What is Ninja Maths?

Ninja Maths

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'Ninja Maths' has changed my classroom. What began as moment of inspiration has snowballed into a change of culture within not only my class but every class that uses 'Ninja Maths'. Students have knitted replica ninja's, written songs and created film clips based upon 'Ninja Maths'.  Also a whole new behaviour management plan created just because of what I call the 'Ninja Revolution'.

So what is 'Ninja Maths'?

Put simply it is a tool you can use as a part of your maths program to help motivate and inspire learning of basic facts. The program covers multiplication, division, subtraction and addition. An excel document, which generates 151 random questions every time it is opened, is used to test how many correct basic facts students can produce in three minutes. The score the student achieves is compared to the Ninja ranking poster and the student receives the corresponding ninja card. Sounds simple, and it is. At all the trial schools the students have displayed remarkable motivation to learn their basic facts and have unsurprisingly displayed remarkable improvement.

Why does this program work?

Basic facts knowledge is the basis for all mathematic concepts and ‘Ninja Maths’ makes it an enjoyable and motivating experience for all students. Students learning basic facts is essential for them to advance their mathematical skills and knowledge. Each student is encouraged to improve at a rate that is drawn from their own internal motivation to have success. Due to the clear evidence of improvement over a short amount of time, students gain confidence in their own ability, as they can clearly see their own progress. The ‘Ninja Maths’ program caters for students of all ability levels and challenges them all to get better.

How else can it be used?

As a behaviour management tool. Students with the highest ranking ninja scores (this could be most improved, among many other options) get rewarded by being released to recess, lunch and/or home first. You would be surprised by how effective this small reward can be to increased motivation for learning and behaviour.

So how do we know it works?

The improvement in all classes that have implemented 'Ninja Maths' is nothing short of remarkable. If you are familiar with John Hattie's 'Effect size', you will know that 0.4 is the normal improvement seen in an area of learning over the course of a year. After analysing the data from the classes using Ninja Maths for a term it was found to have an effect size of 1.72. That is over 4 years worth of improvement in 10 weeks!

What do you get?

You will receive 9 different printable ninja cards and the Ninja Ranking poster which explains the different rankings and scores required to achieve them, with amazing illustrations drawn by professional illustrator Paul Spencer. One excel document which contains four spread sheets one for each of the four operations. This excel document will generate 151 random questions for each of the operations every time it is opened. A PDF document explaining  the easy steps involved in implementing 'Ninja Maths' in your classroom.

Breaking News: Foundation Ninja: 

Not to leave out all our friends in Pre-Primary we have produced 'Foundation Ninja Maths'. All of the tasks are based upon the Australian Curriculum and there is also cute new ninja cards and a new ranking system. There is a different sheet for number bonds to 5, 10 and 20, as well as much more. If you want to motivate and invigorate your Pre-Primary students 'Foundation Ninja' is for you!

Ninja Maths Jnr:

Ninja Maths Jnr is now available for purchase! In Ninja Maths Jnr you will receive number bonds to 10 (addition and subtraction) including regular and missing part algorithms and near doubles/doubles. All of these question sheets are available with 50 or 100 questions. You receive new ninja cards, which have been developed in the colours of the ninja belt rankings. As well as a modified ninja ranking chart created especially for Ninja Maths Jnr. It is time to introduce lower primary to the Ninja Maths Revolution!

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