When I learned I would be teaching math for the first time, I wanted to do something different.

Teaching math seemed to me to be all of the least fun parts of teaching: lecture, worksheets, and the worst of all….. grading.

If your kids can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, they can do this activity. It’s not just for the math classroom!

Obviously none of those things will ever go away when you are a teacher, but reading Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl changed my approach to all three. You can read more about that here:

One of my favorite activities to start the year off is called Four 4s.

This activity is what I would call Low Floor, High Ceiling. Low Floor means all students can approach the problem meaningfully and have success. High Ceiling mean that students can take the question beyond a basic level of understanding, finding patterns, applications and multiple approaches to solving the problem.

Four 4s

I group my students in threes and send them to whiteboards to work (the ability to easily erase is important to getting them to try different ideas). Here is a sample of how I introduce this activity to my students:

This game is called Four 4s.

The rules are simple: you have to use the number 4, four times to write an expression. You cannot only use it 2 times or 3 times or 5 times, just exactly four times.

You will write one expression to equal 1, another to equal 2, another to equal 3, and so on until 10.

You can use addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and grouping symbols.

I provide students with hints along the way to try things they already know (e.g. order of operations). I also answer questions about legal moves (using the integer 44 as two of your fours).

I have used this activity with students in grades 6-12. With junior high, I stop at Four 4s to equal 1 through 10.

With high school, I extend the activitity!

Students can use the Four 4s activity for 11-20 as well. In order to complete these expressions, students have to use square root, factorial, and exponents (exponent has to be a 4 though, and it counts as one of your fours).

Here are possible solutions for 1-5 to get you started!

(4 + 4) / (4 + 4) = 1

(4 / 4) + (4 / 4) = 2

(4 + 4 + 4) / 4 = 3

4 x (4 – 4) + 4 = 4

(4 x 4 + 4) / 4 = 5

What types of activities do you like to do on the first day? Let me know in the comments below!

If you’d like to check out some of the other activities I do with my students, click the pictures below.