math games

[ProudGrandma]

are there any math games that the players aren't up against a clock or have to be the fastest one with the answer, that use +, - and x facts.....or only x facts? You see, if you saw my other thread, you know my dd13 is struggling with keeping her x facts straight in her head, one of my sons is just now learning them...and I thought if I could find a game where my daughter is "helping" her brother learn his facts while playing this game, it might help her too...but I don't want there to be any source of "racing against the clock or eachother" involved...each child takes as much time as they need. Does that make sense?

 

is there anything like that out there??

[dbmamaz]

Believe it or not, our favorite math game was a simple game i made up with dice.  I bought 2 10-sided dice at a comic book store or a hobby store, i forget which.  We were working on addition at the time, but you can do either one.  We would each take turns rolling the dice.  We would say the problem out loud (5 plus 7 equals 12).  If someone was wrong or struggling, someone else would remind them.  Then whoever's roll got the highest answer got a tally mark for 'winning' that round.  Thats it.  We would laugh at bad luck losing streaks, but the winning/losing is pure luck, has nothing to do with you getting the problems right.  its just an easy, social way to review facts.

 

I also picked up a game called equation maybe?  its a math scrabble game.  but we only managed to play it once.  

[smfmommy]

Mythmatical Battles

 

Its a card game where you battle the other player.  Your strength level in attacking and defending are multiplication problems.  You have to be able to do the math to know if your card will win, but there isn't a time factor.  My girls enjoyed playing the game.

 

www.mythmaticalbattles.com

[StaceyE]

When I was taking classes at the local college in pursuit of a teaching degree before we started homeschooling, I had to create a set of games to present to my class. This is what I came up with - it's written in terms of being used for a public school classroom, but if you ignore that part, there are some nice games and ideas. We have a math fact drawer at our house and I ask dd to pick an activity several times a week to keep on top of her facts. It includes game ideas, game boards you can print, and a record sheet to keep track of progress.

 

In the document is the post-it note game, I think that was the single most important game we played for both my children. If a child is having a really hard time with memorization, the post-it note game kind of 'steps' them towards working for memorization. I think for some kids it is hard to make the jump between a teacher showing them the factors with the product (the stage where you are showing them 4 x 4 = 16) and then we all of the sudden ask them to know what 4 x 4 with without being able to 'see' all of the products to choose from. The post-it note game lets them see both parts and then match them up before asking them total recall.

 

There is a second document for a set of mult. bingo cards that have the product on the game card piece and the equations on little strips of paper. We play cooperatively, one person draws the equation and  we all try to think of the products and then place a counter on our cards if we have that number. The game is made into multiple sets to isolate the facts into several families (which is how I taught facts - memorize 2's and 3's before moving on). I printed the game cards and strips of paper for 2's and 3's on one color of card stock and laminated it, 4's and 5's on another color and so on. Color coding makes it easy to find the sets you want to work on. I'll try to attach both pdf's here.

 

*edited for typos - hit post too soon, sorry about that.

 

 

MultiGames.pdf

MultiBingo.pdf

[StaceyE]

I had one other thought to add. My older DD barely managed to get through math fact memorization with TONS of work, but they just didn't stick with her. There was potential for her to get really frustrated by it (especially since her 5 years younger sis knew them better then she did), but we just kind of joked about it and laughed it off. Ideally, kids learn all their facts but it just didn't work out ideally for her.

 

She is the kind of kid who always had trouble with memory work (at 15, she still doesn't know my cell phone number :banghead: ) but she is very good at understanding concepts - beyond what her peers could understand, even. Concrete math facts - not her thing, really complicated, abstract concepts - thrives. She has excelled in math (going into honors pre-calc./trig for her sophomore year of H.S.) and still couldn't tell you what 4 x 6 was. Last year in honors geometry, when her friends were all complaining about proofs, she was taking to me about how much she loved them and how much fun they were. She has a math/science mind that she needs to take advantage of, even if she can't memorize things. At one point, we kind of threw our hands up in the air and said, "she just isn't going to get this, and that's okay." And thankfully, it hasn't seemed to hold her back at all!

[carriede]

Believe it or not, our favorite math game was a simple game i made up with dice. I bought 2 10-sided dice at a comic book store or a hobby store, i forget which. We were working on addition at the time, but you can do either one. We would each take turns rolling the dice. We would say the problem out loud (5 plus 7 equals 12). If someone was wrong or struggling, someone else would remind them. Then whoever's roll got the highest answer got a tally mark for 'winning' that round. Thats it. We would laugh at bad luck losing streaks, but the winning/losing is pure luck, has nothing to do with you getting the problems right. its just an easy, social way to review facts.

 

I also picked up a game called equation maybe? its a math scrabble game. but we only managed to play it once.

Great idea with the dice! Playing cards might work too. And I think they make 12-sided dice, don't they? That would work well for factors up to 12.

[letsplaymath]

Contig can be played without a timer. We prefer that to the "official" timed version. And Times-Tac-Toe isn't timed either. In fact, most of the math games on my blog are either non-racing games or can be played in a non-racing manner, since none of my kids have ever enjoyed doing math under pressure.