Five Towers Math Game

We played such a fun game in math today! I have been piloting some new programs this month so I'm getting a little bit of everything from everyone. That is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time! Today was good! 

I called this "5 Towers" because it just made sense. The program didn't call it that or suggest it...this just came from our investigation today. I love it when something on the fly happens and turns out so well! 

How to play the game: 

#1
First we met together at one of my tables and I put one ten (1 tower) and 7 ones (individual blocks) on the table and asked how many blocks were on the table. It's funny but both of my classes said "7"....like it was no problem at all. They completely ignored the tower of 10 sitting there! It took a little conversation but we got there and discussed that we didn't need to count the 10, we could just count up from there. 

#2
We tried a bunch of other numbers until we felt pretty solid. 21, 36, 42....you get the idea

#3 
I introduced the game by telling them each table would get 5 towers (50 cubes) to build a number. I would write a number on the white board and their group would make the number as quickly as they could. 

The goal was to keep the towers in towers of 10! (as much as possible) That way they weren't breaking things apart and counting by 1's. 

The first group with the correct number in the middle (and sitting oh so quietly) would get a point. The group with the most points would go to lunch first (yay for easy prizes!)

And finally...
We played the game......first of all we really need to work on our cooperation skills. This was evident during this game. I loved watching them figure out how to make "42" together. They wanted to grab all of the towers for themselves and it was hard to work as a team. This was great practice! We pointed out the fact that they had to work together....there weren't enough cubes for everyone to build the number on their own!   

This was so great for place value practice and a really good team building activity. My tables that worked together flew through this! One table designated 2 girls the 'ones' team and the boys the 'ten towers' team. They were the first ones done every time! 

Tomorrow we are going to add in HeidiSongs 10 song called "Get on the Bus". It is one of my favorites! 

Every time I walk my kids to bus I want to sing, "Get on the bus, get on the bus, get on the bus...." No one gets me....

HeidiSongs saves me all of the time. If you would like to see more, click HERE for my affiliate link. 

I wish I had taken pictures....I was too engaged to remember to pick up my phone! I will remember tomorrow when we get some independent practice with towers. Until next time, happy teaching!