Fiddle Faddle Flop!

“This is so fun!” 

“YES! We got it!”

“We are getting good at this!”

These are the words of the 5th graders last week as they learned a new game. Mrs. Wise, our gifted specialist, came into our classroom to teach the students a fun, strategic game called Fiddle, Faddle, Flop.  In this game, a “number leader” decides on a secret 2-digit or 3-digit number and does not tell anyone else.  The remaining students take turns guessing the secret number.  The “number leader” then determines if the number guessed is a Fiddle, Faddle, or a Flop.  

Below are the criteria for determining if a guess is a Fiddle, Faddle, or Flop.

This game requires a lot of strategy.  As the guesses go on, it becomes obvious what the number has to be based on logical reasoning. Once we practiced a few rounds as a class, the students played this game with their cooperative teams.  They took turns being the “number leader” and the number guessers.  The roles rotated around the team.  It was so fun watching the light bulb go on as students figured out the mystery number.

While this game was a fun teambuilder, it also connects well with our place value unit in math.  This is something that the students loved and it has the potential to increase with difficulty as we build larger whole numbers and decimals. We will certainly be revisiting this one throughout the year!