tales from the chalk face

I’m feeling rather chuffed with myself!

I’ve created a little game/teaching resource called “Add it up!” that I’d like to share with you.

Its pretty simple – a series of numbers flash up on the screen (a second for each number) and all you have to do is add them up in your head. Once all the numbers have been shown an “Answer” button appears and you click that button to reveal the answer and see if you are right.

Before the game starts, you can choose how many numbers you will need to add up, and the range of the numbers that might appear on  the screen.

Like all great games, its simple to start, difficult to master (adding 6 numbers between 1 an 100 in 6 seconds is no easy task!)

You can find the game by clicking on the “Add It Up!” tab above

or you could just >>click here<<

I was inspired to make this game when I heard a piece on the radio about the Japanese game “Flash Anzan”, where contestants add up numbers as they flash up on the screen.  The experts are phenomenally good, adding 15 3-digit numbers in less than two seconds!!!

I built the game mainly as a teaching resource for Interactive White Boards – see Teaching Tips below for some ideas of how you can use this – but it works just as well for the individual having a go on a computer and it looks great on an iPad, too.

If you do play the game, either yourself or use it in your classroom, I’d love to hear from you and I welcome any feedback – I’ve already had a couple of thoughts as to how I can improve things, but it’d be great to hear from you. You can either use the comments section below to post a comment, or you can send me a message using the form on the Contact page

Teaching Tips

This game makes a great lesson starter.

Have the page projected onto your Interactive whiteboard and start the game. It only takes seconds to complete each game so you could have it up and running as pupils enter the class – if they miss the start of one game, they’ll still be able to quickly join in when the next game starts.

You could give pupils their own mini whiteboards to write down their answers on before you reveal the answer on the board.

Talk about strategies for quickly adding up – ask the pupils how they do it. Do you add up the units columns before the tens? Do you make the number up to the nearest ten?  There’s no ‘right’ way, but remember, the pupils are more likely to listen to one another than to you! Get them to explain their strategies.

Its a great tool for learning and re-enforcing number bonds, don’t forget to tell parents: they can then play the game with their children at home.

Need a five minute filler at the end of the lesson?  Then this is perfect, and you can set the difficulty level by choosing the amount of numbers to add, and the range of numbers to add.

Give it a go – your pupils will love it!