Is your middle or high school student tuned out? Eyes glazed over? Are you tired of students complaining about the work you give them? BUT, are you just a little nervous about trying an “activity”? Afraid that if they “have fun”, they might expect it every day? That’s how I used to feel, too, before I discovered three easy ways to mix up my normal routine and/or get the kiddos up and moving around (and still working hard)! I’d like to talk to you today about mazes, scavenger hunts, and coloring pages.
Now, I realize these topics might surprise you since this is a secondary math classroom post, but don’t give up just yet. I was a-mazed at how much my high schoolers liked these activities and…..actually……began…..to…..request….them! So, here’s a brief rundown of each type of activity.
Mazes
Mazes are great. I like to call them “worksheets in disguise” because that’s really all they are is a worksheet. Having your students try some mazes is a great place to start if you are just starting to branch out from the ol’ “worksheets and book work” routine. The procedure for a maze is really the same as a worksheet: you hand it out, students complete it, you collect it or go over it.
But, somehow, students see it differently. It’s formatted differently, it might have pictures on it, they get to color or shade in as they go, and they have a purpose for completing the problems(get from start to finish). I like mazes that have a fun theme to go with them as well. I think it helps the students forget they are doing math practice, but instead helping the monkey find his bananas, or whatever. Here are some great mazes to check out for middle and high school topics.
Coloring Pages
Coloring pages for middle and high school?! YES! Am I the only high school teacher whose students had coloring books in their backpacks and would pull them out when they had a free moment and start coloring?! I kept thinking, isn’t that an activity for elementary students?! Apparently not. So, take what they like to do anyway and give it a math twist! Coloring pages don’t have to be super intricate or time consuming. They can especially be fun around a holiday or before a break. Isn’t it better to have them practicing math and doing a little bit of coloring instead of watching a movie on the last day before break? Or on a day when you have to be out of the classroom?
These are also like “worksheets in disguise” since they have an actual worksheet component, but just with an added picture to color based off the work students complete. These are very low prep on your part and easy to see if students are doing their work correctly, since you can just glance at the picture and see if the items are colored correctly. These are a few great middle school coloring pages, some of which offer two levels of differentiation as well! Double bonus!
Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger Hunts are some of my favorite activities because they offer so much versatility. You can have students work independently or in partners.
Students can complete the entire activity or you can give them a time and what’s done is done. Students can choose to get up and move to the problems as they go or, if you choose wisely, students can see the problems from their seats if they wish to remain seated.
I like to use self-checking scavenger hunts in my classroom, so it’s easy for me to see at a glance if a student is on the right track as I move around the room (or they come to me for help). The scavenger hunts that I create spell a word, so it is much easier than memorizing a pattern or sequence like some other scavenger hunts I have seen. The words are long and have no repeating letters, so students don’t generally guess them and they can’t make a mistake and still spell the word correctly.
I tend to let students work in pairs for scavenger hunts because I really think they can benefit from talking to their partner about the problems. Scavenger hunts are also great because they are low prep. Just print out the problems, tape them up in a random order, and give each student (or pair) a work page, and off they go!
This is one activity that my students request over and over and over. Here are my self-checking scavenger hunts for middle and high school.
I know when I first started branching out of my worksheet comfort zone, I was slightly terrified. But, I was surprised at how well my students worked on these alternative activities. I preloaded the activities by stating that if they couldn’t handle the added fun, then we could just go back to boring worksheets, but they did great and worked harder than they did on a regular worksheet. If you have been thinking about changing up your routine, I encourage you to give activities a try. You just might be surprised at the results!
Bonus: Fact Finders
Fact Finders are math worksheets, but with a twist. Students are trying to answer questions about a topic from geography or history. In order to figure out the answers to the questions, they have to correctly answer a math problem! These have always been a hit in my classroom, so I’m confident your students will enjoy them, too!
If you are looking for a way to incorporate writing into your math classroom, be sure to check out my ideas here.