Mrs. Navarre’s Teaching Blog: I Spy Fruity Addition Game

My class has been having so much fun with this I Spy Fruity Addition game that I decided to write a post about it. While I have, of course, been teaching addition and subtraction all year long, we have just officially come to this unit in our district timeline. It is nice, because my students already have a good foundation and are ready to move on. I used this game as a way of getting my students warmed up for this unit and they are really enjoying it.

I like activities that are interactive and that I can use as a whole class activity without too much prep. This Fruity I Spy game fits the bill. I printed our four sets of cards, which corresponded to my four classroom groups. Each group went to different parts of the classroom, spread out the cards, and played. Once they got the hang of it they were calling out fruity numbers (i.e., I spy a fruity 12, etc.). It does start to get a little loud when they play this game, so I'm good for about 15 minutes. My students are disappointed when the time is up, because they want to continue playing.

One problem that I did run into initially, is that since my groups were not leveled, some students started getting a little frustrated. This was because the same person was always the first to answer. I changed the groups to leveled groups, and they weren't any more thrilled about that, because it became too competitive for some. I ended up going back to the original groups and allowed for the caller to call any player that had their hand up, giving everyone a fair chance to answer. I also allowed them to call on more than one player if someone else thought they could find another combination to equal the sum that was called out.

When I created this game it was intended to be an addition game, but I think this week I am going to try it as a subtraction game. My students know that subtraction problems need to start with the larger number, so I think that it will work. I think this would also work for multiplication if your class is working on that. It doesn't seem to matter how you play the game. The kids seem to have a fruity fun time.