The Magical Number ____

Thank you to the offender tutors at Minnesota Correctional Facility - St. Cloud for recommending this activity.

Purpose: To get students playing with numbers; to get students to review their multiplication facts.

Prep Time: None

Materials: An index card for each person.

Procedure:

1. Arrange students in a circle to facilitate taking turns.
2. Give each student an index card.
3. Randomly choose a number between 3-9. For example, “7.”
4. Have all the students write that number on their index cards.
5. Students count off going around the circle, each saying a number in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
6. A student should hold up their card if:
   • The number has the target number as one of the digits, for example 17, 27, 37, 71, etc.
   • Their number is a multiple of the target number, for example 7, 14, 21, 28, etc.
7. When the student holds up their card, they should say the number and why they held it up, for example “21… 3 x 7 = 21.”
8. All the other students should pay attention. If someone misses a number, the group should yell stop and the next person starts over from 1.