Must Have: Box Car and One Eyed Jacks
A must-have for any teacher considering bringing games into their stations/centers is anything from this website:
http://www.boxcarsandoneeyedjacks.com/
The website itself doesn't look all that professional, but let me tell you, they have the BEST resource books and supplies around for this kind of thing, especially for dominoes. I haven't seen anything even comparable yet.
Idea One: Card Games
- Calgary Board of Education
Materials:
Card games are usually the simplest to work with... all you need to do is take out the "Royals" the "Ace" and the "Joker" and you have ready-made flash cards! You can easily play War with no other additions!
Make 25:
Students have five cards face down. They goal is to get as close to 25 as possible by adding up their cards. They turn over cards until they get as close to 25 as they think is possible... and the closest student wins! If the student goes over than they lose. This game teaches basic addition as well as working with benchmark numbers.
Back from 100:
Each student has a piece of lined paper with the number 100 at the top (Or any number really, but for the ease of these instructions, let us go with 100). As they each draw a card, they subtract it from 100. The first one to reach 0 is the winner!
Guess my Factor:
This game is certainly for the older kids, but I suppose it could be adapted for the younger folks too, if you have an advanced thinking class (or a lot of patience!). The deck is shuffled and placed in the middle of students. The first person picks up two cards without letting the other children see what they have. That child will multiply the two cards together and tell the other kids the product (e.g. they pick up a 2 and a 6, so they tell the other kids 12). The children take turns guessing what the possibly factors are. The person who guesses 2 and 6, gets the cards. The one with the most cards at the end wins!
- Card Decks ($1.00 from any Dollar Store)
- Sometimes templates for the math games help children to focus
Card games are usually the simplest to work with... all you need to do is take out the "Royals" the "Ace" and the "Joker" and you have ready-made flash cards! You can easily play War with no other additions!
Make 25:
Students have five cards face down. They goal is to get as close to 25 as possible by adding up their cards. They turn over cards until they get as close to 25 as they think is possible... and the closest student wins! If the student goes over than they lose. This game teaches basic addition as well as working with benchmark numbers.
Back from 100:
Each student has a piece of lined paper with the number 100 at the top (Or any number really, but for the ease of these instructions, let us go with 100). As they each draw a card, they subtract it from 100. The first one to reach 0 is the winner!
Guess my Factor:
This game is certainly for the older kids, but I suppose it could be adapted for the younger folks too, if you have an advanced thinking class (or a lot of patience!). The deck is shuffled and placed in the middle of students. The first person picks up two cards without letting the other children see what they have. That child will multiply the two cards together and tell the other kids the product (e.g. they pick up a 2 and a 6, so they tell the other kids 12). The children take turns guessing what the possibly factors are. The person who guesses 2 and 6, gets the cards. The one with the most cards at the end wins!
Idea Two: Dice Games
Materials:
- 2+ Dice
- Often Printable templates in addition to the dice.
War: Works with dice just like it does with cards! The only difference is that there is no "winner" here since kids don't collect cards.
Fill Square:
This game combines the practice of multiplication with the initial concepts of area. Each student needs graphing paper. Every time they roll the dice, they fill up the product on their graphing paper (e.g. if they roll 5 and 3, they color is 15 squares to make a rectangle shape on their paper). The person to fill up the largest amount of area wins!
- 2+ Dice
- Often Printable templates in addition to the dice.
War: Works with dice just like it does with cards! The only difference is that there is no "winner" here since kids don't collect cards.
Fill Square:
This game combines the practice of multiplication with the initial concepts of area. Each student needs graphing paper. Every time they roll the dice, they fill up the product on their graphing paper (e.g. if they roll 5 and 3, they color is 15 squares to make a rectangle shape on their paper). The person to fill up the largest amount of area wins!
Balloon Pop:
This is a simple number recognition game (great for PreK-1). Each student needs a play sheet (downloadable for free from my TPT store) and a dice. They roll the dice and they color in the corresponding balloon to "pop" it. The student with the most "popped" balloons wins!
This is a simple number recognition game (great for PreK-1). Each student needs a play sheet (downloadable for free from my TPT store) and a dice. They roll the dice and they color in the corresponding balloon to "pop" it. The student with the most "popped" balloons wins!
There are millions of dice games out there. Google "Math Dice Games for Kids" and you will come up with a ton of hits with printables!
Idea Three: SumDog
Materials:
- Computer with Internet Access
Sumdog is probably my favourite internet discovery ever. It may be a simple basic fact knowledge game, but it gather assessment data, kids LOVE it, and I even can be challenged when I play it is so awesome at differentiating for the children. You can customize what you want the children to study (e.g. benchmark fractions) or just leave it wide open and the computer decides where each student is at. For example, I have had up to 37 students in the computer lab at one time, and they play against each other on these games. They may be playing against each other in the game, but one student will get a question that is 1+0 = ? while another may get the question 40/6 = 6 R ? . All the assessment data is compiled and sent to me. Most the website is free (with the exception of some of the assessment stuff) and like I said, the kids LOVE it. If you have computers in your class, do this, it is so worth it!
Idea Four: Dominoes
I haven't started using Domino games myself (just investing in the sets now) but I have played a bunch at a couple of recent workshops, and they are a blast! For this I am going to direct you to the "experts".
First Website: Domino Math Games with Joanne Church
First Website: Domino Math Games with Joanne Church
Second Website: Math Sticks