Engaging and fun games will help build your child’s number sense and confidence when working with numbers, identifying patterns or shapes. As student’s move through the grades their understanding of numbers, place value, and operations should be growing. How can we help students be proficient and have fun with math? Math games and riddles are great ways for kids to think about math outside the classroom.
Here are three math ideas that can be played and adapted at home for your child and the type of math they are learning.
- Math Guess- Create number cards numbers 0-9 or 0-20.
- 20 questions with Shapes or Numbers
- Three people would be best for this activity.
- Place cards face down so no one can see what’s on the cards.
- Then have two people choose one card each and put on their forehead so they cannot see their own card.
- Then the third person will give a statement as a clue to see if they can figure what the numbers are by looking at their partners number and listening to the clues.
- After the statement- the two holding up the numbers try and guess what their number is. They can see their partners’.
- Once the numbers are stated those can be placed back down or to the side and two new numbers can be picked up. Keep going for about 5-10 minutes to work on Math Facts.
For example: 7 and 4 are the numbers.
The statement might be: The sum (+) of these two numbers
is 11. Or the difference(-) is 3. Or the product(x) is 28.
- Again using cards with numbers- these can be multiples or larger 3-6 digit numbers or shapes- 2D or 3D.
- Spread the cards face down and have one person pick up one card. They should then put it at their forward facing outward.
- Then the person holding the card can ask yes or no questions.
- The people looking at the cards must answer with yes or no only.
Examples: 45 is on the card.
Is it a shape? No
Is it a number? Yes
Does the number have 1 digit? No
Does the Number have 2 digits? Yes
Is it more than 50? No
Is it more than 40? Yes
Can it be divided by 5? Yes Is it 45? Yes!
Example: A Cube is on a card.
Is it a shape? Yes
Is it a 2D shape? No
Does it have vertices? Yes
Does it have 6 faces? Yes
Is it a Rectangular Prism? No Is it a cube? Yes
- Math Board Game
Another activity is to build a life sized game board using paper plates, create a big dice using a cardboard box and every day objects as game pieces to move around the board.
Choose a math operation, shapes or place value or coins for your child to practice. Then, on each paper plate write problems to answer or place objects for them to identify. Roll the dice, move that number of spaces and answer the questions on the plates. Help your child win with this life size challenge!
Examples for what to practice:
- Addition facts
- Subtraction facts
- Multiplication facts
- Shapes
- Coins or coins to add or identify
- Place Value identification