One of the simplest ways to create a game for learning inequalities is to give awards to those who complete a quiz in the shortest amount of time or with the highest degree of accuracy. Rewards include pieces of candy, small toys or extra recess. Students can also be rewarded for individual answers, since most can be answered without need for paper and pencil. A basic question would be write the equation x > 5 and ask whether 10 could be x.
Set up a giant paper number line in the classroom and hand each child a pen or marker. Then ask them all to draw the line describing the equation that you say or write on the board. Students can complete this game as a group or one by one. For example, you could write 4 < x < 7 and ask the students to draw a line covering the numbers that could possibly be x.
Another potential game is to set up fun scenarios or in real life. For example, if it takes one hour to get ready for school and the school bus leaves at 8:30 a.m., what time must you get up? The answer can be expressed as an inequality of "wake-up time" <= 7:30. Financial examples are also a good choice. If the class needs to raise $100 for a class trip and each cupcake sold at a bake sale yields $1.50, how many cupcakes would be needed to sell? The class must sell a total of greater than or equal to 67 cupcakes.
Teaching compound and complex inequalities requires a little more instruction because of their incremental difficulty. Assign students a project to create their own scenarios or stories surrounding the equation and solution for one of these problems. Then make them present it in front of the class for review and feedback. A typical complex problem is as follows:
2x <= 4x + 4 < 6x
x <= 2x + 2 < 3x
2x + 2 < 3x
2 > x
x <= 2x + 2
-2 <= x
so
- 2 <= x < 2