Today, I want to share one of my favorite games for students to play to strengthen their adding and subtracting skills with integers. It is called Spider Match.
The object of this multi-player game is to grab as many pairs of flies that add up to the number in the middle of the spider web before your opponents see the pair. The student with the most matches wins the round.
The game can be played with up to four people. So to start, I group my students according to ability and have them move their desks so that they are sitting near each other. One student is in charge of setting the game up with a password and setting it up as a private game. The person in charge then gives the password to the other students in the group so that they can enter the game. After a few rounds, I change the groups and have all the winners play each other, the second place students play each other, etc.
Usually I have students play this game while we are studying integers. However, this game would be great to use on the day before a break when it is hard to keep students focused. I hope your students enjoy the game as much as mine do.
