Snowball Fight! Multiplication Fact Practice

This is such a fun game, you just have to try it! My class is boy-heavy, so finding opportunities to get up and run around (literally!) help more than they hurt. I used to feel very hesitant about playing games like this, but my best recommendation is just to try it out (with clear behavior expectations, of course!) and see how much fun the kids have~ it's completely worth it and they are so much more engaged!

I began by printing out one set of Snowball Multiplication Sheets.

These are the 3-9 facts~ my kids have a really good handle of 0, 1, 2 and 10. Cut them in half before you begin.

I passed out 2-3 half sheets to each student and had them crumple each into a "snowball". Students also needed to get out their math notebook and a pencil because they would be writing down the math facts and answers as they went around the room.

When notebooks and pencils were ready, kids got their snowballs ready and we all counted down, "3, 2, 1, SNOWBALL FIGHT!"

They tossed the snowballs around the room and ran to pick one up, write down the fact and answer, re-crumple it and repeat the process. They could use any strategy they would like, their goal was to get as many facts as possible written down from the snowballs in the room.

Using the Multiplication Songs sheet to help

Aaah, no bored sleepy children here!

The first time we played this yesterday, I went around and played with the kids. We played for about 5 minutes and then the kids with the top 5 scores got to pick from the Dum Dum Tree.

Today, Day 2, we played this again after warm-ups and I did have to reprint the cards (they get a little destroyed in this process!). I told the kids their goal was to "meet or beat" their number of math facts from yesterday.  I always love competition with ourselves :) The pictures came from Day 2's work. Kids with the top 5 scores got Dum Dums and everyone who "met or beat" their time got a cool sticker. It was a great way to energize our math class and get us focused on our facts!

Try this out, I know your kids will love it and it won't be as scary management-wise as you think :) Good luck!