Steal the Bacon...iPad Style

Growing up I remember playing "Steal the Bacon" during rainy day recess.  It was one of my favorite games as a child.  There was nothing special about it, other than the simple fact that we were allowed to run in the classroom.  Desks were pushed to the edges of the room and the floor was made clear of obstacles.  The teacher would divide the class into 4 groups and assign us a corner.  Then 4 erasers were placed in the center of the room.  The task was for each team to send a representative to retrieve the eraser, return to the line to hand it off to the next person who would leave it in the center, the next would retrieve, etc. until all members of the team had made their run and the entire team was seated.  The team seated first was declared the champion.

Well, this past week I took full advantage of a large room, energetic kids, and our iPads.  We modified "Steal the Bacon" and made it a learning opportunity.  I used my ActivInspire software for my Promethean board to create a self-paced quiz using the Math generator.  50 basic facts were entered into the flipchart.  4 iPads were chosen to serve as our "bacon."  The kids were divided into 4 teams and the fun began.

Each team raced to the center of the room to answer a multiplication fact, hit the send button, and tag the next person.  The team with the most correct answers was declared the winner.

*I made sure that students understood the value of the iPad before the game began.
*I focused on the correctness, not the time.
*Students began talking about what the answers were if it was one that was difficult.
*Students showed a 50% improvement on the multiplication math quiz we did the next day.

The idea was not mine originally.  I watched a video from The Ron Clark Academy this week and stole it from him.  You can watch the video here:   The Ron Clark Academy ActivClassroom: Top 10 Ways 


**Updated to add video of the game.