Football Math Project

I love finding ways to tap into my students’ passions and interests, and football is definitely at the top of many of my students’ list. This football math project meets all of my requirements for a good lesson, AND my students think it is the coolest thing ever. I actually got the idea from one of my students. We were doing some type of multiplication activity, and I overhead a student talk about how he used football to help him with math. I took that statement and ran with it.

Each of the activities in the resource has a focus on multiplication. I created this to be used in any upper elementary classroom. Since I know multi-digit multiplication may be too challenging for third grade students, I also made a version with ONLY multiples of ten, hundred, and thousand. In this post I’ll share an overview of each of the activities, so you can see exactly what’s included. You can find the resource here.

 

Football Math-Measuring the Field

In one activity, students are given a collection of football statistics. Students use multiplication to convert those yards to feet. As a bonus, students may also try to convert the yards or the feet to inches. To help develop my students’ number sense, I’ve also asked students to explain ABOUT how many times each athlete ran the length of the field to earn those yards.

Football Math-Word Problems

This is the only basic word problem page in the resource. I wanted to include it to provide as many options as possible for teachers. I did include a few basic division problems to force students to think about which operation they should use.

Football Math-Penalties Abound

I really like this activity, and my students were shocked that I could turn penalties into math! I realize that not all of my students are interested in football, so I included a table at the top of the page that lists 10 common penalties and the results of those penalties. Students use that information to solve math problems, including multi-step problems.

Football Math-It’s All About the Merch

Part of the fun of a football game is looking at all of the retail available for purchase. In this activity, students calculate how much revenue each item sold at the football game. This page includes a combination of 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication and 4-digit by 1-digit multiplication.

You can see how the third grade version differs from the fourth and fifth grade version of the football math project.

Football Math-Counting Ticket Sales

The fourth grade version of the counting ticket sales activity only focuses on 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication. I like to always have a few pages that focus on one specific skills, because sometimes I really want to emphasize a particular strategy or skill.

Football Math-Battle of the Band

I don’t know about everyone else, but the halftime band performance is one of my favorite parts of the game. In this Battle of the Band activity, students solve problems where the use multiplication as a comparison. My students ALL thought this was so easy….until they realized they were not carefully reading the question or statement. This forces students to slow down and analyze the mathematical situation.

Football Math-Concession Stand

I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to a football game where I didn’t visit the concession stand. Even if students have never been to a football game, most likely they will have all visited a concession stand. In this activity, students solve 4-digit by 1-digit multiplication problems. I like having a page without any 2-digit by 2-digit problems, because sometimes my students aren’t quite ready to independently work on that skill.

Football Math-Instant Replay

This activity requires a lot of problem solving. Students have to determine two combinations of ways to score in a football game that would equal the score shown on the score board. Since many students may not know how football is scored, I’ve included a scoring guide at the top of the page. To make this more challenging, you can set requirements such as, they scored three different ways, or the team must score in each way possible.

Football Freebie

I also made a freebie for you. In this activity, students research to fill in the statistics on the table below. I left it fairly vague, so it can be used with any team. Then, students use that information to solve included word problems. You can cut out the word problems and use them as task cards, so you can use the words problems in a single worksheet. You can download this for free here.

If you’re looking for more ways to incorporate sports into your instruction, but sure to check out this blog post. It doesn’t have a football focus, but it’s a lot of fun.