Connect 4 Subtraction

Mar 30, 2017

1 min read

The students are experts at addition now, but still need a little practice with subtraction, so I made this game to make it a little more fun.

This is a basic game of connect 4 but I left the "basic" part out! The game is still played in partners and still has the same objective: get 4 in a row, but there is a little twist: you don't actually get to choose where you put your pieces. I made decks of number cards with 2 sets of numbers 0-20 (42 cards total). The students must draw two cards, subtract the two numbers, then locate the answer on the connect 4 sheet. There are 2-3 of each number on the connect 4 board so students still have a say in which on they want to put their piece on. One thing I forgot about while making the connect 4 sheets was to include "0" spaces, so when the first student got 0 I told them this could be a wildcard number, and they were allowed to place a counter on any open space on the board.

The students seemed to have a lot of fun with the game and many used the class number line for help. It was really great to see them learn and understand how to use the number line to help them solve their subtraction equations. Here are a few pictures of the students playing: