Ep 51. Turning Worksheets into Games Students Want to Play

Johanna Kuiper 0:00
Welcome to solving for the undefined podcast. I’m your host, Johanna, founder of Miss Kuiper’s. Classroom, the place that equips teachers in creating a healthy math classroom where students can thrive, no matter their academic abilities. But it’s not always about the numbers. And that’s why I’m here, bringing you the formulas to solve your problems, math and otherwise, plus strategies on cultivating that necessary math mindset. And that’s what you can count on. All right. Hello,

Johanna Kuiper 0:29
hello. Welcome to a brand new episode. Today we have Brooklyn joining us to talk to us about taking worksheets and making them into games. Welcome.

Brooklyn 0:41
Hi, I’m so happy to be here.

Johanna Kuiper 0:43
So to start off with you just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Brooklyn 0:47
Yeah, so I am a seventh grade math teacher in Alabama. And I actually started out teaching elementary school. So I did two years of third grade math, science and social studies. And then I did two years of first grade all subjects. And then I decided that I wanted something totally different. And I got certified to be able to teach middle school math. So this is my fourth year doing seventh grade math. So that’s kind of a little bit of my educational background. Just got married in May. And so my husband, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and just enjoying life together. So that’s me.

Johanna Kuiper 1:26
That’s awesome. So what made you I know, you said you wanted to change? What was the catalyst from going to elementary to middle school math of all things.

Brooklyn 1:35
I really love teaching third grade math. And so I absolutely loved it and didn’t actually want to move, but I had to move down to first grade. And I did not enjoy that age group, I knew that it wasn’t for me, I really wanted my students to be a little bit more independent. I know, middle schools, middle schoolers can still be needy in their own ways, but it’s just completely different. And so after one year, I went ahead and started putting some feelers out for actually a sixth grade position. And they said, what we really, really need as a seventh grade math teacher, I guess it’s a little bit harder for that, those secondary positions. So I thought about it. And then when I did first grade for the second time, after like, a month, I knew I was like, I can’t do this anymore. Because they they do grow so much. But those that first semester is just really, really hard if that’s not where your heart is. So I wanted to jump way up, I wanted older kids, I wanted more independence. And math has just always been one of my favorite subjects. Because it’s really, it can be so hard. And I like to make it the magic of seeing the kids actually understand it. And you can just make math so fun. And so I that’s just kind of what my heart kind of jumped to I was like, I want to if I go to middle school, because they asked me like, What subject Could you do, I was like, let me do math, like I can bring magic to math. So that’s just I felt like my heart just kind of led me there.

Johanna Kuiper 3:06
That’s really cool. The idea of you wanted to bring it magic to math, because I agree. So many kids really have like predefined notions of what math is and what math should be. And so having it teachers who want to bring the magic and show them how cool math is, and make it something that they can do and understand, I think is really awesome and important. So taking that idea of putting magic into the math classroom, you have this idea of taking worksheets and putting them into games, what inspired that

Brooklyn 3:42
I wanted something new for my kids, but we’re on 50 to 55 minute periods. So that was really hard for me, especially coming from elementary were in first grade, I had them all day in third grade, we did have two classes, but I still had them for two and a half hours. And so it was a very big adjustment because it just it goes so fast. And it still feels fast to me, I still after four years, I still feel like oh my goodness. And so I thought, Okay, I need something really fun, really exciting. But also it can’t take that much time. Because we don’t have, we just don’t have it. And there’s a couple times a year that I will do like stations and things like that. But it definitely takes multiple days. So there’s a time and a place for that. And then there’s a time and a place for like I need something that’s going to be easy for me to put together but meaningful for them and also fun and exciting. So I felt like the time constraint is really what drove me to this because it’s so quick and easy.

Johanna Kuiper 4:44
So walk us through that process of how do you take a worksheet and make it into a game.

