Ep 71. How to Play Ghosts in the Graveyard

Johanna Kuiper 0:00
You know the saying practice makes progress. That rings true for our students in a math classroom because students need intentional math practice on a regular basis to boost their mastery over math skills. But why not make it fun by turning it into a game? In today’s episode, we’re joined by Aisa Hines who is going to give us the rundown on how to play Ghost in the graveyard. Let’s get started.

Johanna Kuiper 0:24
Welcome to solving for the undefined podcast. I’m your host Johanna, founder of Miss Kuiper’s Classroom, the place that equips teachers and 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.

Johanna Kuiper 0:53
Alright, hello, hello. Welcome to a brand new episode. Today we are continuing our series talking about games that we can use in our classroom to further student thinking. And today we are joined by Aisa Hines talking about my favorite game ghost in the graveyard. Welcome.

Asia Hines 1:10
Hi, Johanna,

Johanna Kuiper 1:12
Can you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Asia Hines 1:15
Yeah. So hi, everyone. I’m Asia, and I’m the face behind the sassy math teacher. I’m currently close to wrapping up my seventh year as a seventh grade math teacher here in Northern Virginia, about 30 minutes outside of DC. So yeah,

Johanna Kuiper 1:31
Awesome. What is your kind of like, favorite thing about the math world.

Asia Hines 1:37
I love how it’s easy to like, get engagement. And it’s easy to like put up a problem on the board that has something that they can think about. So I love doing things like you know, which one doesn’t belong, because it’s pretty open ended. But also I fell in love with math when I was in seventh grade, because I had a math teacher who had this wonderful way of connecting things through stories. And so she gave us like stories for just about every lesson. So I will, I’d like to say that I am as creative as she was. But I love that you can make math connect to so many different things and make it interesting for the kids.

Johanna Kuiper 2:17
Yeah, and I love the idea of using which one doesn’t belong. Because of that open ending. We talk a lot about the on the podcast about using open ended problems to further student thinking. Because those are the moments where you get true insight into not only who the student is, but also how they are thinking about the math as well. It’s like a really good picture. Whereas like a very close problem doesn’t have that ability as much. Great. So you have so many incredible ideas about engaging students in the classroom. I’ve loved so many of them, can you share a few of your favorite ways to engage students?

Asia Hines 2:57
Absolutely. And thank you, you’ve got some great episodes about some of my favorite things, too. So it may sound repetitive for some of your listeners. But I usually try to stick to one of three areas at least once a week when it comes to engaging students. So I either incorporate some sort, some sort of movement, choice or competition. And so one way that I like to encourage movement is through everyone’s favorite scavenger hunt. But it doesn’t have to be something that’s like pre made, it could just be a worksheet and you just cut it up and put it around the room. And then I like to give students choice and that you can do a whole lot of different ways. But the easiest, of course, is just splitting up a worksheet and posting it around the room. And then for what do I say, don’t lose my train of thought? I don’t think so. And the last one you said was competition. Okay, there we go. So competition is for ghosts in the graveyard, which is my go to. And so it’s great because it’s not necessarily based on the speed instead, it isn’t really like a lot of speed, because some of them it’s math. So they need you know, some time to process. So one of my favorites for sure. Is ghosts in the graveyard. Yes, I love that. I love choice. And I love that you use choice, like cutting it up and putting it around the room too. So you’re combining that choice with movement. The more things we can combine together, the more fabulous it is.

Johanna Kuiper 4:28
Yeah. So you mentioned one of my favorite things that you shared is ghost in the graveyard. Can you break down? What is ghosts in the graveyard?

Asia Hines 4:37
Yes, absolutely. So basically what ghosts in the graveyard is is a game of chance. So students work together in teams to collect points by answering a series of challenges. So each challenge has three questions. And each time they get all three questions on the challenge correctly, they get to choose a tombstone for their team’s ghost. There are a total of three two headstones, but the trick is that there’s a mystery point value assigned to each of the tombstones. And those points aren’t revealed until the end of class. And so we have about six out challenges. And so students get about six ghosts per team. And so let’s say for example, at the end of class, they put three ghosts on the first tombstone. And the first Tombstone is worth five points. And that means they have 15 points after that first tombstone, but some of the tombstones at least one, I have negative point values. And so that’s the kicker where they lose points. And they always hate that or love it, if it helps their team out. So yeah.

Johanna Kuiper 5:42
I played it one time, and I use five instead of three. And just because we had a bigger class, and what we did was one was worth like 20 points, just to have like a really high point value one. And then we had one that was worth zero, as well as some negatives, just to kind of make it a little bit more interesting. And some of the teams were so upset, because it was the first time they played it, I didn’t tell them that there were negative point values or zero point values, I wanted that shock factor. And they were like, they had so much like, pent up like anger inside of them after that. But then they knew once we played the game again, they knew that there were some zero and negative point values. I just, I love that aspect of ghosts in the graveyard.

