MY FAVORITE THINGS: Episode 4: Hedbandz

 

 

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite games.  Headbandz is a great game on its own, but it can also be a helpful tool for review games.

When you follow the rules, you put a picture card on a head band and ask the other players 20 questions to try to figure out what picture is on your head.  It's a great game, but I rarely play it that way. 

Since I've been talking about math, I thought I'd show you one of the ways I use Hedbandz to drill math facts: specifically in the areas of subtraction and division.  (For my favorite way to drill addition and multiplication, please see the post about Super Genius.)

 

In the picture above, the girl on the left has a 7 and the girl on the right has a 9. (I selected two cards from a deck of playing cards, but writing them on a 3x5 card works just as well.)  I told them the sum was 16.  Then they had to figure out what card was on their head.  I love how easily subtraction (16-9=7 and 16-7 =9), fact families (9+7=16, 7+9=16, 16-9=7, 16-7=9), and algebra (7 + x =16, 9+ x=16) are taught with this simple and fun tool.  You could easily do this for multiplication and division.  Another way to play is to have 3 students.  The first student adds up the numbers on the other two students' heads and tells them the sum. 

 

There are so many ways to use Hedbandz in the classroom.  In the picture below, students are playing 20 questions with the characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Questions might include: Did I turn into a donkey?  Am I in love with someone?  Am I a girl?  Am I a fairy?  Etc.

 



I have used Hedbandz with timeline cards, vocabulary, characters, guess the phonogram, and especially math.  How would you use them?

 

Did you miss my other posts?  Check out some of my other favorite math tools:  AL Abacus, Number-Bots,  and Super Genius.