Brooklyn 4:48
So I have a couple that I do. You can obviously use any worksheets that you already have. You want them to be something that maybe the kids would need at least one minute to solve. So when you’re looking at different worksheets, there can definitely be easy questions for sure word problems, just kind of whatever as long as say you can give them one minute, there’s a couple things you can do. Number one, you can take a worksheet and you can just cut up problems, you can take a couple of worksheets, even and just mix up the problems, whatever. And you could show them under your document camera. I’ve also even done like screenshots, like on my computer screenshot, like certain questions of a worksheet that I like, and put them on a Google slide. So you can just put the images and you can just make a little short slideshow and you can show them that way. And so whenever I do that method, you can even do study guides to I think that was the first thing that I actually did, when I did this was I took like a massive three page study guide that they all would have freaked out over what I did I cut, I cut up the problems. And so when I display them, I will let the kids work in either, you know, partners, trios, small groups, and I’ll give them a timeframe for the problem. So that’s why I say maybe allow a good problem that may be like, Okay, you can give them a good minute to solve. And if it’s a harder problem, I’ll let them know. Okay, I’m gonna give you like two minutes for this one, this one’s a harder word problem. And so basically, you know, the kids will work through the problem. And my rule is that everybody has to have the same answer. So it holds everybody accountable, because there’s always going to be that group or that person that just wants to, you know, wait till the end and copy whatever everyone has down. So everyone has to have the same answer. But if I see that happening, they’re not going to get the points, I’ll get to the points in a second. So that usually nips that out, because the group is like, you got to participate, or we’re not going to get the points. Everybody has to have collectively taught come up with the same answer. And we usually will use whiteboards just because they’re easier to hold up. And yeah, so at the end of the time, everybody holds their boards up, you know, and if they have the right answer, they’re gonna get whatever points we spin. So I like to use like random. Like spinners. There’s like free spinners on Google. If you just type in like, spinner wheel or whatever. Like, there’s several that will pop up. So you can enter whatever values you want. So being in seventh grade integers are really big. So I like to do positive and negative numbers. And I’ll even ask the kids sometimes, like, what points do we want, because they’ll want to do like minus 200, or plus 50. And then they’ll want to do like, plus two, they like to kind of do a mixture. If I still taught third grade, I wish I could have gone back in time and done this because I would have loved it, I would have done a multiplication tables. That way, whatever we landed on, they would have to come up with the product. Or you could even do division facts. And yeah, and if you’re, you know, in fourth or fifth grade, you could probably still do that. You could even do like larger numbers, like three digit numbers. But anyways, so whenever if they got that question, right, I would hit this spinner, and then whatever it landed on, those are the points they get. So with us doing positives and negatives, I like to do at the end, whoever has the most points, like absolute value, like positive or negative, because sometimes you’ll have a group that they only get it right when you land on a negative, like minus 500 or minus 50. And so that kind of keeps them going, instead of giving up and being like, Oh, we’re so far down, like we’re not going to win. Sometimes there’s like two groups going against each other on who can have the biggest like negative number. And it’s also a great thing, because they have to keep up with their points as they go along. So I tell them, you know, as a group, you guys have to keep up with your points. And then if you guys are not agreeing on what your points are like, obviously raise your hand, I’ll come help you. But they’ve got to keep up with it along the way. So if it’s plus 50, and then minus 75, like they’re having to do that math along the way, which is kind of its own little lesson. So again, if you’re doing times tables, they’re having to multiply and add them up. So that one’s really, really fun. We just call that one spin to win. And so it’s nice because you can take any worksheet that you already have just laying around, you can use those problems and instead of just passing it out to them and having them do it. It’s like it’s turned into a fun game. But they’re completely engaged the whole time. Like they even the kids that usually don’t want to do stuff, they will do this because it’s fun. And we’ll even throw in on the spinner like do 10 Jumping jacks or go find something in your backpack and go throw it away. Like we’ll do silly stuff just to kind of make it fun. But that’s one that’s really popular. And then another one that we do is the hundreds chart. So if you want to use a hundreds chart, basically each kid would get a copy of a hundreds chart, and you would give them the one worksheet like normal. So you don’t have to cut it up, you would just your average worksheet. But however many questions they get correct, or how many numbers they get to mark off a hundreds chart. So what I personally like to do is put the answers on a Google form. So have the kids through the worksheet, put their answers in the Google Form. And then you know, you got 17 questions right at a 20. Go mark off 17 numbers, kind of like self checking for them. You could go over the answers orally, I’ve done that before to like, Hey, we’re gonna go over this, how many points you got right? or have any questions you got, right? That’s how many numbers you get to mark off. And it’s like a probability lesson too, because the kids kind of start coming up with like, their own method, they’re like, Well, I’m gonna do all the 10s, or I’m gonna do all the fives, or they’ll just do the first 17, like whatever. And I will do again, you can do a random number generator on Google, where Google will pick a number between one and 100. Or they like it if I asked Siri. So if I asked my phone, Hey, Siri, pick a number. I really liked that one, because that one’s fun. Because sometimes she’ll pick like the same number two or three times. And if the kids had that number marked off their chart, they’re like, very excited. And so that one’s really fun. Because again, you’re using a worksheet that you already have, all you have to have for that are just 100 Start printed off, and I like shrink them pretty small, because I have like 145 kids. So I’ll just have like a big stack of kind of miniature like 100 charts. And when I want to do that, I’m like, Alright, we’re about to glue this in. And, you know, we’ll do things like give out stickers, or I’ve got like erasers like if you want to give something out, you know, when when they get a number or when they have the most points on the spin to win, you can or sometimes we just do bragging rights. I’m like, you get bragging rights all day, and you get to brag that you got the most points and spin to win. But yeah, those are, those are my two big like, easy, Kid approved, they love doing either one of those games with a worksheet.

