Take a break from textbook math and enjoy yourself!
I like to use games as a warm-up with my co-op math classes. Some homeschoolers make every Friday a game day, and some turn gaming into a family lifestyle.
“Playing games with your kids offers a host of educational benefits, plus you build relationships and make memories. I am constantly amazed by the amount of learning that happens when I sit down to play games with my children.”
—Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley
Gameschool Challenge
Family Games for All Ages
- The Substitution Game (Best Math Game Ever)
- Tens Concentration
- Math Club Nim
- Tell Me a (Math) Story
- What Number Am I?
- Fan Tan (Sevens)
- Horseshoes: A Place Value Game
- Six Hundred
“Games put children in exactly the right frame of mind for learning difficult things. Children relax when they play — and they concentrate. They don’t mind repeating certain facts or procedures over and over, if repetition is part of the game.”
Accessible to Young Children
- The Stair-Counting Game
- Number Train
- Card Holder for Young Hands
- Number Bond Games
- Active Math Game: Rock
- Land or Water?
- Chopsticks
- The Number Grid Game
- Addition Games with Cuisenaire Rods
- Free Multiplication Bingo Game
“Coming back from winter break can be hard. Everyone is sleepy, unfocused, and daydreaming of the holiday gifts that await them at home after school. And that’s just the teachers!”
—Andrew Gael
Beat the Back to School Blues…Play a Math Game
For Elementary Students
- Fill the Stairs Game
- Place Value Fish
- Thirty-One
- Princess in the Dungeon Game
- Times Tac Toe
- 30+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart
- Hundred Chart Nim
- Euclid’s Game on a Hundred Chart
- The Game that Is Worth 1,000 Worksheets
- Multiplication Models Card Game
- Review Game: Once Through the Deck
- Contig Game: Master Your Math Facts
“If you play these games and your child learns only that hard mental effort can be fun, you will have taught something invaluable.”
Middle School to Adult
- What Two Numbers?
- Fraction Game: My Closest Neighbor
- Target Number (or 24)
- 30+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart
- Hit Me
- Alcumus Online Problem-Solving Game
- Math Games with Factors, Multiples, and Prime Numbers
- Logarithm War
- The Function Machine Game
- Math Game: War with Special Decks
“Mathematics is mental play, the essence of creative problem solving. This is the truth we need to impart to our children, more important than fractions or decimals or even the times tables. Math is a game, playing with ideas.”
—Denise Gaskins
Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—and Enjoy It
Your Turn: What Are Your Favorite Games?
They don’t have to be math! Please share in the comment section below!
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“My Favorite Math Games” copyright © 2017 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © Denise Gaskins.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 
Welcome to the 2017 Blogging Initiative! I always enjoy reading the blogs about the teaching of math.
As a middle school teacher, I clicked on the Factors/Multiples link above, as this is what my 6th graders are about to learn. The Factor Finding Game sounds interesting, and perhaps I’ll play it in my class.
I look forward to reading your posts these next three weeks.
Oh, and I appreciate your post on “Hidden Figures” as well! I watched the movie the day it came out, and I do plan on discussing the movie with my class.
Thank you for stopping by, David. I hope your class enjoys the game. I’d love to hear how it goes!
FYI: I just noticed Mr. L’s math blog has gone offline. I fixed the Tax Collector link using the Wayback Machine. That’s another good introductory factoring game to consider.