Tag Archives: variables

Solving equations……. by far one of the most important skills students need for algebra. Well, that and integers. After teaching all of the operations when solving equations, we had a couple of days to play some amazing games to reinforce the skills we had learned. One of the games we played was out of “The Middle School Mathematician.” It was called “Tic Tac Five in a Row.” I had to modify the game board and make my own equation cards because the problems they had were higher level skills than what my sixth graders were required to learn. I made a game card for each of the numbers on the game board. There were 25 numbers, so I made 25 cards. I also cut up several little pieces of colored paper for them to use as “markers.” I had the students sit in groups of three. Each child chose a color and took those marker pieces. I called out a color to go first. The student going first flipped over one of the cards. All three students were to solve the equation. If the student whose turn it was got the correct answer, that person put a marker on the square that corresponded with the answer they got. For example: if the equation was x – 2 = 5, the answer would be x = 7 so the student would place a marker on one of the 7’s on the game board. Play would continue until someone got “Five in a Row” whether it be up-and-down, sideways, or diagonally. If they went through all of the cards without a five-in-a-row, the person with the most-in-a-row won. This was a wonderful game to reinforce the skill. With all of the students solving all of the equations, every child is busy the whole time with no down time. They end up working twenty-five problems without complaining one time, but actually being excited about it.