Johanna Kuiper 12:07
I really like both of those, and especially the one with the 100 start, because I’ve always done it as like 100 Start per class period. And so then they’re kind of like fighting for the numbers. And, but when they each have their own individual one, it allows for them not to feel rushed, because they get to choose whatever numbers they get any numbers they want. And it’s not like, oh, no, everyone else has taken all the numbers like there’s no more left. And so it eliminates that, like rushing piece of trying to get it done, but actually working through the problems to get them correct in order to then mark off as many as they can on theirs.

Brooklyn 12:45
And it’s like a reward to because like, you’ll have kids who I mean, we know you give a kid a 20 question worksheet, and you’ve got some that are gonna get through five, unless there’s a lot of prodding going on. And it’s kind of like they learn like, Okay, if I only answer five and get all five, right, I’m only going to mark off five numbers, and my chances are going to be more slim. So it kind of motivates them, like, let me try to get through as many as I actually can. And I’ll tell them, you know, it’s okay, if you don’t get through all 20 of these questions, whatever we’re doing, but it’s the quality. So the more you get, right, the better. So don’t rush, like you said, don’t rush to try to get through all 20 and get half of them wrong. But take your time and try to get as many right and also giving them that autonomy, like you can skip around on the worksheet, try all the ones that you really think you know, first and kind of get that boost of confidence that way you feel good. And then you can try some of the other ones that you’re not so sure about. So all in all, it’s good. And I’ve also done it with a sub when I leave, because you know, we typically at my school, like we can’t use computers when we have a sub or anything like that. So it has to be something on paper, which ends up usually being a worksheet. And I’ll tell them like you know this work with a sub tomorrow, we’re gonna do the hundreds chart so you better get all these questions done. And don’t sit around and waste your time as we know a lot of kids want to do with a sob they don’t want to work as hard because we’re not there. And so that’s that will keep you know, you’re not going to get 100% on track when you’re gone. But it kind of helps motivate some kids who are maybe on the fence like okay, yeah, I’m actually going to do this because I want to do that tomorrow and have questions to mark off. So it can be used as an incentive as well.

Johanna Kuiper 14:23
That’s awesome. I might do that when I have a sub next because yeah, that is a smart idea. Because like you said, it keeps them more accountable because they want to be able to do the 100 chart the next day with you and so they have to be able to work through that worksheet diligently and with integrity to get the 100 chart reward the next day. Yep. I’m interrupting today’s episode to ask you a vital question. Do you have the tools in your classroom for student success? We’ll wonder no more because I have a way for you to check your work. In my new guide seven math teacher must haves for student success has the top seven items you need in your classroom, from classroom staples to manipulatives that are often missed. This checklist will ensure that your students have a successful school year. Additionally, each item shows the best budget and splurge options. Download the seven math teacher must haves for student success after listening to today’s episode by going to miss kiper.com/guide. So I know you talked about it earlier of like, you want to make sure the questions for the spinner game are at least one minute kind of length. What other qualities do you look for in a worksheet to turn it into a game?

