Football Math Games
Math practice can be repetitious and tiresome. Teachers can add excitement to the practice of basic math skills by integrating high-interest student activities. By fusing math and football, teachers can capture students' attention and increase student enjoyment of their study of numerals and functions. Mix some football math games into your lessons next football season to provide your students with a motivation boost.
Skip Count Ball Toss
Students get to practice the skill of skip counting, or counting by a number other than one, in this ball toss game. To prepare, buy several small, foam footballs. On each football, write a number that students can easily count by. For younger students, stick to two and five. For more advanced students, try seven or nine.
Pair up students, giving each pair a numbered football. Instruct them to toss the football back and forth, saying the next number in the skip count sequence as they toss. For example, two boys playing with a five ball would toss it back and forth, while saying a string of multiples of five. If one student fail to say the appropriate number in the sequence, their partner wins. Partner each winner with the winner from another group, and repeat until only one student remains.
Football Story Problems
Allow your students to practice their story problem-solving skills by competing to complete football word problems. Write out some football-related story problems, dealing with score or distance, and project them on an overhead or LCD projector.
Divide the class into four teams. Provide each team with scrap paper and pencils. Explain to the students that they are going to race to solve some football math. Before you present the problems, review the score values in football, explaining that touchdowns are worth six points, plus one possible extra point, and so forth.
Project the problems onto the screen, allowing teams to race to solve them. Ask teams to raise their hands when they solve a problem. If the team is correct, they get a point. The team with the most points wins the game.
Math Football Game
Get some fresh air with your students, and play a round of math football. Create a mini-football field in a parking lot or grassy area using tape to mark the boundaries. Before class, create a list of challenging problems that could be solved using mental math.
Divide the students into two teams. Flip a coin to see which team will begin first and have them line up on the 50-yard line. The other team lines up, facing the winning team, on the 45-yard line. When you give the first team a math problem, they must solve it mentally in one minute or less. Time their efforts. If they solve the problem successfully, they advance to the 45-yard line, pushing the opposition back to the 40. If they miss, they receive a down. If they miss four times, the play transfers to the other team. When the other team takes possession, they line up on the 50-yard line.
When a team makes it to the end zone without missing four problems, give them six points for achieving a touchdown, and provide them with one more problem to solve to earn the extra point. The team with the most points wins the game.
Tags: other team, team with, your students, 45-yard line, 50-yard line