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Math Worksheets: How to Change It Up

The go-to tasks that we as teachers have in our tool box are typically worksheets. 

It’s understandable.  They are usually the resource that our textbooks reference, the next thing for our student to do.  


They are low prep - in most cases we just need to make copies and distribute them to our students.  


Did you know you can take these worksheets and use them to amp up the student engagement in class? 


Here’s how I learned just how to make this a reality within my own classroom. 


I attended a professional development that was being offered by my school district to meet the required hours needed before the start of the upcoming school year. 


To my surprise, this PD experience was one of the most enjoyable learning opportunities I had in the 15 years I’d been in education.  


One of the sessions that was most interesting was about game-ifying math worksheets.  It was so fun! 


The teacher presenter referenced the book Boredom Busters by Katie Powell, and she gave her session attendees the opportunity to experience some great ideas from the book (this book is now in my personal professional library). 

Boredom Busters for Math Worksheets


A low prep game I’ve now used in my classroom on several occasions is Go on Six.  


Students work with a partner or with a group of no more than 4 kiddos.  Each person gets a worksheet, but there’s only one pencil and one die per group.  


Student A rolls the die until it lands on a six. In the meantime, Student B has the pencil and is working out a problem or problems as quickly as they can while the other group members are looking at their sheet figuring out a game plan so when their turn with the pencil comes along, they can hopefully get through solving problems that much faster.  


When student A finally rolls a six, they SNATCH the pencil from Student B (I emphasize the snatching part just to get students a bit more excited) and work frantically trying to solve what they can before the next partner takes their turn at the die and hits a six.  


When I tell you the kids have so much fun with this, they really do!  The smiles and the laughter is one that I look forward to when allowing my students to complete a simple math worksheet.  


This is just one of many ways to spice up a math worksheet.  Check out my blog post How to Increase Student Engagement with Math Games for more ideas.  


I hope this suggestion sparks some ideas that will guide you to changing up how you use math worksheets with your own students.  


Feel free to leave any other ways you use math worksheets. 


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