Let’s talk about digital activities – specifically, free digital math activities! Maneuvering the Middle has digital math activities for 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, and Algebra 1. Let’s talk about what digital activities are, why we love them, and some ideas on how you can use them. Most importantly, you can try them out in your classroom with a freebie down below!
UPDATE: ALGEBRA I DIGITAL ACTIVITIES ARE NOW AVAILABLE!
LISTEN ON: APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY
What is a digital math activity?
Digital math activities are designed for use in Google Slides and Google Forms, but you do not have to be a Google school or use Google classroom to make these work. In fact, you can use them with any LMS; your students just have to have access to either Google Slides or PowerPoint.
The digital activities are made up of two parts. First, the interactive activity portion; students either drag and match, insert shapes and lines, or type their responses. Then, the formative assessment portion is a quick, two question Google Form quiz that assesses if a student understands the concept.
We released these resources back in 2019 (pre-COVID) to provide a way for teachers to use technology and still have high-quality problems and scaffolding of a specific concept. We wanted to include higher-level thinking skills and applications that require students to make those connections between what they are learning and the real world.
Why should you try them out?
You might be wondering – are these digital activities for me? Which is why we want to give you a free set to try! Free digital activities to make your life easier!
This way you can try them out with students and see if they are a good fit! If you love the freebie, you can find more digital math activities here.
Here’s why you should try them:
- They work in all classroom settings as long as your students have access to a device like a Chromebook or iPad.
- If you are in-person, use them as paperless practice. You could even have students collaborate by working on the exact same file.
- If you are in a hybrid classroom, they are a great fit for that at-home day.
- If you are fully virtual, they can easily be broken up and shared as individual slides or they can be shared as a weekly assignment. They are ready to go and easy to share, making the virtual component just a little lighter.
- They provide variety. Not only are they visually appealing, but they won’t overwhelm students. There is nothing like opening an assignment and realizing you have 30 problems to solve or questions to answer.
- They are more interesting than a worksheet. And we all know that we are trying our best to keep our students engaged. Cue this meme:
Anytime you can bring some creativity and an interactive element without losing the rigor (or even building up to the rigor) and it’s ready to go — shoot, sign me up!
How other teachers are using them and why they love them?
I love hearing how other teachers are using them in their unique circumstances and wanted to share with you — especially if you aren’t a math teacher, then you may be able to apply these ideas to an activity in your content area.
Shawna from our MTM FB group says, “We are all remote. I use them for a collaboration day every week. Students get their own copy in GC (Google Classroom) but are in breakout rooms to work together on them.”
Angelique shared, “1) I use digital activities for group work and each group is assigned 1 problem they will present to the class. 2) I use them as a competition to see which breakout room will return to the main room first. I have found this has kept all of my classes on task and focused.”
Marissa says, “Since we are on a hybrid schedule, I use them for all my students at home days. I either check one slide of the digital activity for accuracy or they get a completion grade for doing all slides… I pair them with the Google Form exit tickets and use those as a little formative check.”
And Brina shared, “I’ve been using digital math activities in my skills practice choice boards. I try to give students 3-5 choice practice activities over whatever skill we are doing in class. This way they can practice the skill by picking the activity that they are most interested in… It has been helpful since we have gone back and forth between remote and face to face a few times this year.”
If you want to learn more about digital activities (or really any math topic for that matter), join our Facebook group of brilliant math teachers!
Don’t forget to grab our free digital activities! If you are already using our digital math activities, I would love to know how you are using them, so comment below or let us know on our FB page or Instagram.
