Math Tug of War
Answer faster than the other team and heave the ribbon to your flag.
Grade 3: the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables
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Game information
- Price
- Free
- Skills
- Mental MathMultiplicationFocus
- Players
- 1 or 2 players
- Platforms
- Phone / Tablet / Computer
How Math Tug of War works
Three strongmen on each team grip a rope with a ribbon tied in the middle, and each team has a flag five steps away on its own side. Each team gets its own question and taps the answer on its number pad. There is no button to press: the answer is checked the moment enough digits are typed. A right answer makes your team heave and drags the ribbon one step toward your flag. A wrong answer shows you the right one in the answer box, your team slips, and the next question comes straight up, so the round keeps moving like a real game instead of stopping until you get it.
Pull the ribbon all the way to your flag to win, or be ahead when the 90 seconds are up. Questions are dealt rather than picked at random, so none comes back until its whole set has been seen, the same answer never turns up twice in a row, and there are no throwaway questions such as adding zero or multiplying by one.
Picking the right grade
The grade buttons run from K to 5, and the line under them says exactly what that grade practices. Each grade races what should already be automatic by that point in the year: the facts a child learned last year, plus the easiest of this year's. That sits deliberately below the end of year targets, because a race tests speed of recall, and a fact a child is still working out will lose to the clock every time.
- Kindergarten: Sums and take aways inside five, the facts a kindergartner is expected to know quickly. (kindergarten fluency, K.OA.A.5)
- Grade 1: Sums and take aways inside ten, the facts first grade is expected to know by heart. (first grade fluency, 1.OA.C.6)
- Grade 2: A teen number plus or minus a few ones without crossing twenty, doubles and halves, and whole tens like 30 + 40. (the easier half of 2.OA.B.2)
- Grade 3: The times tables a third grader learns first, both ways round, and dividing by 2, 5 and 10. (the first tables of 3.OA.C.7)
- Grade 4: Every times table from 2 to 10, with dividing by the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 tables. (3.OA.C.7, the target from the year before)
- Grade 5: Every multiplication and division fact to 10 x 10, and the 11 and 12 times tables as a stretch. (3.OA.C.7 in full, plus the next two tables)
We set the levels this way after testing. The first version used the full end of year targets, and a fifth grader playing Grade 5 found questions like 1700 divided by 100 far too hard at speed, even though she knew how to do them. No level now uses a number bigger than 12 times 12. If a child is guessing rather than recalling, drop a grade; if every answer comes instantly, move up one, or switch the computer from Easy to Medium.
Playing against the computer
The computer is the default opponent, because a game nobody can start on their own is no use at bedtime or on a bus. Its question sits on the right beside yours, and you can watch it tap out its answer on its own pad, so nothing it does is hidden. Every game starts on Easy, about six and a half seconds a question, so a child's first game is one they can win; Medium is just under five seconds and Hard about three, and the computer slows down further at kindergarten and the early grades, where reading the question and finding the keys takes longer. When it gets one wrong it is the kind of slip a child makes, one out or the neighboring row of the table, never a random number.
Two players on one screen
Choose 2 Players and each child gets their own pad, the right way up, on the same side as their team. On a computer, tablet or classroom whiteboard the rope sits between the two pads, which is also how it works best as a class game: put it on the board and have a volunteer tap for each team while the rest of the room calls out answers. On a phone the rope moves to the top and the two pads share the screen underneath.
Why a race helps with math facts
Fact fluency is recall, not calculation. A child who counts on their fingers to get seven eights will get there, but slowly enough that the working memory needed for the rest of a problem is already spent. Short, competitive bursts push recall because there is no time to count, and seeing the right answer straight after a wrong one means a shaky fact gets corrected while it is still fresh rather than at the end of a worksheet. Three short rounds beat twenty minutes of grinding.
Questions parents and teachers ask
How do you play Math Tug of War?
Two teams of strongmen pull a rope with a ribbon tied in the middle. Each team gets its own question and taps the answer on its number pad. There is no button to press when you finish: the answer is checked the moment you have typed enough digits. A right answer heaves the rope one step your way. A wrong answer shows you the right one, and either way the next question comes straight up, so the game never stops. Pull the ribbon to your flag, five steps ahead, and you win.
Can one person play on their own?
Yes, and that is the default. Choose vs Easy, vs Medium or vs Hard and the computer takes the other end of the rope. Its question is on screen beside yours and you can watch it type its answer on its own pad, so it never gets a secret advantage. It takes about six and a half seconds a question on Easy, which is where every game starts, just under five on Medium and about three on Hard, and longer still at kindergarten and the early grades. It makes the kind of mistakes a child makes, most often on Easy. On a computer the number keys on the keyboard work too.
Can two children play on one screen?
Yes. Choose 2 Players and each child gets their own number pad, left and right, both the right way up, with their team on the same side of the rope. On a computer, tablet or classroom whiteboard the rope sits in the middle with a pad on each side. On a phone the rope sits on top and the two pads share the screen underneath, which is snug for two but works.
Which math does each grade cover?
Kindergarten is adding and taking away within 5. Grade 1 is adding and taking away within 10. Grade 2 is teen numbers, doubles and adding tens. Grade 3 is the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables. Grade 4 is all the times tables to 10. Grade 5 is times and divide to 10 x 10, plus 11 and 12. Every answer is a whole number, because you type it on a number pad in a race.
Why do the grades feel easier than schoolwork?
Because a race only feels fair when the answers come without thinking. A question can be easy to work out and still be slow to work out, and against a clock slow feels like failing. We learned this in testing: our first Grade 5 level asked things like 1700 divided by 100, and a fifth grader found it far too hard, not because she could not do it but because she could not do it instantly. So each grade here races what should already be automatic by that point in the year, which is last year's by-heart facts plus the easiest of this year's. Schoolwork is where the new material belongs; a race is for making the known facts faster.
How long does a round last?
Until one team pulls the ribbon five steps to its flag, or 90 seconds, whichever comes first. If time runs out, the team the ribbon is leaning toward wins, and a ribbon dead in the middle is a draw. The limit keeps rounds short enough to play several in a row.