Picture taken at Beacon Elementary in Harper Woods Michigan. These teachers spent a full week after school commenced continuing their professional development. What a dedicated group of teachers!
Who remembers the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon? Well this game is inspired by that cute little bull and shares the same name.
To play the game:
The teacher calls out a number or pulls a card up to ten and tells the kids to hold up that number of fingers (this is where the Bullwinkle antlers come in). Students can choose how to display the teacher’s number with different finger combinations. For example, the number 7 could be shown with 5 on one hand and 2 on the other, 3 on one hand and 4 on the other, etc. Encourage students to show more than one way. It’s a fun way to work on number sense!
Extensions:
- Put two students together and have them show any number up to 20, or three students together and have them show any number up to 30, without talking. They can just look at each others’ antlers.
- Put two students back-to-back (so that they can not see each others antlers) and put up as many fingers in their antlers as they wish. A third student says the sum of the antlers. Each student has to say the number of fingers that the other “moose” has up in their antlers.
- The teacher could also ask for one more, one less, two more, two less, a double, double plus one, or how many more to make ten.
This could be played whole group, with partners, or small groups of three. There really are many ways to adapt this game to fit your needs. Students love to pretend to be the moose. Have fun with it!
Have you played this game before or trying it for the first time? Let me know!