How Scavenger Hunts get Students Learning out of their Seats

Easily engage students in their learning by having them get up and move! With each topic, I find it important to use scavenger hunts to get students walking around the room, talking math as they complete rigorous math problems. The great thing about scavenger hunts are that students can check their own work. Students complete a math problem. Then they look around the room for the answer at the top of each paper. If they don’t see their answer around the room, they need to problem-solve to find their error. Once students find their answer, they move to that answer to find the next problem on the bottom half of that page. Scavenger Hunts have students move around the room completing each problem until they end up where they began. Scavenger Hunts provide the students with self-checking problems and an opportunity for math discussion.

Setting up the Scavenger Hunt

First, I print the scavenger hunt out on Astrobrights colored paper. This makes it easier for the students to see all of the question/answer choices around the room. Then I mix up the problems and hang them around the room. You can even get silly with it and put the problems on the ceiling (if you can reach)!

Ready, Set, Scavenger Hunt!

When introducing scavenger hunts in middle school, I give my students a clip board and my scavenger hunt worksheet. The clipboard makes it easier for them to write as they move around the classroom. However, you can just have the students use their notebook. My scavenger hunt worksheet is just a table of blank boxes with a small box in the upper right hand corner of each box. In these boxes, the students must write the problem, show their work and then put the clip art name in the small box. The clip art in my middle school scavenger hunts make checking their work quicker. On my scavenger hunt answer sheets there are clip art images associated with each problem in a circle this way I can quickly check for correctness. I just start at the image where they started and check their scavenger hunt from there.

I tell the students that they can start at any problem in the room. Usually for the first scavenger hunt, I tell them which problem to start at so that they all don’t crowd around the same problem at once. Next, I let them know if they can work with a partner. Some students prefer to work independently while others find more value in peer work. Generally, I do limit them to partner work or at most a group of three.

Scavenger Hunt – Moving Madness

As the students are all moving around the room, it can get a bit chaotic but if you step back and listen, you will hear lots of math talk. While the students are working, I walk around the room checking in on kids. Generally I start with the kids that need my help getting started because they are unsure of the material. I make sure they know how to do at least 1-2 problems. Next, I stop by my hardest problem in the scavenger hunt to see how students are understanding it. I probe them with some guiding questions to help. You can always tell when there is a difficult problem in the scavenger hunt because it will create a crowd of kids.

If I see a group of students with one student who seems to just be copying so that he/she can move along with their friend, I pull them aside and ask them to explain a problem to me. This way, I can help that student figure out their misconception. Then I send them on their way with one partner who can help them if needed.

Wrapping it Up the Activity

For the early finishers, I have them return to their seat to either try a challenge problem or start their homework. I have additional worksheets included in my scavenger hunts that I use for my early-finishers. Once I see that most of the students are done (or we’ve run out of time), I have all students return to their seats. I make sure to have at least 3-4 minutes at the end to display one of the problems from the scavenger hunt up on the board. We discuss common misconceptions or why the problem was more challenging. It’s important to make sure all students reflect on their learning.