Math Snacks isn't a curriculum, but a series of activities you can use with the curriculum you are already using in grades 4-8. Math Snacks materials address critical content including number sense, ratio, proportion, measurement, scale factor, and pre-algebra. Some Math Snacks address more than one content area and can be used in a variety of lessons at different grade levels. Don't think of the animations and games as "free time activities." Each of these have been designed to be used as part of your instruction. All Math Snacks products are aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and address the CCSSM Mathematical Practices when used as recommended.
Here, you'll find several resources to help you use Math Snacks. Each animation and game has a printable teacher's guide that helps you use the snack and offers discussion questions, vocabulary, and companion activities. Each animation also has a printable learner's guide your students can use to apply their concept to problem solving. Kids, especially English Language Learners, also enjoy the printable Comic Book Transcripts for each animation.
To use each snack, start with the short "teaching with" video for each snack. You'll see teachers using the animation and games in the classroom and pick up great strategies you can use immediately. You can also select a snack based on the content it addresses. Each game has a gameplay video that will help you understand how the game progresses, even if you don't have time to play it all the way through.
Teaching resources are listed below as well as on the landing page for each game or animation.
| Number & Operations | Ratio & Proportion | Measurement & Scale | Pre-Algebra (Patterns, Tables & Graphs) |
| Animations | |||
| Atlantean Dodgeball | |||
| Bad Date | |||
| Number Rights | |||
| Overruled! | |||
| Ratey | |||
| Scale Ella | |||
| Games | |||
| Game Over Gopher | |||
| Monster School Bus | |||
| Pearl Diver | |||
| Ratio Rumble | |||
| Gate |
What is the difference between part-to-part and part-to-whole relationships? How do ratios compare with fractions? Explore ratios, part-to-part, and part-to-whole relationships through the eyes of sportscasters in ancient Atlantis as two teams play a momentous game of dodgeball. Addresses: Relating and comparing different forms of representation for a relationship. Analyzing patterns with tables, graphs, and words. Watch the animation in English or Spanish.
What do you do when someone asks if you listen to country music backwards, but won't give you the chance to answer? In this humorous animation, who speaks how many words predicts whether a date goes well or horribly. Addresses: Using ratios and proportions to represent quantitative relationships. Solving problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts. Watch the animation in English or Spanish.
What kinds of numbers belong on a number line? Where do decimals and fractions go and do they REALLY belong? Find out, as ¼ battles for equal rights for all numbers! Addresses: Equality and order on the number line. Number line properties. Watch the animation in English or Spanish.
What happens when two measurement systems don’t quite match up, and how can proportional reasoning be used to fix the problem? Help the king and queen as they prepare for their wedding – but, first, you have to figure out how to convert from one measurement system to another. Addresses: Techniques helpful in solving proportion, including tables, graphs, measurement, and equations. Using units to set up a correct proportion. Graphing proportions on a coordinate plane. Watch the animation in English or Spanish.
He pops up when you least expect him. And he can't resist pointing out the rates and "purrportions" in daily life. Addresses: Comparing two quantities measured in different units. Establishing the relationship between two units. Watch the animation in English or Spanish.
The evil troll Scaleo is terrorizing the city, changing objects’ length, width, and height. A crusading superhero uses scale factor to “put things right.” Addresses: Scale representations of objects, and how the size difference is related to the scale factor. Watch the animation in English or Spanish.
Play the game in English or Spanish.
Imaginative worlds where stude build skills with analyzing patterns in tables and graphs. It’s a sandbox environment where teachers and students can create creatures together and look at patterns. Collections of characters can be placed in a given cave, and students can examine each creature individually and see how many eyes, horns, etc. it has. Graphs and tables dynamically express the relationships among these attributes Addresses: building skills with analyzing patterns in tables and graphs. Play the game in English or Spanish.
Tomb raiders have stolen prized treasures from various locations, instilling a curse. The player is charged with returning the treasure in the least number of moves to advance levels and collect all three stars. Addresses: Building skills with algebraic expressions and patterns Play the game in English or Spanish.
Hungry gophers are after the prized carrot. Defend the carrot by placing units on a coordinate grid. Addresses:. The Cartesian coordinate plane, including plotting points, quadrants, origin, and horizontal and vertical lines. Play the game in English or Spanish.
Evil monsters have been awakened by an ancient force, and it's up to you to stop them and untangle the mystery behind their return. Addresses: Place value and decimals. Building different numbers on both sides of the decimal place. Creating facility with 10ths and 100ths places. Improving general addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction skills, in the context of working with decimals. Play the game in English or Spanish.
You're the driver! Fit as many of the little monsters as you can on the bus and drive them to monster school! But there's something odd about the neighborhood. Addresses: Multiple representations of numbers. Visualizing numbers as sets and quantities. Using base-ten representation. Play the game in English or Spanish.
Learn the number line while diving for pearls amidst shipwrecks and sunken ruins. Addresses: Equality and order on the number line, including numbers, decimals, mixed numbers and fractions. Play the game in English or Spanish.
The battle is on in this game where you build your own potions! Check your ratios to win this mixture mix-off. Addresses: Providing visual representations of ratios. Explaining why ratios and rates naturally relate to fractions and decimals. Play the game in English or Spanish.
Innovative Media Research and Extension partners with research groups, faculty, and programs nationally and internationally to create educational media in various disciplines. We have partnered with more than 40 universities, agencies, and nonprofit groups on projects funded by NSF, USDA, DOE, the State of New Mexico, and private funders, and bring 20 years' experience producing innovative media on many platforms.
With support from the National Science Foundation (0918794 and 1503507), the Math Snacks project was led by
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Math Snacks materials were developed with support from the National Science Foundation (0918794 and 1503507). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Some materials were originally prototyped or discussed as part of a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education (U295A050004).