Minute to Win It Math - Valentine's Edition

I love games and have attended some minute to win it parties which were a ton of fun. I'm bringing a Valentine's edition to my math class next week.

Materials Needed

• One bag of tiny conversation hearts.
• Cups - You need two per group (I purchased them for $.99 from Walmart)
• Plates - 2 per group (I bought Valentine plates from Walmart)
• Straws - One per group, per class (this was the only game I played with only one person from each group because I didn’t want to buy that many straws)
• Chopsticks - one pair per group
• Nerds - we flipped these because I couldn’t find Valentine candy corn
• Spoons - enough for your largest class

My students were in groups of 3-4.

The top three teams earned points:

1st place = 3 points

2nd place = 2 points

3rd place = 1 point

Game Directions:

Candy Flip: I gave each group one package of nerds. They were Valentine’s edition (they had a pink side). They started with pink side down and had to flip it to land pink side down again. Once they did this, they passed to the next person in their group. They were done once everyone in their group went. If they had a group of 3, one person went twice. First group done

Candy Relay: place one cup at the front of your room (filled with hearts - doesn’t matter how many - make sure each group’s cup looks about the same), place another cup at the end of your room across from the first cup. Give each student a spoon. One student fills their spoon with hearts from their full cup, pass it to next student, pass to next student until it reaches empty cup, place hearts in empty cup.

Notes: only hold spoon with one hand, if any candies fell - they all had to go back to original cup even the ones still in the spoon.

The team with the most candies in their cup at the end earned 3 points, second most 2 points and third 1 point.

Candy Pick-up:  Give each team (12 candies) on a plate, one pair of chopsticks, and a second plate. Using chopsticks, had to be held in only one hand, they moved candies from one plate to the next. If they had 4 in their group, they moved 3 pieces each or 3 in their group, they each moved 4 pieces. First team to finish won.

Candy Straw: I used the same plates (with 12 candies from the game above) and they had a straw. One person using only the straw moved the candies from one plate to the next.

Optional Game: Candy Stack: Give them each their cup from the relay. They have one minute to make the biggest stack of candy hearts they can. The team with the highest stack wins.

Teacher Directions:

• Give each group a certain amount of time to finish problem set 1. I used three minutes. Then play game 1.
• Give each group a certain amount of time to finish problem set 2. Then play game 2.
• Repeat for problem set 3.
• For problem set 4, I did one problem at a time (we only finished through 4a).

I have a 43 minute class period and we did a warm-up to begin before launching into the games.

Problem Set #1 Simplify

1. 3x3y4*8x3y6
2. 10x2y18 * -3x5y10
3. 1/2x7y9 * -8x15y25
4. 17x21y32 * -5x13y20

Game Break:  Game #1

Problem Set #2 Simplify

1. (5x2y3)2
2. (-1/3x3y4)3
3. (10x25y10)3
4. (-x2y12)6

Game Break:  Game #2

Problem Set #3 Simplify

1. 3x2y*(4x3y5)2
2. 20x3y2*(1/2x3y4)2
3. (-x2y15)4*-7x15y21

Game Break:  Game #3

Problem Set #4

Determine whether the following scenarios would be best modeled using a linear or exponential model. Then, write an equation.

1. Ms. Hunter takes off 10 points for each day an assignment is turned in late. The assignments are worth 100 points each.  

Game #4

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