Grades 3 and up
We have been creating and sharing a lot of multiplayer math games and I think it’s time to introduce a single-player one. Sometimes students need to work alone, at their pace, and challenge themselves with a game-like activity.
This game helps students practice multiplication facts, division facts, factors, and multiples. The game comes in print and google slides version.
Maze Escape is a single-player game/activity that allows the player to practice the multiples of each of the numbers 3 to 9. Every time the focus is on one number (table) and the player needs to follow/find its multiples. Of course, players can cooperate and solve the maze together.
Every student can solve the maze of the table/tables hat he needs to practice. Start with the smaller numbers so that students are motivated and clearly understand the rules of the game.
The goal is to exit the maze after collecting all the real jewels.
How to play
Every maze has a number in the middle. You need to start from that number and draw a path exiting and entering rooms only through its multiples. As you move you collect the jewels. Make sure you collect the real ones. (multiples) You might need to re-enter and re-exit a room in order to successfully escape. You cannot pass/collect a jewel twice. You do not need to go through the multiples in order, however, it is advised that you collect all the jewels from one room before entering another, otherwise, you might get trapped in the maze.
Example:
As the example shows, some rooms have more than one multiples. Check the remaining jewels to make sure that you got all the real jewels. If you need to re-enter a room, there is always a way out.
For the numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6 there are two kinds of mazes. The basic (goes up to x9) and the challenge.
Just by solving one maze a lot of work gets done, a lot of thinking and learning.
Important: This game aims to encourage students to practice math. Make sure that you provide a multiplication table to enable all students to play and practice. When games start to feel like tests students get discouraged.
Save paper
The students need to draw paths on the mazes, and they will often need to redo their paths or correct them. I found that laminating each maze is very helpful. The students can draw their paths with whiteboard markers and correct them as many times as needed. This way, you will be able to clean and use the mazes again and again.
I have created a google slides version of the mazes. The students can use the scribble tool to draw the paths.
Use the mazes as part of escape rooms, warm-ups, practice, centers and more.
Here are the mazes to print
I hope that you find this activity useful.
