Who
are the Old Math Guys?
A few years ago I was teaching
exponent rules to my eighth graders and I was looking for an engaging,
meaningful way to practice with them. I
was wracking my brain for fun matching activities and it hit me. Old Maid was one of my favorite games to play
as a little kid.
This was perfect because there are
two truths I know for sure about my eighth grade students:
1)
They are super competitive.
2) They
secretly love games from their childhood.
Thus Old Math Guy was born!
{Although, true story, it wasn’t
until weeks or months later when I was writing in my plan book that I realized
the initials were OMG.}
So Old Math Guy is played just like
Old Maid. Ideally I like my students in
groups of 5. There are 35 cards in a
deck so each student gets 7.
First, they look at their cards to
see if there are any pairs.
Then, one at a time, they go around
in a circle selecting a new card from the person to their right, checking to
see if they have a pair, then allowing the student on their left to select a
card from them.
The twist! There is one Old Math Guy card that has no
match. Whoever has him at the end loses.
The student who loses the game is
typcailly in charge of clean up.
If students match all their cards
before the end of the game, I say they are “safe” and they enjoy watching the
rest of the game play out.
The original Old Math Guy was cute
in his own way. I designed him myself in
PowerPoint. J
Then I came to a point when I wanted
the game to look a little more polished so I hired the amazingly talented Sarah Pecorino to redesign Old Math Guy and – voila – the adorable, ethnically
diverse Old Math Guys were born.
Why should you love them,
too?
My students and I are quite obsessed
with this game because it’s so fun and it is such great hands-on practice.
Win-win.
Here are just some of the reasons
why I love OMG:
10)
All students are engaged in learning.
9)
Students love the fact that it is a “game.”
8)
Even the most disinterested students get excited to play.
7)
Students are working collaboratively and self-checking one another.
6)
Prep the game once and you have it forever. {Yay planning!}
5)
Great for a group of early finishers who are ready to quietly play
before the next activity.
4)
Easy-to-run game that looks great during a walk-through observation.
3)
Takes about 30-40 minutes to play, leaving time for other
activities/necessary routines in a one-hour class.
2)
Students are practicing a skill while having a blast.
1)
My students beg me to play. They
beg me to do math. This makes my soul
happy!
Try for free!
You can scoop up this Translating
Algebraic Expressions game for
FREE in my store.
FREE in my store.
And if you and your students love
this game as much as we do, I’ve made an affordable {growing} bundle that
contains all of my current and future Old Math Guy games.
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