Kakooma Challenge

I've enjoyed learning from Greg Tang for many years.  He has an understanding of how to engage kids in math like few others.  He's written several picture books with rhymes that teach math concepts in fun and engaging ways.  I've heard him speak a few times and was fortunate enough to see him recently at the NCTM in Chicago in November.
Teaching honors math at my school means I teach 3 hours of math every day.  What a schedule- I teach 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  I'm always looking for ways to engage my students in numeracy and teamwork.  And if I can incorporate any other math skills, that is the icing on the cake.
I heard about this game called Kakooma from another teacher last year.  This is a great game, developed by Greg Tang to engage kids (and adults) in numeracy.  Try it - see what you think!  www.Kakooma.org  This website requires a subscription - but is well worth it.  $5.99 for a year of this game is cheap!
My students love Kakooma.  We started this year with kids playing Kakooma from time to time during the first or last few minutes of class.  They were good at it and they enjoyed it.  If we didn't have a real curriculum to teach, they would play Kakooma for an hour at a time.  (Really, we never did that!)
Then I had a great idea - Kakooma tournaments.  Every Friday. 
So now on Fridays, my students come into my room ready to play!  They love this. 
The first thing we do is choose 2 score keepers.  They come up to the board and make a scoreboard.  The kids sit in table groups of 3 or 4.  Each table comes up to play Kakooma on the Smart Board - Kakooma Times, Level 7 this month.  The kids from each table work together to solve the Kakooma Times puzzle at the SmartBoard.  The score keepers record their score on the scoreboard.  Every table group of kids gets a chance to play.  Which ever team has the worst time, gets another chance. 
Then the real math fun starts!  Each student gets a calculator and they determine the class average time for solving the Kakooma puzzle.  They find the range in times.   They can also find the differences in times between groups and practice putting the times in order.  Now they all know mean and range because they had a purpose in learning it - seamless.
My students are practicing their facts in an engaging way and enjoying it!  They love this. 
Try it!  Let me know what your students think!