30 Second Challenge Puzzles
30-second challenge games give you practice mentally navigating a mix of operations. Don’t worry about the time as you work through these puzzles. However, over time, as you build more strategies, you’ll see your time go down on these puzzles. Try to challenge yourself to do all the calculations in your head without working out the arithmetic on paper. As we learn new thinking strategies, challenge yourself to try these new methods on these puzzles.
| Variable Time Limit | Here you can adjust how much time you are given for a puzzle but your access to answering does shut off at the end of the time. |
| Unlimited Time | Here you have unlimited amount of time to answer the puzzle. After answering, the game tells you how long it took (though it truly doesn’t matter). |
| Download the App | You can download app to practice these puzzles on the go. Search GooglePlay or the Apple Store for 30Second Challenge. There is a free version with limited puzzles and a more extensive version for $1.99. |
Order of Operation Games
These games help you practice applying the order of operations (grouping symbols, exponents, multiplication or division, addition or subtraction).
| High-Stakes Heist | Developing automaticity with the facts in the 12x12 multiplication table is a key area of fluency for elementary students. Filling in your own automaticity will help you know better to help your students reach this goal by building facts they do not know from ones they do. |
Multiplication Facts
Developing automaticity with the facts in the 12x12 multiplication table is a key area of fluency for elementary students. Filling in your own automaticity will help you know better to help your students reach this goal by building facts they do not know from ones they do.
| Build It! | Practice your multiplication facts here. When you do not remember the value of the product or if you get the answer wrong, remember to build the fact from facts you do know. Feel free to download and print the Build It! chart to make it easier to build to the desired fact. |
| Treasure Quest Multiplication | This game nicely reinforces the work you are doing to build visual pattern based recall of the multiplication facts. |
A simple Google search for “multiplication fact games” will produce countless other games that help you practice recalling multiplication facts. Explore! Have fun with it!
Equivalent Fractions
| Fraction Wall | This is fun with a buddy. You can race to fill your wall first. |
| Fraction Bingo | Challenge yourself with this one. |
| Fraction: Equality | Click on the game option and choose your level (push yourself here). |
Fraction Comparison
These games help you practice applying the order of operations (grouping symbols, exponents, multiplication or division, addition or subtraction).
| Fraction War | This is a great game to play with a partner with each of you “owning” one of the generators. Decide whose fraction is the biggest. You can keep track of how many wins each of you have. Make sure you explain how you know which fraction is greater in each case. |
| Greater or Less Than 1 | Decide whether the sum of the two fractions is more or less than 1. Later in the course you can decide if the quotient of the first fraction divided by the second is more or less than 1. |
| Greater or Less Than 1/2 | Decide whether the difference of the larger fraction minus the smaller one is more or less than ½. Later in the course you can decide if the product of the two fractions is more or less than ½. |
| Tug o' War | Practice deciding which fraction is greater in this fun animated game. |
Fraction, Decimal, Percent
| Matching Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages | Practice expressing quantities as fractions, decimals, and percentages and move flexibly between these representations. |
Estimation
| Estimation Station | Click both links below to generate an “ugly” calculation to estimate. Remember the goal of estimation to get a quick idea of about how big the value is without doing a lot of work. Work with a partner to experiment with how little calculation you need to get super close to the exact value. |
| Gramp Strict | This is a fun way to build estimation skills with fractions. |
| In Between | This game builds estimation skills with decimals by locating them on a number line. |
| Estimation 180 | This site provides a daily visual estimation challenge. |