1 - 100 game group activity for 100% engagement

I'm catching up on posts that have been sitting in my draft box forever. This is an activity that I did at the beginning of the school year. It was so much fun.😊

On twitter I saw a tweet from   Megan Schmidt @Vegan Math Beagle about this activity by Sara Van Der Werf and I decided to use it the second week of school. At the beginning of the school year I always do group activities for students that are fun and get the kids talking and working together. OK, I had way too much fun doing this activity with my kids in all of my 8th grade math classes. 

I changed Sara's directions slightly. I did four rounds instead of three. I had some groups of four and some groups of three. It was much easier for the groups of four to see the pattern than the groups of three. 

I passed out this sheet from Sara Van Der Werf -1 to 100 game to each group.

Each student had a different color highlighter and they had to highlight the numbers from one to one hundred by taking turns going in a circle. I set the timer for 3 minutes and then they furiously started to work. This is repeated three times. Sara has very explicit directions that are in the link below. I love it when I have a script the first time I do an activity.

By the end of the period the kids were screaming with delight. There were smiles everywhere. This was a great way to introduce how to work together in a group. 

You can download all of the directions and worksheets here, Sara Van Der Werf- 1 to 100 game.

When we started the kids were sitting in their seats, 

passing the paper and they were calm.

Yes this group was taking their time looking for the numbers.

Then they started to stand up to get closer to the paper. 

At his point most groups realized that passing the paper was wasting time 

so they kept the paper in one place and huddled over it.

They started pointing and helping each other as time got shorter.

This group finally decided they needed to get the desks out of the way

 and they sat on the floor.

I love this activity and taking lots of pictures from each class added to the fun. It was also a great way for them to see what working together looks like. This is a keeper for sure. Thanks Sara for sharing this.

Til next time,

Jan