Math is Fun!

At some point everyday, a student asks me "Are we doing something fun in math today?"

My response is always, "Math is ALWAYS fun!"

I usually receive a smug look in return like "yea right."

I really do try to keep my class engaging. Students are much more likely to work for you if you disguise it in the form of fun.

Give a student a worksheet with 20 questions on it and ask them to complete it individually...you'll be playing crowd control all class period.

Put the same 20 questions around the room and make it into a competition, they'll solve those 20 questions like it's their job!

I came across two new fun ideas for math this year and they have worked out great.

First, shaving cream!

Give students a squirt of shaving cream and let them work the problems out. They LOVE it! One group of boys said, "I want to sit here and do math all day!"

The next thing I found on Pinterest. It's called Roll and Answer. I put 15 review problems on a worksheet. Students pair up, roll the dice, add the two numbers, and then solve that problem. Then, their partner goes. Getting to roll the dice and switch off solving makes it seem like they aren't really doing much and rolling dice are always fun!

I used a 10 sided die so I could have more problems on the page. Only one student figured out the method behind my madness with the 10 sided die. Most of them were just excited to play with an odd shaped die.

Maybe one day they'll realize how fun math is!

T-minus 4 hours until Thanksgiving break!!