MATHO! as a review game

This blog post was crossposted at mathequalslove. Thanks, Sarah!

I learned how to play this tried-and-true game with my classes in my first year of teaching. It was when I wrote answers on an overhead transparency using those felt tip transparency markers that smelled sour when they got too old. I remember cleaning the transparencies with Windex or even sometimes in the sink, math dreams swirling away.

Now, I write the answers on a piece of paper, snap a picture with my iPad, and project it on the wall with my Apple TV. A lot has changed in 25+ years technology-wise, but not the love of this game. I don't know a kid who does not enjoy playing it. It's low key and yet there is a bit of friendly competition with who gets MATHO! first.

Here's what you do to prepare for the game.

• Write out about 30 review problems. I wrote them out using Notability on my iPad ahead of time. MATHO! is probably better when you don't have a ton of long problems. Here is an example of the first few for review of functions...the rest are linked here as a pdf.

• Write out the answers to these questions in a different order on a separate piece of paper. I literally write the answers all over the place and boxed them. Here's an example of what it looks like (with a link here.)

• Have MATHO! sheets (linked here) ready to go. That's it for preparation.

Here's what you do right before playing the game. 

• Give students blank MATHO! sheets. Tell them to fill in the 24 spaces with 24 of the 30 review problems. They should scatter the answers in different boxes to ensure that everyone has a different MATHO! card. This takes a bit of time, but if you play a song and tell them that after the song ends, they should be done, they are usually on task and copy the answers quickly. There are more answers than there are spaces, and this spices it up a bit because some of the answers will not be on everyone's cards. 

• Have students check that they did not copy any answers twice. I ask them to switch with a partner who can look and double check for them.

• Ask students to take out paper for doing work. If you have students that are not self-motivated, you may want to collect this paper for a formative grade after the game. Students must show work to get credit.

• Tell students that even if they know what the answers is before they see the question, they have to do the work and not call out the answer. (Sometimes, if an answer is obvious, i.e., there is only one graph, I will put a WRONG but similar graph as an "answer" so that they will not just pick the graph without thinking.) This also spices things up, as not every answer will be used. 

• Project question 1 on the board. Have students write the work down and put an X in the box if they have it. Walk around to help struggling students (I put mine in groups to help each other.) Go over on board if necessary. Continue with the next question and repeat until someone gets MATHO!

• I have students continue this game after the first MATHO! so that many students are able to get MATHO! I only allow a student to win twice if they get blackout (all squares have an X).

• I give my students a choice of candy. I get fruit roll ups at the dollar section from Target or lollipops or any kind of candy. 

That's it! I think 50 minutes is a good amount of time for the game. There are probably websites that will scramble the cards for you, but I think the kids enjoy filling in the spots. They get excited when the one they wrote is on the card and chosen and mad when they didn't write one down that gets picked. It's just good wholesome fun :)

The review game ZAP, Buddha fountain, Peanut butter chicken with panko recipe

Math ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I recently read a tweet where someone mentioned Algebrasfriend's blog. I looked it right up I discovered @algebrasfriend's post about the review game ZAP.  I got (stole?) a ton of her ideas and added some of my own. Feel free to do the same here! What I love about it is that it is not specific to any one topic, so any discipline and/or any math course can use it.

I made 28 cards. I wrote questions on the back of about 20 of them with points listed if they got them right, ranging from 50 points (easy) to 300 points (hard). This left 3 cards to "ZAP" another team's entire score (only if they got the next question correct--then they got those points, too), and 5 cards that had random things written on them: "find another student to bring into class within 30 seconds" was definitely the most fun. Others had to sing the school's Alma Mater, hold a handstand for 5 seconds, or make an ugly team face.

I broke teams up into groups of about four students and had the first group start by picking a card. If they got it right, they got their points and then the next team went to pick. If the team did not get the question right, the next team got the opportunity to win the points (this guaranteed that all teams were working, even when it was not their question.) Whichever team got the question right (in order, allowing each sequential team to try), the next team would be the team to pick a card. By the way, I'm not 100% sure of the rules...I made my own! So make yours :)

I created my ZAP board by first getting poster board and then using double sided tape to attach envelopes. I bought these envelopes at the dollar store a hundred years ago and was glad to finally find a use for them. I cut some left over stock card paper I had and wrote questions on the back of them that corresponded to a review sheet. I numbered the problems so that I could quickly pull the proper problems up on the Smart Board. I always find that when I play review games, students want the questions to practice at home. So I also put the handout on our school site. Here is a copy of the handout in case you want to use it for your Pre-Calculus (or even Algebra 2) class. It is a review of Algebra 2 and correlates to Larson Pre-Calc with limits 6th edition, sections 1.1 - 1.3 and A.3 - A.6.


Student's gave a great suggestion after they were ZAPPED. They suggested to ZAP only the number of points listed on the card...so if students pick a 100 point card right after a ZAP card and they get it right, they get 100 points and can ZAP any team by only subtracting 100 from their score rather than ZAPPING their entire score.

Play ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I always look for things to make me feel "zen" and grounded. Last spring, I ordered this Buddha Garden Statue and my husband built a fountain around it. He placed flameless candles with timers around it that go on at dusk. It definitely relaxes me and makes me feel calm when I see it. The fountain does not seem to be on in this picture but it normally is!

Eat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think most recipes that I post will either have peanut butter (or some nut variation) or chocolate or both since that is mostly what we eat in my house. The other night I made peanut butter panko chicken  from www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com The peanut butter sauce recipe is so good that I could have used it alone and dipped grilled chicken in it like Thai chicken satay. But for this recipe, I dipped chicken breasts in flour, then peanut sauce, and then browned panko crumbs. Then the chicken is then baked. I made the coconut noodles shown in the recipe, but my family preferred the first time I made it, when I only put peanut sauce on the noodles.

Have a great week!
~Lisa