Total Engagement with Jenga Math

It is Christmas break and I am catching up on some much needed blogging. One thing I have started using recently are these AWESOME Jenga blocks. The first time I read about these and how they could be used in my classroom was from Teaching With a Mountain View. I was instantly intrigued. I mean come on COLORFUL JENGA BLOCKS! Click here or the picture to get yours on Amazon!

Once I got these babies in, it was time to get to work on using them in my classroom. When I pulled these things out for the first time, I think my kiddos thought I had lost my mind. We had a whole lesson on when we are using these during class time, they are tools. I gave them the whole spill.

We had been learning how to add using mental math strategies so I turned our review into our very own Jenga Math game!

Jenga Rules:

1. 4-5 students in a group

2. The students work together to come up with a way to chose who goes first. (some of my chose birthday, height, ect.)

3.The first person rolls the dice and see what color it lands on.

4. That person goes to the box labeled with that color on their problems sheet.

5. They chose a problem in that colored section.

6. Everyone answers the problem INDEPENDENTLY.

7. After everyone has answered, the group has to come to an agreement on whether the person whole rolled solved the problem correctly or not.

8. If the person solved correctly, they pull a block. If they did not, they do not get to pull.

I love these rules for so many different reasons. One, the students have a "reward" for solving the problem correctly, but also if they do not solve it correctly, the discussion on why they didn't get it correct is amazing. My kiddos begged to keep playing this game and I can't wait to do it more and incorporate it into ELA.

***Side note: This game gets incredibly intense and can cause a lot of noise..I mean learning...in your classroom! It is not for the faint at heart! :)