Brooklyn 15:45
I like to have some with like a variety of question types. So maybe like a mixture, like whatever my unit is. But what you can do and what I do very often is you know, if you do this site at the end of the unit, which is kind of what I like to do, where I can have a good mixture of problem types is go look at you know, okay, what did you do the first week, okay, pull a worksheet from that, what did you do the second week of this unit pull away from that, and then you can mix up the problems. So it may not even so much be as what qualities in one worksheet, but pick two or three that you just like in general. And you can use those problems. But I do usually like to include some word problems, if possible. Some harder questions like maybe you know that higher D Okay level just because they are going to be working in groups. Um, but that’s usually what I look for. And I usually will try to have a good 15 questions or so for my class period. So if you are on a block schedule and have more time, I would at least have 20 questions to go through. Because you’d rather have too many than not enough. But for me in a 55 minute period, by the time we come in, do Bell work. And then include some time at the end for packing up a good 15 questions is good enough, because you have to give them the time to do it, the time to spin and add up their points and things like that. For the hundreds chart, that’s just kind of your average Joe like you would just give them the whole worksheet, that one could be any kind of worksheet because it’s really like normally giving them a worksheet you’re just throwing in that extra step after so that one is a little bit a little bit more lenient, I guess on problem types.

Johanna Kuiper 17:37
Cool. I like that a lot. Because I know for me, my one of my things is like trying to make sure that I am using the resources I have. And my curriculum comes with a bunch of different worksheets. And so that those two games give me the option of maybe like during our unit for the hundreds chart, just giving them one of those worksheets. Yeah, but at the end, using the spinner game, taking a bunch of the problems from those worksheets, and some of the kids may have seen them before, which allows them to feel more confident in the end, I can use that as well.

Brooklyn 18:11
And you can write those on the board. Like I know a lot of us have that those curriculums with the workbooks and things like that. And they’re the workbooks, we know we’re not engaging, but they might have good problems. And then you could even write those on the board, go through a worksheet and workbook page and circle the ones that you really like. And you could just throw those up on the board, you know. And that would be a great way to use, like you said what you already have, you don’t have to go buy something on TPT. Or go download something like every teacher already has so many worksheets. So use what you use what you already have. And it also doesn’t take like any planning time besides copying some hundreds charts, but even the spinner you can pull that spinner up in class and do it have them like I said, help create what the values are going to be. And I know for me on my browser, it saves whatever I put in so every time I go to it, it’s already there. So once you do it, I mean, it’s already there. So it’s pretty easy.

Johanna Kuiper 19:12
Yeah, save time. I love it. So how can a teacher get started doing games from worksheets in their classrooms?

Brooklyn 19:19
So first, obviously pull some worksheets. So maybe like whatever unit you’re in, or maybe if you’re about to start a unit, um, maybe just kind of pull some out having to decide and be like, Okay, I want to use this one, maybe try this spin game, or, you know, let me cut these questions up. Or if you want to try it 100 Start like just find a good, you know, 15 to 20 question worksheet, just because if it’s less than that you want the kids to be able to mark off a decent amount of numbers instead of 100 and just kind of have that kind of in the back of your mind. And then I found my 100 chart on TPT. Like as a freebie I just type that in and select Get free and there’s free ones, print those off, have yourself a good stack, you can use the hundreds chart one to two times, I usually don’t let them reuse it more than twice, because then they start getting so many numbers marked off that it kind of defeats the purpose of picking a number. But you could just kind of have those that off to the side, you can pull up the spinners on Google and go ahead and be maybe thinking of some creative things that you might want to pop in there, like the jumping jacks or push ups or finding something in your backpack to throw away or anything like that. Maybe be thinking depending on your grade level, if you want to do times tables, or if you want to do positives and negatives. I mean, the possibilities there are kind of endless, I’m even thinking I should probably do times tables with my seventh graders, I wouldn’t be a bad idea what you positive and negative, you know, multiple choice multiplication facts in there, too. So yeah, really those those few things right there, and then you’re going to be, you’re going to be good to go. That’s really all you need. So finding some good worksheets that you like, would definitely be your first step.

