Every Fun Factor activity is a tangible experience that sparks curiosity and helps students relate to math in real life. Particularly at this unsettled time, our playful activities provide critical emotional connections for students while also providing academic rigor. The activities scaffold to build connections in the brain, and the accompanying teacher guides facilitate differentiated instruction by incorporating standards both below and above grade level.
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Kindergarten
| Activity | Key Skills | Description |
| Beach Ball Party | Counting Comparing numbers Adding | Students play mental-math fact-practice games with a beach ball. They’ll toss the ball and do operations on the numbers they catch, from easy to challenging. |
| Epic Air Traffic Control | Counting forward and backward | Students make glowing number lines and count to fly their planes to the end of the runway. |
| Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry | Constructing 2-D shapes | Students make geometric shapes using glowsticks, then flick off the lights to discover and identify shapes. |
| Measure Up | Comparing lengths | Students compare toys and household items to explore the concepts of "more" or "less". |
| Off the Charts | Sorting and counting objects | Students line up favorite toys to make giant graphs on the floor, sorting and counting with real-life objects. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Bingo | Adding | Students make large paper dice, then have fun adding and reasoning to form a winning line. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Hops | Counting | Students use dice to practice multiples and get their bodies moving! |
| Rocket to Mars | Adding Counting on Making 10 | Students "fly" from Earth to Mars by rolling a die, finding the rocket that pairs to make 10, and counting on a gameboard. |
| Sticky Twists | Composing and decomposing numbers to 20 Counting, cardinality | Students twist colorful wax sticks into spirals, then count and decompose numbers in this tactile exercise. |
1st Grade
| Activity | Key Skills | Description |
| Beach Ball Party | Counting Comparing numbers Adding | Students play mental-math fact-practice games with a beach ball. They’ll toss the ball and do operations on the numbers they catch, from easy to challenging. |
| Epic Air Traffic Control | Adding and subtracting on a number line | Students make glowing number lines and do the math to fly their planes to the end of the runway. |
| Funny Money | Understanding place value Decomposing 2-digit numbers | Students use coins to play a guessing game with money. |
| Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry | Identifying attributes of 2-D shapes | Students make geometric shapes using glowsticks, then flick off the lights to discover the attributes of shapes. |
| Measure Up | Comparing lengths Measuring with nonstandard units | Students discover that toys and household items can become units to measure and compare just about anything. |
| Off the Charts | Comparing data on graphs | Students line up favorite toys to make giant graphs on the floor, connecting data with real-life objects. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Bingo | Adding with up to 3 numbers | Students make large paper dice, then have fun adding up to 3 numbers and reasoning to form a winning line. |
| Rocket to Mars | Adding 10 mentally Adding 3 numbers Ordering numbers | Students "fly" from Earth to Mars by adding the number of rockets to the correct sum. |
| Scruffy’s Snack Shack | Adding 2-digit numbers Regrouping | Students gather “snacks” in groups of tens and ones for Scruffy the dog and learn how regrouping works. |
| Sticky Twists | Adding and subtracting within 20 Comparing amounts Identifying tens and ones | Students twist colorful wax sticks into spirals, then compare, add, and subtract numbers in this tactile exercise. |
2nd Grade
| Activity | Key Skills | Description |
| Beach Ball Party | Addition Subtraction | Students play mental-math fact-practice games with a beach ball. They’ll toss the ball and do operations on the numbers they catch, from easy to challenging. |
| Funny Money | Identifying coin values Counting sets of coins | Students use coins to play a guessing game with money. |
| Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry | Comparing 2-D shapes | Students make geometric shapes using glowsticks, then flick off the lights to compare shapes. |
| Measure Up | Comparing lengths Creating a line plot to show measurement data Measuring and estimating using standard units | Students use a ruler to measure toys and household items and learn how inches and centimeters compare. |
| Neon Time Traveler | Telling time | Students tell time using bright glowstick-clocks with roman numerals. |
| Off the Charts | Creating picture and bar graphs Solving problems based on picture graph data | Students line up favorite toys to make giant graphs on the floor, using real-life objects to analyze data. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Bingo | Using addition strategies with up to 3 numbers | Students make large paper dice, then have fun using addition strategies and reasoning to win. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Hops | Skip counting | Students use dice to practice multiples and get their bodies moving! |
| Scruffy’s Snack Shack | Adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers Understanding place value | Students gather “snacks” in groups of hundreds, tens and ones for Scruffy the dog and use them to add and subtract with regrouping. |
| Snack Match | Identifying number forms Comparing 3-digit numbers | Students become immersed in the values behind the digits of numbers by playing 2 card games. |
3rd Grade
| Activity | Key Skills | Description |
| Beach Ball Party | Adding Subtracting Multiplying | Students play mental-math fact-practice games with a beach ball. They’ll toss the ball and do operations on the numbers they catch, from easy to challenging. |
| Cowabunga! | Composing arrays with equal perimeters to compare areas Identifying patterns in length-width pairs | Students explore how the same perimeter can enclose different areas, by making “farms” of paper cows and wax-stick fences. |
