It can be fun. But I find I love math when there are interesting problems to solve and not boring worksheets. I know my students feel the same way.
I found this blog last week called Would You Rather?
John Stevens posts would you rather situations that require mathematical thinking to solve.
Today I turned this one into a station.
I changed it up a little so the students had to do more math with it. They had to answer the following question:
Would you rather...
Have a stack of quarters from the floor to the top of your head? OR
Have a nickel for every day you've been alive?
Students had to measure themselves, convert years to days, multiply decimals, divide, use fractions...etc. They had to take things they had learned and apply it to this problem in unique ways.
The students didn't leave the classroom proclaiming it was the best day ever! (yet) But their attitudes were better, they didn't complain, students who grudgingly do math were excited to multiply decimals to find out how much money they would have. When it was time to go, they wouldn't stop. It was fun for me to talk to them about the work they were doing and they had fun explaining their choices.
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Look at all that math going on! I am excited for more students to tackle this problem tomorrow.
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