Integer Activities

Here is another post for my fellow teachers. Along with multiplying and dividing fractions, integers was another concept my 6th graders struggled with that we have been reviewing. Since my activities for multiplying and dividing fractions were a hit, I decided to do some of the same things for integers...so here goes 3 days in my classroom!

Every activity is something that the students work on together, so I have learned the hard way that you must set rules and boundaries for working together in groups. Here is the Smartboard that I created and left up on the board through the hour.

First up: Integer-Opoly
Items Needed: Game Board (hand-made)
                        Answer Key (Optional and hand-made)
                        Directions
                        Dice (I just used one)
                        Index Card (optional, to keep score on)
                        Game Pieces (I used coins-a quarter, penny, nickel, and dime)
                        Number line
                        Scratch paper and pencil for each student

Here are the directions that I have typed for the students to follow:
1. Put all game pieces on START
2. Roll the dice. Players go in order based on their roll from highest to lowest.
3. P1: Roll the dice and move that many spaces around the game board. All players must answer the question that P1 landed on to ensure P1 got the correct answer. When you are finished answering the question, make sure the answer you got is located on the Integer-Opoly Answers page. If P1 got the answer correct, they receive 1 point. If they got it wrong, they receive no points.
4. Repeat step 3 with P2...
5. Each time a player passes START they receive 5 points.
6. Keep track of your scores on the index card provided.
7. At the end of the time period, the player with the highest score wins.
8. If you land on a question has already been solved, you must be able to find it on your scratch paper in order to receive that point. If you cannot find the question on your scratch paper, you must re-solve the problem.

I had the students play in groups of 2, 3 or 4 and all seemed to work just fine. I made the students write each and every problem someone landed on, so I could go by and check their work and make sure there were no errors and to clear up any misunderstanding if need be.

Next up: Integer Two-Ways
These activities came from "Developing Mathematical Fluency" Grades 5-8 by Grayson H. Wheatly. There are several awesome activities from this book, this is one of my favorites.
Items Needed: Fraction Two-Ways Worksheet laminated
                        Dry-erase markers
                        Erasers (I use baby socks)
                        Scratch paper and pencil
                        Number line

In this activity, the students have to be flexible and they must understand that if I'm adding going one way, I have to subtract going backwards. This also leads right into algebra and solving one-step equations; this just doesn't include the variable. Since the answers have to be correct going from both left to right and top to bottom, they can easily self check themselves.

Lastly: Roll With Integers
Items Needed: Pencil and scratch paper
                        Roll with Integer game board
                        Dice
                        Number line

It's hard to see exactly what the students are doing here, but basically there are 2 players (if there needed to be 3 players on one game board, I just had the students add Player 3) the problems look similar to this:
P1:   -_____  +  _____ = _____
P2:   -_____  +  _____ = _____
The students roll the dice (I had them roll 2 dice and add them together) then they have to decide which place to put that number. The goal is to get the highest number. Each question is a little different (the position of the negative sign and whether it's addition or subtraction), so they have to use different strategies on each. This game does not include multiplying and dividing integers, which was okay with me since the majority of them struggle the most with adding and subtracting. They really seemed to like this game.

Hope this helps!! Enjoy!