Math Games- Plastic Jug Flip Chute

One of the really cool things about this plastic jug flip chute is that you can watch the cards flip inside the jug. A second cool thing about it is that is can be used for a wide variety of math games. Let me walk you through how to make a flip chute and then various math games that you can play with it.

How to Make A Plastic Jug Flip Chute

I learned how to make a flip chute in college from my main education professor. She  loved hands on learning. The flip chute I made eons ago used a paper milk carton. While a paper milk carton is fine, I want to create a flip chute that would have more of an awe factor. With the milk carton, kids would be awed that the  front of the card would be placed in the flip cute with the question or number sentence face up and would come out the back side of the card facing up.  They never got to see how it worked. Seeing how it worked required a clear plastic container or jug. We used one that came from a green tea container.

Here are the supplies that you will need to make a flip chute:

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-a plastic jug or milk carton ( You loose some of the awe factor with a milk carton, but many of us have one.)

-construction paper of a heavy weight or part of a folder. (I used part of a paper folder.)

– X-ACTO Knife and/or scissors

-heavy clear tape (You could use duck tape instead.)

-stickers

How Create a Flip Chute

Start by making sure that the container you are using for the math games flip chute is really clean. You don’t want to have an odor left in your container.

Then cut a 1 1/2 to 2 inch slot at the top and near the bottom of the container. I used an X-ACTO knife to make the initial cuts and then used scissors to cut straight lines. (I found it was much easier to cut the top, bottom, and sides of each slot with scissors.)

Next a twelve inch length of construction paper was cut out. I made the width of the paper a little smaller than the width of the slits I had cut out of the container.

The top of the length of paper was taped to the top of the upper slot and the bottom of the length of paper was taped to the bottom of the lower slot.

Stickers were placed over the tape to make it look a little better. If I had used color duct tape, I would have left the stickers off the flip chute.

The flip chute I made long ago had a second piece of paper that was shorter in length. It was attached to the bottom of the top slot and the top of the lower slot. I think this second piece was to keep the cards going smoothly inside the flip chute. I decided to eliminate it and found that the flip chute still worked well.

Math Games and Flip Chute Cards

Flip Chute Cards

Blank index cards were created the flip chute cards for the math games. I just cut them in half. My education professor had us cut the bottom left hand corner out of the front of the card. It helped distinguish the top for the bottom. For this set of cards I didn’t do that.

Math Games

Basic Facts

For this set of flip chute cards I focused on math subtraction facts. Early this week JDaniel announced he had been thinking and that thinking was about subtracting. I placed the number sentence on the front of the card. Then I turned the card over and made the top the bottom. Next I put the answer on the card. By doing that the answer came out facing up on the card.

You could easily do basic addition, subtraction, division or multiplication facts.

Greater Than Or Less Than 

Placing two number with a big space between them would be great for working on greater than and less than. You would just have to place the correct symbol of the back.

Shape Identification

Draw a shape on the front of the card and the name of the shape on the back on the card.

 

This are just a few math games that you could play. I bet you could come up with lots of other ways to use this flip chute learning tool.

Here are some other math games for kids:

Math Fun- Solar System Math Facts

Math Games for Kids- LEGO Count and Move

Math Games for Kids- Outdoor Math Web