| Divide and Conquer | Dividing | Students play a strategy game with colorful shiny tiles to learn the 2 reasons to divide. |
| Face-Off | Adding and subtracting same-denominator fractions Comparing and simplifying fractions: fourths and eighths | Students bring fractions to life by drawing colorful faces on a grid, cutting the pieces, then swapping pieces to make mixed-up faces. |
| Factor Forts | Dividing using repeated subtraction Multiplying using repeated addition | Students stack popsicle sticks in polygonal towers to see how addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all relate in a very tangible way. |
| Fraction Action | Identifying simple fractions Understanding equivalent fractions | Students use sea creature fraction cards to compare 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 and 1/6, then play a strategy game to score points for ordering cards correctly! |
| Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry | Classifying 2-D shapes | Students make geometric shapes using glowsticks, then flick off the lights to discover and classify shapes. |
| Gold Rush | Locating fractions on a number line Identifying equivalent fractions | Students play a game stacking shiny bars of "precious metals" to claim fractions on a number line. |
| Off the Charts | Creating scaled bar graphs Solving problems based on bar graph data | Students line up favorite toys to make giant scaled bar graphs on the floor, using real-life objects to analyze data. |
| Pixel-palooza | Using properties to multiply | Students create a giant pixelated picture using an array of sticky notes to explore properties of multiplication. |
| Prime Time | Identifying patterns Multiplying | Students learn the basics of prime factoring to create a colorful gameboard, while reinforcing their fluency with multiplication facts. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Bingo | Multiplying with partial products | Students make large paper dice, then have fun using multiplication, partial products and reasoning to win. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Hops | Skip counting | Students use dice to practice multiples and get their bodies moving! |
| Scruffy’s Tic-Tac-Snacks | Estimating products Multiplying multi-digit numbers | Students explore the mechanics of multiplying 2-digit numbers in order to reward Scruffy, a street performer dog who earns snacks for his stunts. |
4th Grade
| Activity | Key Skills | Description |
| Cowabunga! | Composing arrays with equal areas to compare perimeters Composing arrays with equal perimeters to compare areas Solving word problems to maximize area and perimeter | Students explore how the same perimeter can enclose different areas, and the same area can have different perimeters, by making “farms” of paper cows and wax-stick fences. |
| Divide and Conquer | Using long division to divide 1 digit into 2- and 3-digit numbers | Students bring long division to life by playing a strategy game with colorful shiny tiles. |
| Face-Off | Converting fractions to decimals: multiples of 0.1 and 0.05 Comparing and simplifying fractions | Students bring fractions and decimals to life by drawing colorful faces on a grid, cutting the pieces, then swapping pieces to make mixed-up faces. |
| Fraction Action | Placing fractions with differing denominators in order of value Simplifying fractions | Students use fraction cards with a 100-grid of sea creatures to compare values, then play a strategy game to score points for ordering cards correctly! |
| Fraction Fencing | Comparing fractions on a number line | Students explore fractions on a number line by "fencing." They roll dice to generate fractions that are greater or less than their opponent. |
| Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry | Measuring angles | Students make dazzling geometric lattices and cubes out of glowsticks to measure with protractors. |
| Off the Charts | Identifying the maximum and minimum in a data set Measuring item lengths to 1/8 inch Organizing and analyzing data on a bar chart and line plot | Students use favorite toys to generate real-life data, and construct bar charts and line plots to quantify attributes of the data set. |
| Rock ’n’ Roll Hops | Multiplying | Students use dice to practice multiples and get their bodies moving! |
| Scruffy’s Tic-Tac-Snacks | Estimating products Multiplying multi-digit numbers | Students explore the mechanics of multiplying 2-digit numbers in order to reward Scruffy, a street performer dog who earns snacks for his stunts. |
5th Grade
| Activity | Key Skills | Description |
| Band on Tour | Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals | Students form a "band" with their classmates, then calculate ticket revenues and trip expenses to perform all four operations on decimal values. |
| Fractangles | Multiplying | Students overlap colorful cellophane squares to multiply a fraction by a fraction. |
| Fraction Action | Comparing and ordering fractions Converting values between fraction, simplified fraction, and decimal formats Placing numbers of different formats in order of value | Students use fraction cards with a 100-grid of sea creatures to understand fractions and decimals, then play a strategy game to score points for ordering cards correctly! |
| Glow-in-the-Dark City | Measuring volume by counting cubes Applying the formula for calculating volume | Students build and stack glowing cubes to discover how volume works. |
| Gold Rush | Adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators | Students play a game gathering fractions of "precious metals," then add them to see who has the greatest fraction. |
| Off the Charts | Adding and multiplying fractions Measuring item lengths to 1/8 inch, and simplifying the resulting fractions Plotting data against fractions of different denominators | Students use favorite toys to generate real-life data, and construct bar charts and line plots to practice operations with fractions. |
| Pirate Treasure Hunt | Locating points on a coordinate grid | Students plot four-quadrant coordinate points to create a game board, then use these skills to land on the treasure |
| Secret Formula | Evaluating expressions with parentheses, brackets, or braces | Students gather digits on secret ballots, then create equations to reach a target number. |