Spark Student Motivation: Building Math Problems

Bring on the weekend! We had our big field trip to St. Augustine yesterday and I plan them on a Friday on purpose so I have the weekend to recover! It's a great field trip and the kids loved it, but for teachers it can be stressful ( I think we make it more stressful creating in our minds the millions of things that COULD go wrong!)

Well, today I bring you something that motivated my students and me! Florida is giving a brand state test this year and unfortunately we have very little practice materials or resources to work with. I got my hands on a practice book and it had addition and subtraction problems with missing numbers. We haven't practiced adding and subtracting larger numbers with missing numbers, so I wanted to make it fun and interactive for them. I made a worksheet so they could "build math problems", just like they build words in our classroom. They were very motivated to solve these problems!

 

It's definitely challenging because of the amount of missing numbers, but I made the number boxes 0-9 at the bottom to manipulate the problem so they could use trial and error and different strategies they've learned about numbers (borrowing and carrying, etc.). Each number can only be used once. This challenging style of math is perfect to align with the mathematical practice of perseverance.

I allowed them to work in partners or groups. Most started with the addition problem, since they felt it would be the easiest. They realized some columns had more than one solution, which is the best part of the "movable" pieces, no need to keep writing and erasing. The conversations I overheard were awesome! I love when they work collaboratively on challenging projects!  

 

 

**My students found another solution as well!

 

It took most of my students between 15-30 minutes, not a quick lesson, but a great lesson! After they solved this "puzzle", they asked for more! This is the part where they motivated me...I'm going to create some additional math problems for them to build! It could also be used for early finishers, enrichment, or a math center.

 

Want  a copy to challenge your students? Leave your email in the comments and I'll send it to you. :)
 

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

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