Asia Hines 6:32
Yes, I’m gonna have a steal that zero points is a great idea.

Johanna Kuiper 6:36
So what are the pros of this game?

Asia Hines 6:40
The Pro, as I said earlier, is that students love competition. The other thing is that because you’re checking them off, for each challenge, you get to check in on their understanding while they work. And so I like to give them a little hint, if they get something wrong, then that student goes back to their team. And, you know, since that information, so I love that. And then they’re forced to collaborate, which is a skill that middle schoolers don’t always do very well at, but it’s good practice. And again, it’s not based on speed, and my students have said they liked that it’s not based on the smartest group, because it’s all based on chance. So even if you’re the group that answers all the questions correctly, quickly, that doesn’t mean you’re going to win. So that’s one of my favorites.

Johanna Kuiper 7:21
Yes. And I think that’s one thing that a lot of teachers get stuck on is, the games that they use in the classroom is always or most of them are based on speed, or you have a certain amount of time to answer a question. And it doesn’t allow for students who need that extra thinking time, it doesn’t allow for that differentiation. But a game like ghost in the graveyard, like you said, allows for students to work through something at their own speed. And they still have the possibility of winning, because like you said, it’s based on chance, not on the speed of their math abilities. And I think that’s super crucial to help students who even have like math anxiety, feel more comfortable and feel safe, because students can’t do math if they can’t, if they don’t feel safe.

Asia Hines 8:10
So true.

Johanna Kuiper 8:11
So what are the cons of doing or playing ghosts in the graveyard?

Asia Hines 8:17
I’d say one of the cons is that engagement gets pretty high. And so your classroom may disturb your neighboring classrooms, if you share a wall. I know for me, we have like one of those magnetic walls in between. So noise travels really easily. So I try to make sure I don’t do it on a day when they’re testing. But yeah, it can get kind of loud. And the only other con is, sometimes the lawn can get a little backed up with the students getting their papers checked. So I’ve developed a better system over time with that. And it works really well when I have my math coach in the room because they can also get their papers checked with her. So that’s the only way the downside since nice.

Johanna Kuiper 8:55
We used to have those like very flimsy walls in our in our building as well. Oh, they were terrible. We had it was like the accordion walls for us. And I remember before we got construction this past summer, one of the accordions wouldn’t close all the way. And so we had like a two foot gap in between the classrooms that we could do nothing about. It was insane.

Asia Hines 9:23
Wow.

Johanna Kuiper 9:24
Yep. So like talk about noise level was awful.

Asia Hines 9:28
I can’t even imagine. Wow, yeah.

Johanna Kuiper 9:32
But what a great problem to have students are highly engaged. And so it has so much noise because they’re collaborating and having so much fun.

Asia Hines 9:40
Yeah.

Johanna Kuiper 9:41
So tell us about the variations you have created because I feel like I had never even considered doing anything other than like tombstones with ghosts. You’ve gotten so creative with it.

Asia Hines 9:52
I have and shout out to my students giving me ideas and teachers on Instagram. Who requested it. Oh yeah, we’ve gotten a little creative. So ghosts in the graveyard is the original. And then I have turkeys in the oven for Thanksgiving, for winter of snowflakes on the roof. New Year’s stars in the party hat, St. Patrick’s Day, pots of gold. So they’re putting, you know, gold in a pot, and then flowers in the garden for the springtime. And at some point, I hope to make one for Valentine’s Day, and maybe Christmas as well. So

Johanna Kuiper 10:28
I just love that creativity of taking something and adapting it for the time of year. Because I think one thing that I know I struggle with is finding themed activities that still fit the concepts we’re working on. Because I feel like most of the products that you see on like TPT. They are themed but they’re like generic concepts to try and fit like, oh, maybe you covered this a while ago now review, but it has the theme of like winter. But like ghosts in the graveyard, when you have like that themed the snowflakes on the roof. It can go with whatever concept you’re working on, because that’s just the playing board rather than the problems that you’re working on. And I just I love that idea.

Asia Hines 11:13
Oh, thank you. Yeah, it does work really well when you have a template. But yeah, especially with math, and everyone’s teaching things in different order. So it’s really hard to find premade resources for the perfect season.

Johanna Kuiper 11:25
Yes, I agree. And can you share because I think it’s a really cool aspect of your template, the way that the template works, especially at the end when you reveal, yeah,

Asia Hines 11:37
so creating resources is my jam. And so the template is in Google Slides. And the way it works is that, so picture a slide. And so with the tombstones, they’re the three tombstones and then the corner, I have a pumpkin. And the pumpkin is kind of like a magnifying tool that was or like it’s just uncovering the mystery point in value, right. And so in the bottom corner of each of the tombstones, you can’t see it until you like drag that pumpkin over the number. So the teacher who’s using it knows where to find the number and where to drag it. So it reveals itself. But yeah, so the students can’t see it until you drag that little pumpkin pumpkin across to reveal the point value, which is pretty cool.

