6th Grade Math Project Ideas - One for the Books

6th Grade Math Project Ideas - Introduction

Coming up with math project ideas for 6^th grade can be tough. Although many of the common core standards align well with aspects of real life to which students can easily relate, some topics are simply too abstract. Similarly, when topics easily align with those real world experiences, they are not always engaging or interesting for students. Your 6^th grade math project ideas should focus on engaging the students and getting them excited about the math. Often my focus when pondering math project ideas for 6^th grade is on student engagement first and real world application second. If I can get the students interested, that’s a win. If I can relate it to the real world, for me that’s simply a bonus.

For example, students can easily run a statistical analysis on their grades for a given class, create a box plot, summarize the data with a few measures of center and call it a day. This is arguably the most easily relatable topic for students; however, after surveying students, you would quickly find this is not a topic of interest for many of them. In fact, forget the survey, just look at Johnny’s face as he rolls his eyes in the corner of your classroom.

In contrast, with a simple twist, students can run the same statistical analysis for a silly game they create, collect data, and use it to express the overall difficulty of their game based on the data collected. The “real world” component is not as evident, but the students interest is guaranteed to be at its peak. Below you will find a list of some of my favorite 6th grade math project ideas to get students excited about math. Whether you are looking for a week long project or a 6th grade math fun activity to complete in one day, this list has just what you need. Enjoy!

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All the 6th grade math projects featured in this post are also available in my 6th grade project bundle which works great for distance learning! Check out the editable projects here or read on to get ideas of your own.

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Fifteen 6th Grade Math Project Ideas

1. Math About Me

This tends to be a favorite project idea for elementary teachers. Students do simple math problems to state fun and interesting facts about themselves and their families. However, this idea doesn’t have to stop with basic math. If approached correctly, students can show their understanding from the previous year while providing insight to teachers.

Educators can learn more about students’ family lives and their math background with a Math About Me Project. This type of project makes for a cute display at Open House or is a great project to end the school year.

2. Planning a Party

If you have ever planned a party, you know all that goes into renting the space, ordering decorations, and above all preparing all the food. But let’s get real, no one wants to prepare food for that many people. Therefore, to cover the decimal operation standards for sixth grade math, consider having your students pretend to plan a party in which they must order all the food.

Students can use menus from a local restaurant or go online to find prices. To apply the mathematics, students multiply when ordering several of the same item, add the total cost of the bill, subtract from their overall budget, and split the bill with a partner with whom they are planning the party. A Party Planning Decimals Project is a great way to see students understanding of all four decimal operations.

3. Comparing Temperatures

It’s freezing, did you feel that. I just got a chill thinking about this project. One of the common real world connections students can make with comparing integers and rational numbers is to compare temperatures from various states, cities, or regions. To show their understanding of absolute values and comparing integers, an Integers Comparing Temperatures Project can be used.

For this project, each student researches a list of cities, states, or regions and compares the record low and high temperatures. When the students have finished the research, they also list the cities in order from lowest to highest temperature. As an extension to the initial project idea, you could also have students use absolute values to compare the difference between the record high and record low temperatures for each city. This is a great project idea for cross-curricular studies. Talk to the Social Studies or Geography teacher if they are interested in working together on this research project.

Math Project Ideas for 6th Grade Rational Numbers

Many of the 6^th grade math project ideas on this list are real world inspired. However, there are a few that were created simply to provide students with a more engaging way to interact with a 6^th grade math topic. This example, along with the project idea for number five on this list do just that. There is no real world connection or even an attempt at a real world connection. These are simply ideas to get students thinking on a deeper level about mathematics. Both the Rational Number Pixel Art Project and Rational Number Sprinkles Project are fun assessments of student understanding on the topic of classifying rational numbers.

This can be a tough topic to teach! For some ideas on how to teach this topic, along with a free lesson and activity head on over and read my post about how any student that can classify animals can classify numbers.

4. Pixel Art

Anyway, back to the math project ideas for 6th grade! For a fun project idea, grab some grid paper and have students design some pixel art. Next, the students use a clean sheet of paper and write a different type of number in each grid. Along with the grid, the students create a key. For example, whole numbers are green, integers are blue, etc. Once completed, the students trade with a classmate to see if they can correctly identify the hidden image by coloring according to the key. I usually assess students on their ability to accurately create an image and correctly color the image a classmate created.

5. Venn Diagram Ice Cream Sprinkles

As stated above, this project has no real world connection. In fact, it’s just straight up silly! However, despite the silliness of this project, the students enjoy coming up with numbers to sprinkle all over their delicious ice cream. Additionally, these projects will look super cute hanging in the hallway. Basically, for this project, students turn a rational number Venn Diagram into an ice cream cone. Next, the students choose numbers to write on sprinkles and appropriately place them throughout the diagram. The students not only categorize the numbers for the Rational Number Sprinkles Project, but create the list of numbers as well.

6. Inequality Images (A Personal Favorite of My Math Project Ideas for 6th Grade)

Next up on our list of 6^th grade math project ideas is to have students illustrate an inequality. Inequalities are very common in the real world and students can usually make those connections with a picture, image, video or presentation. For my Inequality Project, I provide students with various options for their “picture” or “image”.

The main focus of this project is to ensure the visual matches the written inequality and the inequality is correctly graphed. A few of my favorite student examples include replicas of maximum capacity for elevators, amusement park ride height requirements, and the maximum capacity for a given parking lot. If your students know how to solve inequalities, challenge them to create a project that requires the inequality to be solved prior to graphing.

7. Design a Mini-Golf Course

Students often struggle when calculating the area of irregular polygons. However, when given the chance to create his or her own polygon, students start to understand how and where the shapes can be split into polygons such as triangles, rectangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids.

