Super Bowl Math Activities for Grades 2–8

The best Super Bowl math activities use the game's real numbers instead of invented word problems. Super Bowl LX, played February 8, 2026 at Levi's Stadium, ended Seattle Seahawks 29, New England Patriots 13, drew 125.6 million average viewers, and cost advertisers about $8 million on average for 30 seconds of airtime. Those four figures alone cover place value, division, averages, percents, and unit rates for grades 2 through 8. Because students can look every number up, they argue about answers instead of shrugging.

The Super Bowl LX numbers worth building a lesson on

Seattle beat New England 29 to 13 behind five Jason Myers field goals and MVP Kenneth Walker III, who ran for 135 yards on 27 carries in front of 70,823 fans (Wikipedia, ESPN). Nielsen put the final average audience at 125.6 million across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+ (Nielsen), and the broadcast peaked at 137.8 million during the second quarter, the highest peak in U.S. television history (NFL). NBCUniversal sold spots at an average rate of about $8 million per 30 seconds, with a handful going for more than $10 million (TVLine).

Super Bowl math activities by grade band

Twelve activities follow, four per band. Each runs in 10 to 20 minutes using only the numbers above. The same format works on World Series stats in the fall.

Grades 2 and 3

1. Rebuild the score. A touchdown is worth six points, a field goal three, and an extra-point kick one (NFL Football Operations). Hand students the values and ask them to show how Seattle reached exactly 29: five field goals, two touchdowns, two extra points.
2. Skip-count with field goals. Myers made five kicks. Students count 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and match each step to a moment in the game.
3. Find the margin. Seattle 29, New England 13. Students compare the two numbers, then subtract to find the 16-point margin of victory.
4. Graph the quarters. Seattle scored 3, 6, 3 and 17 points by quarter; New England scored 0, 0, 0 and 13. Students build a picture graph or bar graph, then answer which quarter produced the most points.

Grades 4 and 5

1. Yards per carry. Walker carried the ball 27 times for 135 yards. Dividing gives exactly 5.0 yards per carry, a rare clean quotient that makes long division feel like a discovery.
2. Average kick distance. Add the five field goals: 33 plus 39 plus 41 plus 41 plus 26 equals 180 yards. Divide by 5 for a 36-yard average, then ask which kicks were above it.
3. Place value with a real crowd. Attendance was 70,823. Students write the number in expanded form, and round it to the nearest hundred and to the nearest thousand.
4. Cost per second. One 30-second spot averaged about $8 million. Dividing gives roughly $266,667 per second. Then ask what a 5-second ad would cost.

Grades 6, 7 and 8

1. Full statistical workup. Using the field-goal distances 26, 33, 39, 41 and 41, students find the mean (36), median (39), mode (41) and range (15), then explain in writing why the mean and median disagree.
2. Percent of the whole. The two teams combined for 42 points, so New England's 13 is about 31 percent of the scoring. Seattle put up 17 of its 29 points in the fourth quarter, roughly 59 percent.
3. Cost per viewer. Divide $8 million by 125.6 million viewers and you get about six cents per person reached. Students then argue, with numbers, whether an $8 million ad is expensive or a bargain.
4. Percent change year over year. Use the comparison below to calculate how far the audience slipped and how far scoring fell between the last two Super Bowls.

A two-year comparison for percent-change practice

Super Bowl LX ranked as the second most-watched show in U.S. history, behind Super Bowl LIX on Fox in February 2025 (NBC Sports). Super Bowl LIX averaged 127.7 million viewers, so LX finished about 1.6 percent lower (TheWrap). The scoreboards moved further: Philadelphia beat Kansas City 40 to 22 in 2025 for 62 combined points, against 42 a year later (Wikipedia).

Have students compute each change before you reveal the last column; many will predict the wrong sign on the audience drop. The same percent-change work runs on bracket seeds during March Madness.

Turn the same numbers into reading practice

Every statistic above started as a sentence in a game recap. Have students read a short recap, highlight every number, and label each as a count, a measurement, or a rate. Then ask for one claim the data supports and one it does not: "Seattle scored in every quarter" is checkable, while "Seattle's defense won the game" is an argument that needs evidence.

That is informational-text work wearing a jersey, and it is the same idea behind LitZone, a platform for ages 8 to 13 that pairs leveled sports news articles for grades 3 through 8 with math challenges built on real game stats. There are no ads and no open chat, and teacher accounts are free.

Plan ahead for Super Bowl LXI

Most Super Bowl lesson plans get written the Friday before the game. Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for February 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and will air on ABC and ESPN, the first Super Bowl on ABC since Super Bowl XL in February 2006 (Wikipedia). Because it lands on Valentine's Day, build your Super Bowl math activities for the week before rather than the day after.

A running project beats a one-day packet: have students track one team's points per game through the 2026 NFL season and compare their averages to the January playoff results. By February they will have built the data set they analyze. A spreadsheet is enough to hold it; a season-long platform such as LitZone keeps the stat lines and the recaps arriving on their own if maintaining the sheet is the part that lapses in November. For the weeks in between, this rundown of football math worksheets and games covers what is genuinely free.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are good Super Bowl math activities for elementary students?

For grades 2 and 3, stay inside the scoring system and the final score. Rebuilding Seattle's 29 points from touchdowns, field goals and extra points practices addition and early multiplication, and comparing 29 to 13 gives a subtraction problem with an answer students already care about.

How do I use Super Bowl data for middle school math?

Move past the score to the numbers around the game. Ad rates, viewership and attendance support unit rates, cost per viewer and full statistical summaries. Dividing the average $8 million ad price by 125.6 million viewers, for example, yields a cost per viewer of about six cents.

What are the best Super Bowl classroom activities that are not math?

Media literacy and persuasive writing travel well. Students can score commercials against a rubric they write themselves, draft and time a 30-second ad script, or read two recaps of the same game and compare which facts each writer chose to lead with.

For the two-recap task, pull one from a general outlet and one written for young readers, such as SI Kids, DOGO News, or a leveled article from LitZone. The difference in word choice is itself the lesson.

When is the next Super Bowl, and how far ahead should I plan?

Super Bowl LXI is set for February 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on ABC and ESPN. Scheduling your football math worksheets and lessons for the first two weeks of February lets you use the conference championship data as a warm-up.