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Tell me your favorite math games


Mommyfaithe
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I am putting math books away for a few months to focus on concepts and facts. Please share your favorite math games .... links if you have any...

I am looking for both home made and bought, and ones that use our math manipulatives...like geo-boards, pattern blocks, or cuisinairre rods.

 

Please share!

 

Faithe

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I just did a blog post last week about how we're trying to use more games (mostly for math, but other things too). In addition to the ones I mentioned there, we also have lots of strategy or logic games like Set and Royal Rescue. When my kids were a little younger, they especially liked the game Bzz Out and the Mastermind puzzles.

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We play a 2-player math game using a deck of cards taking out the jacks, queens, kings. We've used several variatons.

 

Each person(usually1 child and myself) draws 2 cards, then add them together (or multiply- depends on the child). Whoever has the largest sum/product gets all the cards. Continue until you run out of cards. A version of the card game War.

 

We've also done the same game where we draw 2 cards and use as a 2-digit number, draw 2 more, and add together. Great mental math.

 

Singapore's Home Instructor Guide is where these games came from.

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See if your library has Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. We've used this a lot, and I am going to finally buy our own copy. Same with Family Math.

 

We also play a lot of card games, like War, addition War, etc. Depending on the age of the child(ren) you are playing games with, these can be good for basic facts. We also have quite a few of the games mentioned by others like Sum Swamp, Pizza Fractions, Set, Castle Logic.

 

I think games are a great way to really learn the basics in a hands on way. The kids don't even realize it is math. ;)

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Peggy Kaye's Games For Math is full of terrific ideas of simple games that work on basic concepts and skills.

 

My dd also loved a game -- really more of an activity -- about fractions. We cut up circles from various patterned origami paper or wrapping paper, then cut some of them into halves, some into quarters, and some into eighths. The idea was to make a design using the pieces, glue it into paper, and then at the end, add up the total number of circles used. During her artsy stage dd loved this one.

 

I second the mention of Dino Math. And there are so many wonderful new spatial strategy games, many of them from ThinkFun. Binary Arts also has some fun ones.

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We play a 2-player math game using a deck of cards taking out the jacks, queens, kings. We've used several variatons.

 

Each person(usually1 child and myself) draws 2 cards, then add them together (or multiply- depends on the child). Whoever has the largest sum/product gets all the cards. Continue until you run out of cards. A version of the card game War.

 

We've also done the same game where we draw 2 cards and use as a 2-digit number, draw 2 more, and add together. Great mental math.

 

Singapore's Home Instructor Guide is where these games came from.

 

These sound fun and totally do-able. What grade level of Singapore did these come from?

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Math Mammoth suggests a lot of homemade games but they're usually pretty simple - with a deck of cards or something like that. I feel like whatever the specific skill is there's already a game out there that's better than anything I could come up with. Though I might copy an idea and make a homemade version.

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Can you recommend a specific Shut the Box and/or Double Shut the Box game? There are so many!!

 

We had one in my childhood that was wonderful, I wonder if they make them like that now (very sturdy wood).

 

This is the only double we've played, http://www.amazon.com/Distribution-Solutions-LLC-4102606-Shutter/dp/B001454DQM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1295892138&sr=1-2 It's not particularly nice, but the number tiles seemed very nice and sturdy. The only Shut the Box that we played was a friend's wooden game, but Amazon has quite a few of both games that are in the $15-17 range. They all seem about the same. ~HTH

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