To do so, provide students with the chance to design a mini golf course consisting of common polygons in addition to irregular shapes. I usually challenge the students with my Mini-Golf Area Project to come up with a fun theme for their course. In doing so, they work with a group of peers to create an entire eighteen-hole course.

8. Ratio Monsters (6th Grade Math Fun Activity for Ratios)

Ratios are a very common topic used in the world around us. However, I found it much more engaging for students when I ditched the real world connections and went with creating silly drawings. Consider having students create a monster family for a silly and creative way to learn about and show an understanding of equivalent ratios.

The main focus for Ratio Monster Families is when students create their monsters, each creature in the group must consist of one similar family trait. The family trait is the equivalent ratio. After students create their monster families, it is fun for students to view classmates’ projects and attempt to guess the equivalent ratio used to create the family. Can you tell what equivalent ratio the monsters below shares? After guessing, students flip the project open to view the ratio written in word form, with a colon, and as a fraction.

9. Ratio Table Recipe Book

If you are looking for an idea for a ratio project that is more real world relatable, consider having your students create a recipe book of their favorite recipes. Each student chooses their favorite recipe to share with the class and creates a ratio table to scale the recipe for anywhere from one to two hundred servings. Once all students have completed the project, the Ratio Table Recipe Book can be bound and shared digitally or as a paper copy for families of all the students. The focus is on practicing ratio tables, but families love the free cook book resulting from the final product.

10. Unit Rate Public Service Announcement

Too often consumers are oblivious to the cost differences in varying quantities of the same brand product. A single type of cereal may come in five different sizes. Which one is actually the best price? Challenge your students to create a Unit Rate Public Service Announcement Project where they use unit rates to compare prices and inform consumers. Consider allowing students to create flyers or short videos to grow and show their understanding of unit rates.

11. Linear Equations Price Comparison

Another real world connected 6^th grade math project idea is having students use their understanding of linear functions, tables, and graphs to compare the prices of two competing goods, services, or memberships. With the ever rising popularity in subscription services such as box subscriptions, streaming services, and cell phone plans, it is important for students to be aware and informed of all costs incorporated in various services and memberships.

Having students research and compare two competitors’ prices provides them with an opportunity to better understand how linear equations, tables, and graphs relate. A Linear Equations Price Comparison Project is a great way to connect math to the real world.

12. Create a Game for Statistics (6th Grade Math Project Based Learning Ideas)

One of the student favorites from this list has to be this Statistics Project. Think of mini games that are played on “Minute to Win It” or “Awake”. For this project, students create a silly game that can be played in the classroom. Basically, the students come up with a statistical question such as “In one minute, how many candies can my classmates pick up and place in the cup while using pencils as chopsticks?”

After coming up with a statistical question and creating a fun game, students collect data and use the data to describe the difficulty of their game. They calculate measures of center and variability, create charts and graphs and finally analyze their data to make generalizations about their game. It’s no wonder students love this project! For more about how to implement a project like this, head on over and read the specifics about this 6th grade statistics project. If you are looking for 6th grade math project based learning ideas, this assessment style project can easily be turned into a project based learning opportunity.

13. Design a Box

So many items we purchase come in boxes. In fact, many items we purchase now are not only packaged in boxes, but those prisms are boxed up into larger packages when shipped. Almost all of which are rectangular prisms. Why not have students explore this idea with a Volume and Surface Area Project?

A great project idea to get students to explore the differences in calculating surface area and volume of rectangular prisms is to have them create various box templates for a shipping company. After designing multiple boxes or nets, have students draw conclusions as to which box they recommend to further their understanding of the math topics while considering how the product may look on shelves or in the stores.

14. Online Game for Test Prep

Let’s face it! Whether you love it or hate it, our students all have to take standardized tests. (Let’s be honest here, you hate it!) To be honest, the students are not a fan of the process either. In fact, test prep review is probably their most dreaded time of year. So why not make your review of the topic more engaging for students? Over the years, a test taking strategy that has immensely helped my students is developed when creating problems for this Online Game Test Prep Project.

Prior to the project, we discuss what I like to refer to as “answer click bait.” When students start to understand how resource creators, test question authors, and teachers come up with the incorrect answer choices, they start to take more time to ensure they have taken the time to solve the problem correctly and choose the right answer choice. Providing students the opportunity to come up with their own incorrect answer choices through the use of online games such as Kahoot, Quizizz, or GimKit forces them to slow down and have a deeper understanding of the mathematics. Give this idea a try with my completely FREE project that includes an editable rubric and editable student directions.

15. Math Surrounds Me

As a simple end of the year project, I like to see what my students remember about the topics they studied throughout the year. I kick off the Math Surrounds Me Project by reading “Math Curse” by Jon Scieszka. In this silly math inspired book, the main character starts to see everything in relation to mathematics. For a silly math project, consider placing a “Math Curse” on your students and find out how they can relate what they have learned to their world. Encourage students to dig deep into the standards and make those real life connections.

6th Grade Math Project Ideas - Conclusion

I hope this list of 6^th grade math project ideas helped get your creative juices flowing when it comes to connecting the common core standards to real world and real engaging projects for your students. If you are ready to make 6th grade math more fun, activity and project ideas like this are a must! If you are interested, full directions, rubrics, and examples for all of the math project ideas for 6th grade on this list can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. The links for each project can be found throughout this post; however, if you are interested in grabbing them all for a discounted price, check out my 6th Grade Math Projects Bundle. If you are interested in making more of your own projects and need some pointers, head over to my 6th Grade Math Projects Checklist.

Don’t forget to grab your FREE Middle School Math Project Guide!