We Won the Kakooma Tournament!

By: Mary Kienstra on: June 9, 2014  in: Engagement, focus, Greg Tang math, Kakooma, teamwork

We are Beebe HM!

We love Greg Tang’s Kakooma game in my classes.  I’ve written about our weekly Kakooma Challenge many times.  But this time, we hit it out of the park!  

Greg Tang’s website (www.gregtangmath.com) hosted a Kakooma Tournament last week.  One part of the tourney was addition, the other multiplication. Lucky for us, it coincided perfectly with our last week of school. 

Since keeping students engaged in that last week can be challenging at best, I introduced the tournament to my students and provided a few minutes at the beginning of class to play.  Those few minutes quickly morphed into a complete class period. What teacher would argue with all kids engaged in math games?  

They were so engrossed in these games that they played at home, they played again during class the next day, they organized systems of partners and teams, some kids on the Smart Board, some on iPads.  They offered to stay in for recess just to make sure they were still wining! 

The contest ended on our very last day of class.  And yes, we won the addition tournament and came in second in multiplication.  

More important than winning, though, my students learned a few important lessons.  They learned that incredible team work can help them to accomplish a goal and that the leader is not always the same kid.  They loved the competition and showed amazing focus in working on this tournament.

Thanks to Greg Tang and his website www.gregtangmath.com.  If you haven’t tried his new and improved games, go there now!