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The other day I shared that we used homemade math games to help make math practice fun. If you have thought about doing this in your classroom, here are some places to find inspiration for making your own math games.
- Domino Games 4 Ways for Times Table Practice – Game instructions include Domino War, Choose 5, Race to 500 and Domino Match-Up. Plus, you can download PDF instructions for all these games by clicking the instructions. Don't have Double 9 dominoes? No worries. There is also a printable for that too. While these games are for multiplication practice, they can easily be modified for other operations.
- Mathseeds - 7 Classroom Math Activities That Will Make Math Engaging and Fun – Targeted for early math learners, though they can be easily modified for older children, the folks at Mathseeds share ideas for using games like Bingo, hopscotch, scavenger hunts, guessing games and more to reinforce math skills.
- Top Notch Teaching - 70 Cool Math Games – This long list of linked ideas is sorted by learning levels for primary students kindergarten to 7th grade.
- Scholastic - 15 Math Games in 15 Minutes or Less – Short on time? Try one of these games for students Pre-K through 8th grade.
- Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop - Math games and activities for elementary grades – Print out, assemble, and play one (or all) of these three "board games" including "Storm the Castle" for reinforcing basic math skills, "Loot the Pirate Ship" for practicing multiples, divisibility and prime numbers, and "Sheep Herding Math Strategy Game" to develop math logic skills. Plus, check out Professor Pig’s Magic Math (a “mini-curricula”) for kids 5 to 8.
- Dr. Mike's Math Games for Kids – Search this list or use the sidebar menu to find all kinds of instructions for math games plus magic squares, calculator games and print and play games. You may have to hunt around a little to find what you need but it will be worth it.
- Math Engaged - Card Games – On this page you will find a list of suggested games using a regular deck of cards. Look for the "here" link in the second paragraph to download a PDF with printable playing pieces
- Futuristic Math - Math Board Games For kinder to 7th grades – This page provides a variety of printable boards and cards to use to create your own math games along with guidelines for games using those boards for different grade levels.
- Mathematics Shed - Maths Board Games – This page includes downloadable gameboards and instructions for games that include Jurassic World Dice Games, LEGO Tower Build Board Games with LEGO and Frozen themes, a printable Mathopoly game for older kids, and booklets that include loads of games and boards for all ages.
- Lattes & Laughter - 5 DIY Math Games for Under $5 – These games could be made for free if you have the supplies on hand. Supplies needed for the different games a beach ball, memory card game, math war game or index cards to make your own, popsicle sticks and a checkers set.
If you have a few wiggle-worms like I did for whom sitting for long periods of time was torture, then check out these activities that channel that energy into math practice. Many of these games can be adjusted to use with whatever math concept you are working on and, with a little imagination, can be made more challenging for older students.
- Math Twister
- Life Size Number Line
- Math Races for Kinesthetic Learners
- Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game
- Driveway Shape Maze
- Basketball Addition
- Water Balloon Math
- Scale and Geometric Patterns with Sticks
- Pool Noodle Abacus for your Backyard Play Space
- Calculator Hopscotch
These ideas will surely spark the homeschool family's imagination to create variations of the games to keep math practice fun for years to come.
