Math Circus Games
The circus train has come to school and the lions, tigers, bears and elephants are ready to play. Students of all ages will enjoy spending a little time clowning around, racing back and forth and trying their hands at tending to the circus animals. Help students have a little bit of math fun with these circus-themed math games.
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Juggling Pattern Races
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Spread colored scarves or balls around the gym. Place hula-hoops along gym walls and assign a student to each hoop. Tell students a juggler dropped his juggling equipment and needs help getting it back. The juggler needs eight items placed in a pattern around the hula-hoop ring. On go, have students race to grab one item. Student then run back and place them item in their hoop. Students gather items one at a time until they have eight items displayed in a repeating pattern around their hoop.
Circus Train
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Make 10 circus-themed train cars. Number each train car from 1 to 10. Then make circus animals to fill each train car, such as one elephant, two lions, three seals, four tigers, five bears, six horses, seven monkeys, eight alligators, nine snakes and ten fleas. Invite students to put the train cars in order. Invite students to sort the animals and place them in the correct train car so the number of animals matches the train car number.
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Attribute Game
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Send a letter home asking parents for donations of circus-themed clothes such as wild patterned shifts, funny pants, scarves, big shoes, ties, hats and wigs. Set the clothes on the floor and invite students to dress up as circus clowns. Play the attribute game. Select a secret attribute, such as anyone wearing a tie, and begin calling clowns that have the attribute to stand in front of the class. Have students guess the attribute. The student who guesses correctly gets to be the attribute master for the next round.
Three-Ring Circus Addition
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Provide students with three small plastic rings or circles cut out of construction paper, three dice and math manipulatives. Invite students to roll the dice and place manipulatives in the three rings to match the number shown on each die. Have students add the three numbers together. Encourage students to record their three-ring circus addition problems on a piece of paper if they are ready.
Animal Cracker Sorting
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Give students a small box of animal crackers. Invite students to sort the animal crackers by size, shape or animal type. Ask students to count how many crackers they have in each group. Pose questions for students to answer such as which group has more, which group has the least or how many elephants in all. Allow students to eat their crackers after math time.
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