Fun Friday: Math Games!

Last night, I attended a workshop put on by Foundations, our homeschool support group.  My dear friend Anna recruited a local educator, Vasha Rosenblum, to speak about using games in our homes to encourage mathematical thinking.  Her talk was terrific and inspiring, and I ended up spending only a little bit of $$ for a LOT of games!

Here are some favorites:

 

Amy and I started our morning playing, "One More".  Roll the numbered die, and put your chip on the circle that is "one more" than the number you see.  Great game for the Kindergarten crowd!

 

The next game of the day is called "Rio".  Talk about an easy way to practice multiplication facts!  Roll a 12-sided die, multiply it by your target fact, and place a chip on the card.  If the fact is already covered, you have to take the chip.  The winner is the first to get rid of all their chips.  

Emily and Hannah LOVED this - begged me to "let" them play three rounds.  Sure, girls! 

(Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. . . . . )

 

Last but not least, Five-in-a-Row.

This is a little more complicated to explain - the object is to get five tokens in a row (well, obviously!), but in order to place the token, you have to select two numbers in the smaller box whose sum is the number in the large playing square.   Get it?  

In the picture above, I'm using hooks to "circle" the target numbers (aka: addends), b/c I was too lazy to go find washers out in the garage :)  

Through all of this, we had some good math "discussions"; here are some examples:

"How did you add 19+27?"

"Can you do that a different way?"

"What were you thinking when you chose those two numbers?"

"How might you start differently next time?"

Get the picture?  Great games, lots of fun, and we played and thought and enjoyed math all morning!  The best part?  Most of these games are under $2.  Vasha sells them to the public, and you can visit her website for more information and to order.  

However, one more warning:

  

Your five-year old might decide that the dice are just the right size for puppy food.

And then might have an issue when you tell her, no, they're for math.

And you might have to find a very good hiding place for these very neat math tools!

And math might suddenly become the most popular subject in your day.

Consider yourself warned.