Games
You can play any number of maths games with just some dice or a deck of cards. Just make one up!
Here’s a few ideas….
Add the numbers thrown on 2, 3 or 4 dice thrown. Turn it into a game by keeping score and being first to a target number, say 100.
Add the numbers on 2 playing cards selected at random. Turn it into a game by keeping score and being first to a target number, say 100.
Choose 4 cards and try to use + - x and ÷ to reach a target number. For example, if you selected 2, 3, 7 and 9 and the target was 20, 2 x 7 = 14, 14 + 9 = 23, 23 – 3 = 20.
Throw 2 dice (taking turns) and make the biggest or smallest 2 digit number with them. Write it down. Add your number the next turn etc. Maybe play first to 500. Do it with 3 or 4 digits (and dice thrown).
Play Yahtzee style game by making a simple score card with entries like “a number with 5 in the tens place”, “a number with 3 in the ones place”, “a number with 2 of the same digit in it”, etc. There are also free to download place value Yahtzee score cards on the internet.
Just counting the dots on dice and moving around a game board, as well as keeping score of wins, is good number practice for little ones.
AS A CLASS: It can be fun and motivating to start or end a maths lesson with a class game, that may target skills you've been teaching or develop general number sense.
Maths Heads: Just like Celebrity Heads, but instead of a person's name, you put a number on top of students' heads and they ask the class questions (with yes/no answer) to work it out. I used to put 3 students up in front of the whiteboard and write a number above each. They would take turns to ask questions and first to work out their number wins. You can put 3 students of equal ability against each other or vary the difficulty of the numbers above each. If I'm teaching decimals at the time, they might be 3 decimal numbers etc.
Maths Races: Split class into teams. a member from each competes against one from the others on questions fired by the teacher. I would put say 5 chalk marks on the floor as markers so they step forward when they win a question. The questions can be of a level of difficulty to suit the students. First to reach the last mark gets a point for their team.
Bulls and Cows: Where students guess a 4 digit number by guessing different combinations of 4 digits and reassessing when they are told how many of their numbers are bulls (right number in right position) and cows (right number in the wrong position). No repeated numbers.
