July Challenge #5 Time Fillers

Ok…so I brought up time-fillers (like when you don’t have enough time to really get into something else, but there are too many minutes left until the bell rings) in my last post, so I figured…why not share one that I like to do.

I don’t have a name for this, but it allows students to practice integer operations without really feeling like you’re practicing integer operations.  I picked this little time-filler up somewhere along the line of my career, but really can’t tell you where.

It starts by putting something like this on the board:

For students to practice integer addition, the next line would look like this:

The goal for the students is to simply be able to tell the teacher the final integer.  That is ALL you are supposed to hear from them.  So, in this case, the students should get a final result of 3.

If they don’t have the correct final answer… you tell them “NOPE, go back and figure out where you made your error!”

The kids actually get pretty excited and ask to do another one.  And, I’ve had students ask to be the one creating the problem.  We’ve even messed with integer subtraction and multiplication…they do get kind of tricky.

If you have a good name for this time-filler or have seen it too…I’d love to hear about it!

TWO POSTS DONE IN ONE DAY…WOW!