This is week four of Engaging Games for any Classroom Series. The last two engagement games will be introduced. You can use these games in your classroom for any grade and any content. All you need are problems written on tiny pieces of paper.
If you missed week one’s games, click here for the post.
To check out week two’s games, click here for the post.
To read about the games in week three, click here for the post.
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This week’s games are called Surgery & Sticky Hands.
Surgery
Materials:
- Tiny Problems cut out. (One set per group-different colors for each group)
- Tiny Problems Recording Sheet
- One glue stick per group
- Doctor’s Clipboard Freebie (One copy per group in their team color.)
- Large silhouette of “Operation Man” drawn on butcher paper. (I trace it from the Smart Board)
*The following items are optional but will make your students feel like they are real doctors.
- Clipboards
- Hair nets
- Gloves
- Tweezers
- Surgical masks
- Name tags that have their last names on them. Ex: Dr. Cahill
- ER sound effects for background sounds
Set up:
Split your class up into groups. Lay the “Operation Man” out onto the floor in the center of the room and tape the edges down. Fold all the Tiny Problems up and place them on the body of “Operation Man.” Each group should get the Doctor’s Clipboard Freebie for their team.
If you choose to use the operation items for your students, pass those out in advance so they are “dressed” and ready to perform surgery.
How to play:
Tell the students they will be giving surgery to the sick patient in the operating room. The object is for each group to remove the germs (Tiny Problems) from the patient by solving them.
Split students into teams and assign each team a specific color. Give them 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last.
One person at a time will retrieve a germ with their tweezers and carry it back to their group.
When they return, they will read the question to the group and EVERYONE needs to answer it.
When the whole team has answered, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box.
When that question is answered by every group member, it can be glued to the Doctor’s Clipboard Freebie for their team.
The next student is off to grab another germ. This continues until all the team’s colored germs are glued to the clipboard.
There are many ways you can change up this activity to suit your needs. If you have a small class, you can make an “Operation Man” for each group. You can even partner students up or give each child their own color so they can work independently.
Sticky Hands
Materials:
- Tiny Problems cut out. - Make a separate color for each group to collect.
- Tiny Problems recording sheet
- sticky hands (Amazon link)
Set up:
Put all of the Tiny Problems face down on a table, desk or flat surface. Split your students into groups in advance. Each group member gets a sticky hand.
How to play:
Students get out a Tiny Problems recording sheet and a pencil.
Give your students 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last.
One student at a time will head to the Tiny Problems table, shoot their sticky hand at the table to pick up a problem and bring it back to their group.
NOTE: This DOES have a learning curve and some students might struggle at first. I tell them to try three times then just bring a problem back to the group. If they pick up more than one problem, they should return all but one to the table and head back to their group.
EVERYONE in the group needs to answer the question.
When the whole team has an answer, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box.
The next student to retrieve a Tiny Problem needs to return the old problem, face down, to the table before “sticky handing” a new one for the group.
This continues until all the Tiny Problems are solved.
You can go over the answers in class or collect the recording sheets. If you want to make it more competitive, set a timer and the group who completes the most questions correctly wins!
Thank you for following along with this blog series, Engaging Games for any Classroom. I hope you found it helpful and you were able to take away some ideas for your classroom. Please feel free to join my email list for more games like this and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away. Have a great day.
Happy Teaching!
Kelly