At first, my intention was to show students Caine's video and then discuss it during our Socratic Circle. However, during our discussion students expressed interest in creating their own classroom arcade. With 2 weeks of state testing knocking at the door I was reluctant to start a project of this undertaking. However, I went with it and jumped in head first.
We gave our arcade a math twist. Students planned out math related arcade games, brought in cardboard boxes and other supplies, and hosted the arcade for a fellow 4th grade class. What a great way to review previously taught concepts for our state assessment.
Interested in creating your own Cardboard Math Arcade? Check out my FREE activity pack at Teachers Pay Teachers. Enjoy!
6 comments:
I've been following Caine's Arcade too. Great idea for your class. I keep thinking about how a school could use this for fundraising. Every year most schools have a carnival. Why not have kids make these games and run them! It would be free for the school and usually people buy tickets and redeem them to play the game so all the money goes to the school and kids get to participate. The person with the most tickets from patrons gets a prize from the school. Keep the comment or delete it. I just wanted share my idea and to commend you for teaching using this kids ingenious idea!
Thank you for the kind words! I won't delete your comment. Your idea is great!
Hi, Thanks for the introduction to Caine! I love this for so many reasons and will be trying it in my class next week!
Good luck with your National Boards, I just renewed last month and while it is a TON of work, I feel has a direct impact on student learning.
Thank you! My fingers are crossed that after Thanksgiving I will find out I passed!
Enjoy the arcade with your class! It was a huge hit with my 4th graders!
Hi! This is such a fantastic idea. This is something that i know my class would love to do, and I have decided to run with it. I was wondering if you had any examples of games that your class created. Fo example, i saw in your pictures that there was a addition/subtraction cup toss, how did that work? What were the directions on how to play it?
I had students come up with their own game ideas and names. For the cup toss, the girls made flashcards with addition/subtraction problems. Each box had a number on it. Students solved the problem and then tried to throw a ball in the corresponding box. If they got the ball in the correct box, they got that number of tickets.
Some other game ideas my students had were:
- The Crane
- Multiplication Monster Truck Jumps (with remote control monster trucks)
- Skittle Toss (Students cut holes in a cardboard box, wrote numbers next to each, and when someone solved a problem they tried to throw the skittle in the correct hole)
- Ultimate Soccer
- Fast Action Basketball
- Race Car Race (pushing Hotwheels cars on a track)
- Knock Out (knocking over empty water bottles with a ball)
For most of the games students made math flashcards and who ever was playing their game had to answer the question correctly before they could play. They picked topics such as addition/subtraction/multiplication/division math facts, word problems, measurement, shapes and fractions.
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