The Alligator Game - Greater or Less Than

To compare decimals, fractions & percent

However...it would be great for any skill that requires comparing of numbers...

I used a blue file folder, added a picture of an alligator, and white circle stickers as a path. On the path spaces I wrote the signs for greater than, less than, and equals.

WHY AN ALLIGATOR? Our math book should a cute little bird with its open mouth. The greater than or less than sign was the birds mouth.

The open end of the greater than or less than sign is always towards the larger number. However, the year I made this I had a large percent of boys in my class and when I mentioned an alligator's open mouth, I got their attention...LOL...so the alligator on our gameboard!

To play, a player will draw a card, decide the relationship of the first number to the second and move to the next space with the appropriate symbol.

The cards have things like: .4 ___ .04, .71 _____.8, etc...for
decimal practice.

Another set of cards I made had: 3/4 ____ 3/12, 4/6
___2/3, etc. for fractions.

This board could be used for so many other math skills as well. For example:

1 week ______ 8 days

17 ounces _____ 1 pound

3.75 ____ 3 3/4

1.5 ____ 150%

IV ______ X

5 + 4 ______ 3 + 6

59 - 17 _____ 47 - 5

Or even for other classes:

Population of Texas _____Population of Wisconsin

Length of robin ______ length of gold finch

Revolutionary War ______ Civil War (The children had the open end to the later date.) This is a great way to help them get events in order without having to necessarily remember exact dates. So they would read their card as "Revolutionary War was earlier or before (rather than later than or after) the Civil War.


ANSWER KEY: To make it so children could play without a parent/teacher, provide an answer key. However, I preferred to just write the correct answer on the reverse of the question card. The question cards were in the pile, face up. After a child gave the response, the card could be turned over to verify the answer. This saves from lost answer keys, and is a much easier way of checking. 

There is a cute little song on YouTube that can be used when introducing Greater Than/Less Than. Check out the Number Eating Alligator Song.

Presidents Mat Game

This was one of the easiest games I have ever made.  I bought two Melissa & Doug Presidents Write-a-Mat ($2.99 each at the local teachers store - however, I got a great deal on them as they were going out of business.)

I cut the Presidents apart on one of the mats.

We use the other mat as the playing board. The cut-up cards are placed in a bucket (here we just used a plastic butter tub).

 In turn a player draws one of the cards,

 

 reads the name of the President,

   and finds the match on the playing board.

 He then places one of his colored chip markers on the space.

 SCORING:

 We began thinking that we would play until one player had three in a row. However, I scored three (blue) together quite quickly and we wanted to continue. So we decided to see if it is possible to get 4, 5 or even 6 in a row. We would play until all the cards had been matched.

 Here Douglas (red) scores 4 in a row.

Here is how our final board looked. 

We decided a good scoring would be 3 points for every 3-in-a-row, 4 for each 4-in-a-row, and so on. Douglas ended up the winner by a couple points. 

This is a good game for becoming familiar with the Presidents and their order. It is slow-paced so it allows for comments, questions, and teaching. The winner is simply a matter of the luck of the draw, so the adult has no advantage over a child.

Road to the White House - an older edition

Here is a picture of an older edition of a game to drill the order of the Presidents. 

On this gameboard I used a set of stickers that I got from the local teacher's store. However, not all the Presidents were in the set. So I used some labels with just the names of the missing Presidents.

Check out the previous post for ways to use the board.

Road to the White House

This game is a little out of date as the board has George W. Bush as the most recent President. That is the problem with a board like this, it does become obsolete.However, I did find some little pictures of the Presidents at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States

I tried right clicking, save image and pasted it in Word Pad. It seems it will work. I will probably print off Obama and add him to my board. But you could probably print off all of the Presidents. It looks like it would be a nice small picture, and they would all be the same size. I believe the pictures I used were cut from a book.

To Make: This is probably pretty obvious from the picture, but I will explain it anyway. Using a colored file folder make a path of stickers and President pictures from a START space to a FINISH space. I happened to find the nice little picture of the White House and thought that made an appropriate ending space.

To Play: In turn, players shake a die and move the indicated number of spaces. For a longer game and more drill on the order of the Presidents, I would use a die with only the numbers 1, 2, and 3.  If you do not have a die like this, a spinner could be made. However, a standard die would work.

Once a player has reached the first President space, he must name all the Presidents, in order, up to the space he is currently on before he can shake the die.  If the player can say all the Presidents up to his current location without looking at the gameboard, he may move DOUBLE the shake on the die;  If he is unable to name them in this manner, he may look at the gameboard and name them.  He then moves only the number of spaces indicated by the shake.

The first player to reach the White House is the winner. However, each player is learning the order of the Presidents and in this way all players are truly winners.

VARIATION:  If you have some Presidential flash cards you could drill the order in another manner. In turn, a player would draw a card and name the President. But to earn a shake of the die he would have to name the President that came after the one on the card. The shake could be done the same as above. If he knows the answer he can move double the shake. If he has to look at the game board to find the answer, he moves only the number indicated.

ANOTHER USE OF THE FLASH CARDS: A player would draw a card and name the President. The player to his left would have to give the agreed upon response (Name the following President, Name this President's VP, or other type of information provided on the cards - for very knowledgeable players, he may be asked a question from the card's information.) Then, the second player would be able to shake and move.