Title – Mardi Gras Tokens

By – Virginia Bodden

Primary Subject – Health / Physical Education

Secondary Subjects – Math

Grade Level – PK-4

Description:

This “Mardi Gras Tokens” agility game gives students a relevant reason to improve their math, running and teamwork skills. It improves cardio performance as well as counting or addition skills, but this game is an exceptionally useful way to motivate students to transition from addition to learning their multiplication facts.

Objective:

• To improve agility skills
  
• To improve cardio performance
  
• To work as a team to sort
  
• To work as a team to add and multiply

Equipment:

• Hula-hoops
  
• Various color circles (Mardi Gras colors – purple, green and gold – would be ideal, but not required)
• Note: Using actual Mardi Gras doubloons would seem to be a good idea, but due to inappropriate themes, unknown paint content and cleanliness issues, LPP suggests that you just use color “tokens”.

Game:

Grades 1-4:
• Fill a circle with color tokens.
• Divide teams into groups (whatever your space allows) behind a hula-hoop.
  
• The first player of each team runs to the circle and picks a color token. The next player must choose the same color until the team has five tokens. Then the next player changes the color. This continues for about three minutes.
• Team members count the number of groups or “sets of five” that the team collected. Then they add or multiply to get a total number collected.
• You then change the number to 7 or 8, whatever you want to announce.

Pre-K and Kindergarten:

• Fill a circle with color tokens.
• Divide teams into groups behind hula-hoops of different colors.
  
• Team members run to the circle and pick up a color token that matches their hoop.
• When three minutes are up, the teams count how many they collected.
• Note: Since students are still learning color recognition, don’t confuse them by calling yellow tokens – “gold.”

E-Mail

Virginia Bodden

!