Math-A-Thon

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What it is: Math-A-Thon is an excellent math site with a good cause.  “Math-A-Thon is a volunteer-based fundraising program for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The program includes a free math curriculum supplement for grades K-8 that students complete after obtaining sponsorships from family and friends.”  Students work on math and comprehension skills, age appropriate math problems while building empathy and character.  By practicing math, students can raise money and awareness for St. Jude patients who are battling cancer and various other childhood diseases.  In addition to the free curriculum and math fun books, Math-A-Thon has entertaining online math games and math character profiles.  The Numerators are a math superhero team that is made up of Minus, Symmetry, Octagon and Fraction.  The characters have math super powers that will help students as they solve problems in their Funbook and work at defeating evil robots.   Each character has a fantastic character description (these remind me of the characters on Grammaropolis). Games on Math-A-Thon include Add Like Mad, Subtraction Action, and Bubble Bugs.  Bubble Bugs is an enchanting game where students catch bugs inside bubbles, they practice counting, mouse control, and fine motor skills.

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How to integrate Math-A-Thon into the classroom: Math-A-Thon is a website that will help get your students fired up and excited about math and helping others.  The games are available for play whether or not you sign up for the full Math-A-Thon challenge.  Students in kindergarten through eighth grade can work together to help other kids by working on their math skills.  Challenge your class or whole school to raise money for other kids using math as the vehicle.  Add Like Mad and Subtraction Action would be fun games for a math center on classroom computers or as a whole class game using an interactive whiteboard.  To play either game with the whole class, divide your students into two (or more) teams.  Team 1 lines up at the IWB, the first person in the line completes the first problem and then passes play to the next student in line relay style.  Teams try to clear the tiles in the least amount of time.  After Team 1 has a final time, Team 2 tries to beat it.  My students love this kind of friendly competition.

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Use the Numerators team characters to learn about math concepts and vocabulary.  There are four members of the current team, encourage your students to add to the superhero team with additional math team members.  Students can create character profiles and back stories about their math operation superhero.  Students could create individual baseball trading cards of their math superhero team member.

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Tips: Download a free Funbook sample, these are high quality math workbooks that will have your students problem solving and having fun with math.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Math-A-Thon in your classroom.