Build it With a Buddy- Standard Math Practice

Happy Wednesday!
As I had posted at the end of last week, my Smarties were busy getting January Benchmark testing in Math and ELA.  I needed to continue with our curriculum if I even want to have a prayer of getting all of the standards in before our state test in April, so I sandwiched in a little group play between our computation and concepts testing.
We played Build it with a Buddy.

This is a REALLY simple game which basically practices adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers.  The smarties played in groups of 3 or 4.  You make four sets of cards numbered 0-9.  The group takes turns pulling a card and placing it wherever they feel is best on their worksheet.  The object of the game is to create the greatest sum, difference, product or quotient.  I added a twist to my sheets because we are working through a decimals unit, so my smartie's sheets had decimal points in various places in the game.

It was  great way for them to socialize.. as sixth grade smarties need to do.. they get wiggly after all that test taking, practice basic computation and standard (traditional) multiplication and division.  Our benchmarks seem to indicate students need to be fluent in the standard algorithms which to our department means traditional multiplication and division.  NO MORE lattice and partial product.  We have had to break a lot of those habits this year.  I am curious to know if your department has interpreted standard algorithms the same way?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

If your interested in Build it with a Buddy.. which is great to throw into a sub tub.. flu season is upon us!.. or use it as a center and differentiate as needed, you can pick up a copy by clicking the Build it with a Buddy picture above.