Last week, we challenged teachers to have their students compete in a MobyMax Fact Fluency classroom contest. We wanted to make sure teachers were aware of this simple but exciting way to motivate students to master math facts.

Teachers easily learned how to use Moby’s contest module to set up their classroom contest in less than 2 minutes. Teachers could also decide what rewards and incentives to put in place in their own classroom. Thousands of teachers participated! One big take-away? A little competition makes a big difference!! 

Why were the contests such a hit? Here’s how some of the teachers explained it.

“Today when my kids found out that kids teachers in other states won yesterday, they were first of all SHOCKED that kids across the nation were participating. They thought it was super cool that there are kids at different age levels and cities and states using this as well, and our small chat turned into a spur-of-the-moment geography lesson! It was great! :) It made them want to try even harder and do their best on their facts today! This morning my top student has 4,018 seconds and a score of 90 points. He's excited to see his points growing as well as his confidence!” ~ Kayleen Renee Durant, Griffin School

“I teach in a Title One district, which means that many of my students come from low-income families. Some of my students do not have the necessary technology in their homes, but that isn't stopping them from participating in this contest. Some students walk to friends’ houses to use a computer there, others walk to the library to use computers, while some even ask to stay after school to work. Today's top student had 21,994 seconds and 311 raw points. My class as a whole has a total of 99,966 seconds!” ~ Barbara Wood, Academy Street School 

‪"This contest has changed one of my 3rd graders’ lives. He used to throw a fit and throw his papers because he would get so frustrated in math. Today he made a 100 on his test and can't wait to play in this contest. My top time is 9715 with raw score 361." ~ Mary Westfall Cain, Liberty Elementary

"What a difference some competition makes! My students are so excited about participating in this contest, and they are so focused on their math facts fluency! I have two groups: my 1st top student has 9,573 seconds with 211 raw points, and the 2nd has 6274 with 32 points. Thanks MobyMax, I'm loving my students' motivation… teacher dreams do come true!" ~ ‪Vanessa Muñoz Bravo , H A Harmon Elementary School

Interested in running your own MobyMax classroom contest? Here’s how easy it is to set up! It only takes 2 minutes.

• Sign in to your teacher account and click “Contests.”

• Name of Contest: Example- MobyMax (Subject name) Challenge

• Enter your start and end date
• Select Subject

• Select results based on time
or points
• Choose Contest for: My Classroom
• Determine your awards.

Awards can be easy and low cost. Here are a few ideas:

Individual incentives

1. First student to reach 100% fluency receives a $10 gift card (Yogurt Mountain, DQ, Chik-Fil-A, Target, Dollar Store)
2. Select your seat in the class
3. Homework pass
4. Read morning announcements over the school PA System
5. Lunch with teacher or principal
6. Be the math hero for the day/week
7. Movie tickets
8. Hot chocolate
9. Trip to the school store
10. A book form the special book basket 
11. Different size candy buckets for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place

Classroom incentives if whole class meets goal ideas:

1. Extra recess
2. Extra Fun Friday
3. Additional electronics time
4. Pizza party
5. Ice-cream or frozen yogurt party
6. Donuts on Monday if entire class achieves 20 minutes a day
7. Picnic lunch

Want to see what more teachers have to say about MobyMax? You can read their rave reviews here.

By the way, MobyMax teachers are really creative when it comes to using bulletin boards as well as contests to build fact fluency. Take a look here.