Johanna Kuiper 12:19
It is really cool. You’re such a genius when it comes to creating resources. Yeah. So say I’ve played this game, which mice with my students, which I have, and they love it, what are some similar activities or games that you would suggest I do next?

Asia Hines 12:38
Okay, so one of my other favorites is prize bags, which I think you may do as well, or brown paper bags. The way it works is that students have questions on pieces of paper. And so after they answer their question, they fold it up and choose a bag to put it in. So the bag could be a vinyl sticker, a ticket because of a ticket store, it could be for candy, or whatever. They love gum and snacks. So those are like five things you could do. And so Oh, the other thing is, so there’ll be a number written on the bag that says how many people will win. And so it’s like a little raffle. But the trick is that their answer has to be correct. So at the end of class, let’s say as the vinyl sticker bag you choose to students? If the answer is not correct, then that student gets you know, moved out. But the two that when love it does, it’s easy. And they don’t know, like necessarily, if they got it wrong or not. It’s like the whole class doesn’t know when a student gets it wrong, because that’s private, so you can just see it. And they’d love that, you know, mystery of oh, well, I win. That’s a cool,

Johanna Kuiper 13:46
I think that’s a little bit different than what I do. And I really liked that because one of my favorite games that I do is the unfair game, where you like spin the wheel and like you check on a student’s work. And it doesn’t have that anonymity if they’re incorrect. And so that can be very damaging to students, math psyche. So when you have a bag and you’re just pulling it out, you’re checking it if it’s wrong, no one’s the Wiser of who that student was. And so I liked that it protects students a little bit more than maybe like the unfair game. So that’s a cool idea. I like that.

Asia Hines 14:23
Yeah. And I do love the unfair game, too. Yes.

Johanna Kuiper 14:27
Oh, it was something I found, I think last year but I just hadn’t had a chance to play it and but I’ve played it so many times this year just because my students love it so much. And if you haven’t listened to the episode yet, for our listeners, definitely check out episode 47 where we break down the unfair game, just kind of like how we broke down and ghosts in the graveyard today. So what are some resources that can help teachers learn more?

Asia Hines 14:55
Okay, so if you want to learn more about ghosts in the graveyard, I would definitely go Go to my website. If you go to the sassy math teacher.com/ghosts. There’s a post there, and a couple of other posts about my favorite review games out there as well. So my blog is definitely the best resource. But you can also find me on socials. And I share over there too.

Johanna Kuiper 15:21
And you sell those templates for ghosts in the graveyard?

Asia Hines 15:24
Oh, of course. Yeah. So I have them where you can purchase them individually. And I just remembered I do have one for basketball too, which you could use all year if your students are very like sports focused. But you can buy them individually. Or you can buy the bundle of all of them. And that bundle is still growing. Because like I said, I hope to add Valentine’s Day and Christmas. And any other suggestions. If you have an idea, just shoot me a message and I’d be happy to make it. So that’s in my Teachers Pay teacher’s store the sassy math teacher.

Johanna Kuiper 15:55
Awesome. And I will have all of those linked down in the description and the show notes on my website. So you can just click and be transported to awesomeness. Alright, so this next question is probably my favorite one and I ask it in every single interview. What is your favorite math related joke or pun?

Asia Hines 16:15
There’s a lot of pressure. Okay, so I’m gonna go with Why wasn’t the geometry teacher at school today? Because she sprained her ankle.

Johanna Kuiper 16:24
Oh, my goodness. I have never heard that one. That’s awesome. Because she sprained her ankle. That is fantastic.

Asia Hines 16:35
Like when we just wrapped up one and about ankle, so it’s perfect timing.

Johanna Kuiper 16:38
Nice. Yes, it is perfect timing. All right. So tell the people where they can find you and learn more about who you are and all that you share. Okay, so

Asia Hines 16:48
you can primarily find me on Instagram, and Tiktok Instagram, I’m the sassy teacher. No math, and then tick tock is the sassy math teacher.

Johanna Kuiper 16:59
Awesome. And definitely please follow Asia. It is so much fun seeing everything that she shares. And I’ve learned so much, especially the the ketchup, the mustard and the pickles. Yes, exactly. I love that. And I use that. And it’s just like, wow, that is so cool. Because it just adds that like fun little spin on like a choice board type thing. That’s great. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for sharing your expertise today. I appreciate it.

Asia Hines 17:30
Thank you for having me. This was fun. Yes, it

Johanna Kuiper 17:32
was. And with that, Oh calc-u-later 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