FROM THECLASS ROOM

Facts + Fun = Fluency

How many times have we heard our students' mathematics skills and mastery of basic
facts called into question? This topic arises in conversations with both parents and colleagues
because of the role that basic facts played in their own mathematics education. Our challenge
as classroom teachers is to provide students with activities that will help them improve their
computational fluency but also are engaging, make efficient use of time, and are self-
motivating. This article shares several activities that have proven successful in my own
classroom and are easily adaptable to different age levels of children. Contig, the 24 Game,
and Number Jumbler have been favorites of my students for more than ten years.

Contig

One of the most popular games with my sixth-grade students is Contig. I was
introduced to this game through an article featured in the Arithmetic- Teacher in 1972
(Broadbent 1972). It is intended for students in grades 4-6 but is easily adaptable to primary-
grade students.

The game is played with three standard six-

sided dice and a game board (see fig. 1). Players roll
the dice and then use the three numbers and the four
basic operations to find values on the game board. The
values are crossed off the board as they are used.
Points are scored if the value played is adjacent or
contiguous to values that have already been played
(hence the name Contig),

In figure 2, for example, 3, 6, and 19 are worth 3 points; 4, 5, and 22 are worth 3
points; and 20 is worth 4 points. Players have forty-five seconds for each turn. Games can run
as long as time permits and can be
played by two to four students.
Beginning players can play with two
dice, using the game board shown in
figure 3. Numbers are on the board
twice to give it more squares. Primary
students use three dice and the primary
game board in figure 4, but the
students only add and subtract. l also
have a "team" game using the regular
game board. This is good for beginners.
Teams are made up of several students with each team using its
own game board. One set of dice is rolled and each team uses the
numbers in its own way and keeps its own score. After ten to
fifteen rolls, the team with the most points wins. This is a good way
to teach the game to students and help them understand the score
keeping.

Other adaptations to the game provide the same practice.

One is to play "Connect Four." in which players try to get four
squares in a row while trying to block their opponents. This
eliminates the confusion of the score keeping for some students.
Contig can also be played as a solitaire game in which the player
tries to get as many points as possible in a set time period. A local
educator has created a Windows version of the game that can be
found online at hometown.aol.com/contigforwindows/contigfor
windows.htm
The 24 Game

The 24 Game is a commercially available game that can be found at many teacher
stores, school supply catalogs, and even some retail stores where games are sold. Many
different versions of it exist and more are being developed regularly. It is also available in
classroom sets called 24 Game Mathematics Club. Each game set is made up of ninety-six
cards, and each card in the set has four numbers on it (see fig. 5). The object of the game is to
make the four numbers depicted on the players' cards equal 24. Using the card in figure 5, for
example, [23 -(3 + 8)] X 2 = 24. Each set of 24 cards includes three levels of difficulty. In the
single-digit game, "Primer," sets of problems are included for primary grades. The
intermediate games are for grades 3 and up, and the advanced games are for grades 5 and up.
The game sets currently available include Double Digit, Algebra/Exponents, Integers, Fac-
tors/Multiples, and Fractions & Decimals.

Number Jumbler

Number Jumbler (see fig. 6) was originally avail-

able from Discovery Toys, a company that sells toys and
games through home parties. It is no longer available
from there but it can be found on eBay and in some
teacher supply stores. A teacher could also make a
similar game using a set of dice. I have seen a similar
dice toy at a teacher supply store.

Number Jumbler is made up of seven dice in a

plastic holder. The dice are arranged with six dice
surrounding a center die. The center dice has multiples
often, 10-60, rather than the numbers 1-6. The center
dice and one of the dice surrounding it are black,
whereas the other dice are various colors. The two
black dice form a target value and the other five dice give numbers that are used to equal the
target value.

A player rolls the Number Jumbler across a surface. This gives the player a set of
numbers. For example, imagine that the target value is 46 (a 40 and 6 on the black dice) and
the other numbers are 2, 5, 2, 6, 4. The players then must use those numbers as single-digit
numbers to equal 46. One possible solution is (6 + 4) x 5 - (2 + 2) = 46. Students may use any
operation or mathematical concept that includes a sign or symbol. Some students may choose
to use only the four arithmetic operations, whereas others might try more challenging
strategies such as powers and factorials: 4! x 2 - 2 X (6 - 5) = 46 or 52 X 2 - 6 + V4 = 46. The only
requirement I have is that the students must be able to explain their solutions. This allows
students to work at both a comfort able level and a challenging level.

Benefits of the Games

These three activities have several positive aspects. First, they have many different
possible solutions. Establishing a classroom environment in which wrong answers are accepted
as a step toward a correct solution is important. I have my students their solutions on the
board so that everyone i see them. Often, a student's solution includes a mistake such as an
incorrect computation or extra digit. Other students quickly point these out in a lighthearted
way.

A second positive aspect of these activities that students who are reluctant to share
their solutions get to see that others may think the same they do. They are gradually drawn
into the discussion and are soon anxious for their turn at board. A third benefit of the activities
is that stu dents see that there are many different ways solve a problem. Students challenge
one another see how many different solutions they can come with. The maximum number of
solutions found in one set of numbers tor a Number Jumbler is 87. A fifth-grade student spent
an entire weekend working on the problem.

Finally, and probably most significant, in solving the problem students are doing
countless basic fact problems. One girl in fifth grade name up to me and said, "I've been
working on this [Number .Jumbler] for forty-five minutes and I still haven't solved it." She said
this with a smile on her face and then went back to work. Within a few minutes, she found a
couple of solutions. If you try the sample Jumbler and 24 Game from above, you will see that
you do many "basic fact" problems as you work to find a correct solution. When working on
problems such as these, students get more basic-fact practice in a shorter amount of time than
they would from doing a sheet of problems, and they enjoy the experience. These three
activities are examples of ways in which students can build computational fluency and practice
basic facts without having to spend valuable class time. The activities are very visible to
parents and provide long-lasting fun for students. Years after their children were in my class, I
have run into parents who needed new Number Jumblers because they had lost theirs. What is
amazing is that the Number Jumblers were for the parents, not their children. Students have
also returned to visit me from middle school or high school with solutions for sets of numbers
that we were unable to solve. Having these types of activities has made practicing basic facts
and building computational fluency components of my mathematics instruction that are both
fun and challenging for my students.

Reference

Broadbent, Frank W. "'Contig': A Game to Practice and Sharpen Skills and Facts in the Hour
Fundamental Operations." Arithmetic Teacher 19 (May 1972). 388-90. A