Mean, Median, Mode, and Range Spider Puzzles

The activity I’m about to share isn’t super fancy or complex, but my students absolutely loved it.  I had planned two activities for our 50 minute class period in Algebra 1 on reviewing measures of central tendency: this activity and another.  We did this activity first, and my students did not want to move on to the second activity!

These Average and Range Spider Puzzles are a free download from alutwyche on TES.  I was made aware of this awesome resource by Jo Morgan at Resourceaholic.  

I downloaded the PPT file from TES, exported it as a PDF, then printed it to “fit” on letter sized paper since the original file is intended to print on A4 paper.

There are four different levels of spider puzzles.  I placed copies of the first level inside my dry erase pockets.  

If you don’t have a classroom set of dry erase pockets, you could also use heavy duty sheet protectors. But, I highly recommend investing in a classroom set of the pockets since they are so much more durable.

These handy dandy pockets make any activity instantly reusable.  I find that my students are much more willing to take a risk with a dry erase marker in their hand than a pen or pencil.

I had my students work on this activity in pairs.

As they finished the puzzle, the students would bring the puzzle up to my desk.  I used the answer key provided in the TES download to check their work.  If there were mistakes, I would circle the problems that needed to be looked at again.  If there were no mistakes, I would switch out the puzzle in their dry erase pocket with the next level.

I used my Avery Plastic Sleeves to keep the different puzzle levels organized throughout the day.

As students progressed through the levels, the puzzles started asking for them to provide two numbers instead of one number.  My students REALLY struggled with this concept.

None of my students made it through all four levels in the twenty-five or so minutes that we spent on this activity.

As I mentioned before, my students DID NOT want to stop this activity to move on to the next activity!  And, it wasn’t because they found it super easy, either.  Most pairs breezed through the first level and struggled with the subsequent levels.  

I was proud to see some of my students referencing their notes!  I’ve blogged about the notes I created for reviewing mean, median, mode, and range here.

I look forward to trying more spider puzzles with my students in the future!

Here are a few more action shots of my students.