It is Special Education and most of the students have learning disabilities. We are doing algebraic fractions with positive numbers. What can I do to help them learn and get them interested? I'd like to get them up and moving! The school is in an urban area and we have no access to computers.
2006-10-06 15:35:36 · 5 answers · asked by goodpurplemonster 3 in Education & Reference ➔ Teaching
Anything that you can do with food gets the kids interested. Of course you have to buy it yourself, but sometimes it is worth it. You can use the food to divide and make fraction problems. Maybe bake a cake (less expensive) and have them figure out how to cut it so there are enough pieces for everyone. That of course is a basic thing, but useful in everyday life. (And it is not expensive to bake your own cake).
As for games, you can make a simple board game on paper. Then make a set of problems and cut them apart and put them in envelopes. Have the kids play in small groups of 4. They can use coins or torn pieces of paper as markers. In order to move the # of spaces that they roll they have to get the answer right. Give candy to the winner; or a homework pass.
Fly swatter game; put several random answers on the board. Prepare problems ahead of time so that you have answers that will match them. Get 2 different colored fly swatters. Give a problem that they can solve in their head, or give them a section on each side of the board to work it out. The first person to swat the correct answer scores a point for their team. Remind them that they cannot hit each other, and that you are the sole judge in determining who was first. When it doubt call it a tie! Give candy to the winning team.
I have 6 rows in my class. Have them go up 1 member from each row. Give a problem. The first to solve it correctly gets a point and gets to try to make a basket (buy a basketball hoop and foam ball at the dollar store). It is really hard to make the baskets so I give 2 bonus points to the team if they make it. Give candy to the winning row. I have the kids work the problems at their seats too and hand it in. That way ALL are actively involved instead of just talking to each other and not paying attention.
Make a checker board with problems. In order to move to a spot they have to give the solution. If they are wrong then they cannot move there. Makes the game more interesting. I bought inexpensive bingo chips and keep them in plastic bags, sorted.
I have a whole list of ideas at school; this is all that I could come up with off the top of my head. I pull out my list when I need to come up with something new for my classes. Email me if you need more ideas.
Hope these work for you!
One more; concentration on the overhead. Use sticky notes to cover them up; have problems on one side and solutions on the other. They have to match up the problem to the solution. If they are right their team gets a point.
2006-10-06 15:50:34 · answer #1 · answered by Melanie L 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I play this game I made up with my Jr. high special ed. class (my kiddos are pretty low, and it sounds like if your kid are doing algebra, you may think this is dumb, but you might be able to adapt it to your level of kids). It take a deck of cards and 2 dice. The kid rolls the dice and then has to predict if the card the dealer deals next is going to be higher or lower then the number on the dice. Jacks, queens and kings are 11, 12 and 13 and an Ace is a 1. Sometimes it is easy to predict, like if the number on the dice is 2, but sometimes hard, like if they roll a 6. If they get the same number as the dice, they get another turn. When they are correct, they keep the card. the person who has the most cards when the cards are all gone, is the winner.
2006-10-06 15:50:19 · answer #2 · answered by b_friskey 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm sorry. I was regular education and probably can't do an algebra game. I guess it depends on the extent of their learning disabilities. Good luck, and I hope they have fun learning math!
2006-10-06 15:37:50 · answer #3 · answered by ntfd68 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A game that I like to play is called SET. You can buy an overhead version. The rules are kind of tricky at first, but it is really challenging and I actually found that my special ed kids did the best with it. It's a lot of patterns and problem solving. www.setgames.com
2006-10-06 15:38:30 · answer #4 · answered by alwaysmoose 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
hello.(im in highschool)when my (math)teacher is trying to get us interested,we play math baseball.u draw the bases on the white/chalk board.then,u right probles,and split the class into two teams.and its just like base ball,except,the person that is "batting"is the one answering the math problem.after 3 strikes,the team in the field has one try to get the problem right.(the rest is like baseball)well good luck!hope this helps.
2006-10-06 16:26:47 · answer #5 · answered by jesus~freak 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