My Favorite Math Games
Playing games is an excellent way to build foundational math skills with your kids. There are so many great games out there that bring in the math concepts of subitizing (recognizing a group instantly), counting money, measuring time with a timer, number sense with cards and more! Here are some of my favorites!
Dominoes
I absolutely love Dominoes for the early concept of subitizing. At first kids will use one to one counting for the dots, which is also an awesome math concept, and soon they will recognize a group instantly. They get to have fun creating their own design with the dominoes as they attach and changing it next time.
Monopoly Jr.
This is a much quicker version of Monopoly that is really child friendly. It gives kids great practice with counting money and recognizing the value of each bill. They also make change and figure out equivalent amounts of bills. This concept can later be related to fractions, percentages, decimals and more!
War
Remember this easy game? Split the deck of cards and flip a card to see who has the higher number. That person wins both cards until someone has the whole deck. This game is greater for learning cardinality (the order numbers go in), greater than and less than, it can even be extended to how many more or less.
A few variations on this game:
To make it easier you can play with five frames or ten frames. I discuss these HERE! When young kids have a visual representation of the number it helps them determine which is more or less.
To make it harder you can have kids flip two cards and add sums to determine greater value. This can also be done with two ten frames if not ready for just numerals. To make it even more difficult two numerals can be flipped and subtracted or multiplied. Sometimes, you can play the lesser number wins the hand.
The next set of games all use ten frames. You can print these from various online sources. I recommend printing on cardstock for durability and printing 4 sets as some of the games need lots of duplicates. You also can buy ten frame cards.
Look Quick
For this game you flash a ten frame for about 3 seconds then cover it and ask your child what number they saw. This game is another one that is awesome for subitizing.
Variations:
Dot cards that are not arranged in a ten frame
Ten frames that are not organized by filling the top row before going to bottom
Flipping multiple ten frame cards (a pocket chart is good holder for this)
For example you might show a ten frame with 4 dots on top and 4 on bottom then ask how many did you see? How did you know how many counters were on the frame? A child might respond with 8 because 4 and 4 make 8 or I counted by 2s or I moved one up with my eyes to finish the row and 5 plus 3 make 8 or they counted by ones etc. This is an amazing activity for assessing your child’s progress with number sense. You could then show 8 arranged differently. This game builds the math skill conservation which means the number of objects are the same when rearranged spatially. This game also works really well with a group of kids so that you can hear various answers and ways of finding the numbers. When you flip multiple cards for about 3 seconds it encourages making tens in their mind and builds fluency. If 9, 9, 8, 8 were flipped a child might share that they took 1 off each 8 and gave it to the 9 to make 10, 10, 7, 7 then added 20+14 mentally to reach the sum.
Memory Games
Dot Card Memory
You can have kids find match between dot cards (sort of like dice by not always same arrangement) and number cards. This works on subitizing and pairing an abstract number with a pictorial representation of that number. When they flip a dot card you can ask them to show you how many with their fingers or to trace the number in the air.
Numeral Memory
You can play with ten frames that match to number cards too! You can ask questions like: What will 10 frame look like that matches this numeral? How many squares will be empty? When they don’t get a match you can ask which is less/ which is more?
Computation Memory
For this game you print or write a bunch of addition or subtraction sentences on index cards and have kids flip a computation sentence and try to find the sum or difference (answer) on corresponding ten frame card. You can ask what other # sentence would equal this quantity?
Collect 10
This is played like Go Fish. Kids try to get pairs of 10. They can use ten frames if they still need visual to count or you can use playing cards if they are ready for abstract numbers. You can ask what card they need to draw? How do they know it will make 10? I would remove tens and picture cards from deck. If they don’t get the card they need they go fish.
Race to 20
Two players race to 20 on a double ten frame. When they roll die they place that many counters on ten frame taking turns until one reaches 20. If you have two color counters they can switch sides on each roll so that board shows what they rolled each turn. Questions while playing really enhance the math concepts. How many more to 10? To 20? How many more compared to partner?
Great Resource!
The ten frame games were all taken or inspired from this book! This was an amazing resource for me when I taught first grade.
Wacky 100 Chart
With a group of kids you can also build a wacky 100 chart. You take enough numbers out of the 100 chart that each kid gets 3. The more kids the better. Someone starts by putting one number down. The next player can go if they have a number that is 1 more, 1 less, 10 more or 10 less. If they can’t go they pass. Eventually you will have a 100 chart or a section of one but the rows will be different than they are in pocket chart. For example someone might place 31 next to 30 instead of in a new row depending on what was down when their card was played. I recommend taking a picture of your wacky chart then comparing it to the regular 100 chart arrangement later. This book was also a great resource to me!