Students will enjoy competing against the teacher in this activity that richly develops number sense and operations. They will learn to apply order of operations and put square roots, exponents, and factorials to use. Once they learn the game, they will enjoy playing it in pairs or teams.
To play the game, use the digits 1 – 6, or the numbers 1 – 10. Select three of these at random by using a die or spinner. Then have the students use them to create a problem that has one of the game board numbers as its answer. They should mark it out with an “x”. Their goal is to cover the largest possible answer.
Each time a team creates a new answer, it must be a “neighbor” of a previous one. The new answer may be a neighbor vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Some possible Journal Prompts that can be used when playing this game: If the numbers 3, 5, and 6 are selected, what is the largest score possible? What is the smallest score? Show how you get these scores.
This game is quite extensible; the teacher can create new game boards by using different numbers, or simply rearrange the numbers on the existing game board. The teacher can also modify the rules; if one team gets ahead by a large number of points, they may only be permitted to use two numbers. Let your imagination be your guide as your students build number sense, gain practical experience with Order of Operations, and have fun!
This 4-page activity is in pdf form so it will print well at your site. After downloading Neighbors and using it in the classroom, let me know your experiences.
- Mr. L
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