7 Fun Alternatives to Math Worksheets

These fun alternatives to math worksheets will ensure students are engaged! These activities are promised to get students excited about the work they are completing as they move towards proficiency.  If you’ve got your worksheet ready to go, it’s easy to transform it into these fun math worksheet alternatives. Keep reading to learn why you need these fun alternates and what they are!

Engaging Students in Math

One important reason I love using high engagement for learning dates back to my student teaching years! It has probably stuck with me because I loved seeing the joy of learning on one particular student’s face. She had been really struggling with the exponent rules up until this point. What helped her? Using a game rather than sitting at her desk with a worksheet to practice the skill! She was so excited that she finally had that “ah-ha” moment and credited it to the game. The student was able to put her guard down and just have fun. All students deserve moments like this and they can be provided by using alternatives to math worksheets. 🙌

Create Engagement with these Activities

Your students can easily have moments like mine did by using these worksheet alternatives. You will also feel the joy of learning as your students continue to work on the mastery of their math skills. As I mentioned already if you have your worksheet ready, these alternatives can be used to transform it with a quick prep. You can check out FREE templates HERE to aid you with your transition to these alternative math worksheets! 

Before we get started, I’d like to briefly mention that it is helpful to have good classroom procedures and expectations in place when using these. My good friend Stephanie from Team Santero has a great blog post that reviews the why and how of classroom procedures. You can read it here. Okay, onto the math worksheet alternatives!!

7 Alternatives to Math Worksheets

Scavenger Hunt

Getting students up and out of their seats is my favorite. This activity will have students start with a random card problem around the room. Once they solve it, they will go and “scavenge” for the answer on another card in the room. If they cannot find it, they know they have made an error and must go back. If they find it, they continue to work around the room until they make it back to their original card. This works well for students to do individually or with partners. They are also moving that their own pace.

Task Cards

Task cards allow you to break up the problems of a worksheet into cards that students can pass on to each other as they complete it. I love using task cards as an alternative because they are less overwhelming for students. The task cards focus on one task at a time. There is a variety of ways you can use task cards:
– Stations – students work as a group on one card at a time
-Rotate the cards themselves around the room as they work individually
-Post them on the wall and students rotate around the room
-Students work through a stack of cards at their table 

Check out this blog post for more ideas and games with task cards.

Card Sort

To use a card sort you need the problem and answer on different cards. You cut them up, mix them up, and students then match them up! This adds a fun game twist to the problems. Cards sorts are especially useful for content that has different groups of answers, such as a fraction written as a decimal, in words, and a visual.  Here is a card sort that is ready to print for Multiple Representations of Linear Equations. 

Give one, Get one, Move on 

This activity works just like it sounds. Students will GET one problem and become an expert on it.

I would have them solve it and check to make sure they have the right answer with you (or an answer key posted at the front of the room). Then they will move around the room to get GET one new problem from a classmate. They will switch problems, solve the problem, and check with each other to see if they answered them correctly. Once they have, they MOVE on and repeat the process with a new classmate. 

As a language teacher, I love that this activity has students talking to new classmates in an authentic way. I would guide students in their conversation as they work and have sentence frames available for them to use. You could project sentence frames or give them their own little cards. Newbie to sentence starts and frames? This blog post will walk you through how to make the perfect sentence frames for any classroom.

Speed Dating

Junior high kids LOVE this! Students will go on a “date” with a problem as they solve it. Put out a problem per desk on a card (or cut up from a worksheet!) and have students rotate based on a timer. When they complete the problem, they have to rate how it went with that problem (great, okay, awful). They must explain why they chose the rating which allows them to identify points of confusion. This is a great self-assessment tool.

I also love this for language learners because they write down how it went for them and practice their writing and explanation skills. Don’t forget to get your templates so you can use this activity tomorrow!

Math-o

This is the classic twist to BINGO with math problems! You can do this a couple of ways. The first way is to pre-make the bingo cards (don’t forget to get your free template!). This is probably the best option for younger grades. The other way is to post all the answers on the board and have students fill in their blank Math-o board at random.

Once students have their boards, you will call out the problem, students will solve it, and then mark it off on their Math-o board. This is a great listening activity for language learners! In addition to calling out the problem, you can display the problem on the board.

Math-lib

The idea of this activity is for students to solve each problem and use an attached answer to fill in part of a story. Each problem they solve will have different parts of the story.

For example, if problem number one is “15=x+2” and the answer choices are “x= 13 – Mrs. Novoa”, x=12 Mr. Lopez,” or x=-10 Mrs. Little”, students will write in MRS NOVOA for their answer in the space 1 of the story. Students will read the story at the end for a fun Math Lib!

Here is an example of a mad lib story you could use:

___(name)_____ was going to go work out at _______(place)______ when they remembered they left their ____(item)_____. They went back to their ____(vechile)______ to grab it and ran into _____(celebrity)________.  They gave the celebrity a ___(action)_____ and went back on their way. While working out they did 50 ___(type of exercise)_____. They also enjoyed a __(verb)_____ class where they listened to the song  ___(song title)______.  After working out, they went home to _______(verb)_____.

Make up your own or check out this site.

More Classroom Engagement

Are you an upper elementary teacher looking for more engaging games to play in the classroom? These reading comprehension games are a must. That post is going to give you 5 great ideas to make reading fun and engaging for any subject. (Seriously, you could use this in reading, math, history, or science.)  These reading “games” include whole-class interactions and make students actually enjoy reading. The best part is these aid students in comprehending the text!

Recap of Worksheet Alternatives

Students can have mixed feeling about math, but all students enjoy playing games and having fun. These alternatives to worksheets will surely add engagement to your math classroom. In addition to being fun, most of these activities are great for developing students’ language. Double win.  If you are ready to use these alternatives to worksheets, grab the templates here to make your prep easier.  I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Let me know if you successfully use any of fun math worksheet alternatives!