How to Set Up the Hands On Center of Math Workshop
Middle school math centers make math fun for students. Using a Hands On math center, in my opinion, is the most fun math center for students. The Hands On Center of math workshop allows you to implement math games, fun activities, and creativity into your math classroom. This is often the math center that students remember and the reason they will be asking for math workshop again.
(1) fun math games as math centers in middle school
This math center is the perfect opportunity to incorporate math games into the class period. There are hundreds of great games to use in the classroom! I used to teach with the Everyday Math curriculum and still use a lot of their ideas for games. I usually try to have the game correspond to what we are learning at the time, but will sometimes mix in an old game as a review for my students. I have created some of my own math games to use in this center as well. This Percent Scramble or my free samples of Connect Four games for 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade math are all free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, so be sure to get a copy! I also have some bingo games that I use in small groups at the center. One of my students’ favorite is also the Product Game from the NCTM site. The strategy involved in the Product Game is great and kids absolute love it! Having a bank of math games to go to has been very helpful when planning for this center. More recently, I have been including more math board games, like the Decimal Dash game pictured below. The post linked here outlines which games work best for each grade level, from 5th to 8th grade math.
(2) Other ideas for the hands on math center
If it isn't a math game, I usually come up with some sort of hands-on task for students to complete. For example, while working on multiplying fractions, I had students flip over a fraction card (from my free Equivalent Fraction Memory game) and roll a die to create their own multiplication problems. This is my center where I can get creative and try to think of fun new activities for students to try! Tomorrow I am going to be experimenting with the order of operation cards pictured below. Students flip over a "Target Number" and then need to use their numbers and operations to get as close to the target number as possible.
All in all, this is a fun center for both students and teachers to think of new ideas to experiment and try in the classroom. It can sometimes eat up a lot of prep time creating these activities, so I would recommend finding activities that are easily reused as a center! I'd love to hear any questions or ideas in the comments section below.
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