Multi-Digit Subtraction Claw Machine Game

Are you looking for a ready-to-go interactive activity to help your students review what they’ve learned about multi-digit subtraction? We understand that finding unique and engaging ways to review grade-level standards can sometimes be tricky. That’s why we’ve created an interactive game that is easy to download and use in your classroom, even with your most reluctant students!

This digital claw machine game has all the design work and linking done for you, so all you have to do is open the file, put it in presentation mode, and start playing!

Through this resource, students will review how to use multiple strategies to subtract three and four-digit numbers. The strategies included are

• Bar Model
• Standard Algorithm
• Expanded Model (Place Value)

This activity is a great fit for whole-class learning! Use it as part of your lesson, a quick maths warm-up, or a review before your upcoming subtraction test. Have students work out the problems on individual whiteboards and use the ‘Show Me’ method for an easy way to check understanding and identify who may need extra support.

Use Our Interactive Subtraction Games with Ease

Upon opening the file, you will find a title slide, several claw machine slides, and 18 question slides. Slides 2-39 make this resource come to life in presentation mode, so there is no need to edit or adjust anything on these slides. Also, be careful not to delete or move slides since the linking is intricate.

Simply click to place the slides into ‘Presentation’ or ‘Slideshow’ mode and watch the claw machine come to life.

Once hitting ‘Start,’ you will see that you can use the arrows on the machine itself to move the claw. You can move it left to right, backward, and forward to locate a new question. Each time you select ‘GO,’ the claw machine drops to grab a colourful ball. Click ‘Open’ to reveal the question! Have your students answer the question, discuss it when they finish, and have them record the points they earned inside the bubble. When you are ready to return to the claw machine, click ‘Reset.’

Teacher Note: The positions of the claw machine are laid out in 2 rows of 9. For example, if you click the left cursor once, question 1 will appear. If you click the left arrow five times, question 5 will appear. To get to questions 10 – 18, the claw machine click the up arrow button to shift to the back row, then use the left/right arrows to move between positions 10 – 18.

Preparing Your Files to Play

Click the dropdown arrow on the download button to select this resource’s Google Slides or PowerPoint Resource file. 

Put your new resource in presentation mode and have some fun!

This resource was created by Cassandra Friesen, a Teach Starter Collaborator.

More Multi-Digit Subtraction Activities

Let us help you with more of your lesson prep by recommending some more of our favourite multi-digit subtraction activities.

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