“Pop Drop Move-It (2’s and 5’s)”
KNPIG ID #M 4437.2
What's this activity about?
This game is poppin’ with fun and action. Hard to believe for a math game? Well, math is fun! You and your child will use popsicle sticks and markers to toss and solve multiplication problems. You will also have each other’s markers “move-it” off the game board as you try to get rid of your own markers. The first person to use all their markers wins. This game will keep you moving and multiplying until those five’s and two’s facts “pop” right into your child’s head.
What materials do we need?
10 popsicle sticks, two different colored or types of covers, Pop Drop Move-It game board (multiples of 2 and 5), recording sheets (see print link).
Create two sets of dotted popsicle sticks- label five with two dots on one side of the stick, label the other five with five dots on one side of the stick. The back of the sticks will be blank.
How do we play?
- Players choose game piece and select eight of them for the game.
- Get the set of sticks with 2 dots, the set with 5 dots and the game board.
- Taking turns, players choose either the set of popsicle sticks with two dots or the set of popsicle sticks with five dots.
- Players will drop the popsicle sticks and determine the number of dots that are face-up. Player will then cover that number on the board.
- To “Move It”: If either player gets a number that is already covered by the other player, they can tell that player to “move it” and put their cover on the number.
- The first player to use all of their covers wins.
Where’s the Math?
The math in this game has a lot to do with the math your child is learning in school. Your child is working toward mastery of their multiplication facts by the end of third grade. Before that happens though, they are working towards a deeper understanding of what is means to multiply. With this game, your child will see how multiplication is represented in three different ways:
-As a number added to itself repeatedly
-As total number of groups multiplied by the number in each group
-As a total in a single group multiplied by the total number of groups They are learning how to represent multiplication in writing. They will practice writing down the facts they are finding in two different ways. The repetition of the facts and the act of writing them down will help your child recall them faster and more accurately.
Things to Think About:
As always when working with children it is important to remember to BE PATIENT. This game is pretty exciting. You’ll be tossing popsicle sticks and moving each other’s game pieces off the board; it’s easy to lose the math in this type of gameplay. Staying focused while having fun is a challenge.
This game is a very tactile way of looking at multiplication. Kids can put their hands on the math, and then get practice writing out the fact on paper. Children can see the values as separate groups and then as one whole group. Writing down this visual representation of the quantities will help them understand how the quantity changes as the sticks multiply.
If your child is struggling suggest different ways they can look at the problem. You can also encourage them by talking about the quantities in a way your child understands. Your child may initially need to count by ones to determine the total. You can pause the counting and instead ask if they see the numbers in a different ways. They may see the number of equal sized groups (i.e. number of sticks) or the size of the groups (i.e. number of dots on each stick) first. Either way is OK. These conversations about numbers and how the numbers change can help your child develop their best strategy for figuring out these problems.
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