Johanna Kuiper 21:10
And then just to reiterate, how often do you do this type of activity, I like

Brooklyn 21:15
to do it like once per unit, like the spin to win, I really like to do towards the end. So maybe as a review of the unit, and like kind of like as our study guide, sometimes I take our study guide and do it, like I said, um, the hundreds chart, I might do like, twice in a unit two, maybe three times. I don’t want to do it too, too often to like, make it not exciting. But when I go, you know, a couple weeks without doing it and we do it again, they are very excited. Or they’ll ask like, when are we going to do that again. So I would say the 100 start, you could definitely do two to three times in a unit and the other, maybe make it like it’s a big deal. Like we’re going to Okay, it’s time for us to do it for this unit. That way, it kind of builds up like a lot of anticipation and makes it like really have a lot of energy.

Johanna Kuiper 22:09
Awesome. Is there anything else that you would like to share in regards of making worksheets into games,

Brooklyn 22:15
if it doesn’t go? Well, the first time or if it’s a little bit hectic, don’t give up. Anytime you try something new, it’s going to be something that you kind of have to wrap your head around with your kids. The hundreds chart definitely is pretty chill until you go to draw the numbers and then like they are gonna get loud, like when they’re scream. But other than that, it’s pretty relaxed. The other one, definitely anytime you’re doing group work, you know, you might have to play around with Okay, do I let two? Do I let partners do this? Do I let trios Do this? Do I let small groups do this? Anytime you do group work, it’s going to be like any other thing. So don’t give up. If you have kids who are opting out, just let them go work in isolation and let the other kids still work together to get their points as any good teacher would do. But definitely give it give it more than one shot. It’s really easy. And it’s it’s really fun. And it’s like such low prep for your lesson plans because you’re doing high quality questions that you already like. But you’re just putting a little spin on it to make it fun. So definitely give it a couple of tries and and don’t give up on it. If it doesn’t go as well as you hoped for the first time.

Johanna Kuiper 23:29
I really liked that you shared that. Because I know for me, sometimes I get discouraged if the first time I try something new that I know is really fun or really exciting. And it could be really good for kids. It can be discouraging when the kids don’t react or enjoy it the way that you think they will. So trying it more than once and not giving up is important. Absolutely. Alright, so I asked this in every interview. So what is your favorite math related joke or pun?

Brooklyn 24:00
Math teachers have problems. That’s my favorite. I have it on a t shirt and it’s written in my classroom. I’ve loved that one. Like ever since my first year of teaching.

Johanna Kuiper 24:11
That’s awesome. I like that. And that you have a shirt with the best course

Brooklyn 24:14
I usually wear it on state testing day when we do math. That’s what I wear. That way when I’m walking around monitoring the kids, I’m like, you get nervous or you start feeling just look at my shirt and laugh. So yeah,

Johanna Kuiper 24:28
that’s awesome. Thank you for sharing. All right, so as we wrap this episode up today, where can people find you to learn more about who you are and what you have to offer?

Brooklyn 24:40
I am on Instagram at Brooklyn’s brightest. And I also have a blog Brooklyn’s brightest dot blog and I put I’ve got some things on there about the topics that we talked about today. And that’s a good place where I like to share any fun ideas like this in the classroom. So Instagram and blog, very easy way to follow along and contact me if you have any questions or if you implement this in your classroom. Let me know how it goes.

Johanna Kuiper 25:10
Awesome. Thank you. I’m excited to implement this this coming week in my classroom. I think it’s going to be awesome. So thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. And thank you.

Brooklyn 25:22
Thanks for having me. All right, bye. Bye.

Johanna Kuiper 25:26
Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode. To find all the links and resources to things talked about in this episode, head on over to Miss Kuiper’s classroom.com and click on podcast

Transcribed by https://otter.ai