I chose to play the center game called Capture Squares. I chose to play Stage 7 - Multiplication of 6-9, as it was recommended by the center summary for 4th grade. The game covered a lot of skills. Not only did focus on basic fact fluency for the factor combinations the 4th graders often struggle with, but it used important vocabulary like factor and product. I also like that four sides of each square must be captured before a player can claim it as captured. Lots of practice with factors that have the same product. There is also a lot of math strategy involved to set a player up to capture different squares - which makes it challenging as.
In my math block, I would have my students play this game against the computer a few times - perhaps when they are finished with the classwork for the unit before allowing them to play one another. This way they have time to figure out some helpful strategies before taking on a classmate.
In my math block, I would have my students play this game against the computer a few times - perhaps when they are finished with the classwork for the unit before allowing them to play one another. This way they have time to figure out some helpful strategies before taking on a classmate.