Hunt for the Black Cats

Procedures

1. Make nine or ten copies of the page of cats (enlarge if necessary).
2. Cut the cats apart in rectangular pieces of paper.
3. When the students are out of the room, hide these cats throughout the classroom.
4. Distribute one piece of paper and a pencil to each student.
5. Show students a sample of the paper cats that are hidden around the room and tell them that today's math lesson is a cat hunt.
6. At a signal, have the children search the classroom for cats. Allow 5-10 minutes for this.
7. Sound the signal and ask students to return to their desks. Have the students write down the numbers they found in a column on a piece of paper.
8. Instruct each student to add up all the numbers on the cats they found.
9. Let the child with the highest number come up to the chalkboard and write the numbers of each child's total cats in a long column on the board.
10. Discuss how to reach a grand total.
11. Have children attempt to find the sum of everyone's cats.
12. Calculate the total as a group and ask students to check their work against the correct answer.