same piece of paper. Show that you could always use 1, 2, or 3 reflections to get from the first shape to the second shape.

Flower Bed Finder

What You’ll Need:
Flower Bed Finder printout

Print two copies of the Flower Bed Finder printout. Cut out two sets of flower beds from the Flower Bed Finder printout, one for each student. Give each student two coordinate grids. Then share these instructions with students:
Play with a partner. Both players place all of their flower beds on one of their coordinate grids without letting the other player see where they place their flower beds. Players can use the lines and dots shown on each flower bed to position each flower bed properly on the coordinate grid. On each player’s turn, they name a pair of coordinates to try to find the other player’s flower beds. If they guess correctly, the opponent says “planted.” Otherwise, the opponent says “miss.” If a player guesses the correct spot, they take another turn. If a player guesses incorrectly, the next player takes their turn. Players can use their other coordinate grid to keep track of which points they have already guessed had flower beds. The first player to find all of the other player’s flower beds wins.

Example:
Alexanne guesses that one of Mae’s flower beds is covering (2,4). Mae says “miss.” Alexanne marks that (2,4) did not have a flower bed on top of it and ends her turn.
Mae guesses that one of Alexanne’s flower beds is on (7,6). Alexanne says “planted.” Mae marks that (7,6) was a hit and takes another turn.

Picking Percents

What You’ll Need: Number cards (0–9) Cut out the number cards. Shuffle, and place the number cards face down in a pile. Then share these instructions with students: Play with a partner or in small groups. Each player chooses four cards and arranges them as ☐☐% of ☐☐. The goal is to get the greatest answer. The player with the greatest answer gets 1 point. The first player with 5 points wins. Example: Salvatore picks up four number cards. His numbers are 5, 6, 1, and 2. He decides to make 62% of 51. His answer is 31.62. Samantha picks up four number cards. Her numbers are 3, 4, 7, and 1. She decides to make 73% of 41. Her answer is 29.93. Salvatore’s number is greater than Samantha’s number. He gets 1 point.

Two-Digit Divisibility

What You’ll Need: No materials necessary How many two-digit numbers are divisible by their ones digit? The quotient must be a whole number. Answer: 41 two-digit numbers are divisible by their ones digits. All two-digit numbers with a 1, 2, or 5 in their ones digit are divisible by their ones digit. 33, 63, and 93 are all divisible by 3. 24, 44, 64, and 84 are all divisible by 4. 36, 66, and 96 are all divisible by 6. Only 77 is divisible by 7. 48 and 88 are divisible by 8. Only 99 is divisible by 9.