There’s a new Math Game Monday this week.
Have your kids tried it yet?
This week’s game is one of my favorites for early elementary grades, a logic game that makes children think about numbers and strategy.
Or, if you’re reading this post later and missed that one, there’s another great new game this week for you to play.
Check it out:
How to Homeschool Math: A long page full of my best tips on homeschooling math in a low-stress, creative, playful way. No matter which curriculum you use—unschoolers, too!
Get my email series “8 Weeks of Playful Math” plus regular activity ideas and other updates when you join my Math Reader’s Group newsletter.
My Let’s Play Math Sampler ebook contains short excerpts from my most popular books. Find out how to get it for free, no strings attached!
If you’re into math education — or just curious about how learning math could possibly be fun — you’ll definitely want to check out the latest edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival. It’s a collection of awesome blog posts curated by Johanna Buijs and published on the Nature Study Australia website:
The whole point of the carnival is to show that math doesn’t have to be tedious or repetitive. Through a bunch of fun and engaging posts, we celebrate math that’s playful, creative, and totally relevant to everyday life. Because what could be more relevant that having fun while we learn?
In this edition, you’ll find everything from creative math art and music to incorporating nature and the outdoors into your lessons — and even a few racing turtles!
So if you want to mix up your math teaching and make it more enjoyable for your students (and for you!), definitely check out the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival. Happy reading!
The Playful Math Blog Carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.
Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!
Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up.
Check the details on the carnival’s home page, and then leave a comment here or email me directly to let me know which month fits your schedule.
“Wild & Crazy Eights” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from Counting & Number Bonds: Math Games for Early Learners, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
Update: In honor of the way-too-busy holiday season, this family-favorite game will remain live on my blog until January. It’s a great way to introduce your extended family to the fun of playing with math!
Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.
The whole family can enjoy playing with numbers in this childhood classic math game. The more, the merrier!
Math Concepts: identifying and matching card attributes, wild cards, thinking ahead.
Players: two or more. More is better.
Equipment: one complete deck of cards (including face cards), or a double deck for four or more players.
“Galactic Conquest” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from Multiplication & Fractions: Math Games for Tough Topics, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
Update: Because of the American holiday season, this family-favorite game will remain live on my blog for two weeks. It’s a great way to introduce your extended family to the fun of playing with math!
Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.
This game gives students plenty of practice with multiplication facts as they strive to expand their territory and block their opponent.
Math Concepts: multiplication math facts, rectangular area.
Players: two to four.
Equipment: game board or graph paper (1 cm squares for two players, or 1/4 inch squares for more), two six-sided dice, colored markers.
Are you looking for new math activities to play with your kids?
I just added several new ebooks to my publisher’s online store, including the exclusive pre-publication edition of my new book Word Problems from Literature: Help Students Master Problem Solving in Elementary to Middle School Math. You can preorder the book through your favorite online bookshop — or you can get it today at our store, in all digital formats.
And through the end of November, you can get 20% off anything in our store by using the coupon code SALE2022 at checkout.
While you’re there, be sure to check out our new collections!
You can buy resources for problem-solving in the Word Problems collection, including the 97-minute audio commentary with special behind-the-scenes tips and tidbits:
Or explore the wealth of resources for creative mathematical investigations in our Math Journaling collection:
And of course, be sure to check out the free books and discount bundles. You can even pick up my daughter’s epic fantasy adventure, The Riddled Stone.
But don’t delay! The special discount code SALE2022 expires at the end of November.
“Dollar Nim” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from Math You Can Play Combo: Number Games for Young Learners, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children.
And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.
This game encourages children to think strategically as they add coin values.
Math Concepts: subtraction within one hundred, value of coins, thinking ahead.
Players: best for two.
Equipment: none.
“Four in a Row” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children.
And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.
This game gives students plenty of practice multiplying and dividing integers or algebraic expressions as they try to complete their own line or block their opponents.
Math Concepts: integer multiplication, factors, multiples, algebraic multiplication.
Players: two players or two teams.
Equipment: printed or homemade gameboard, colored markers or a set of matching tokens for each player, two paperclips or other small tokens to mark the factors.
“Sam Vandervelde’s Criss-Cross” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children.
And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.
This game offers students a chance to practice mathematical reasoning (and possibly notice a connection to the Euler characteristic).
Math Concepts: topology, strategy.
Players: only two.
Equipment: pencils and blank paper.
Continue reading Math Game Monday: Sam Vandervelde’s Criss-Cross
Welcome to the 160th edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of delectable tidbits of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to high school.
Bookmark this post, so you can take your time browsing.
There’s so much playful math to enjoy!
By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle/activity in honor of our 160th edition. But if you’d rather jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.
Appropriately for an October carnival, 160 is an evil number.
A number is evil if it has an even number of ones in binary form. Can you find the binary version of 160? (Hint: Exploding Dots.)
160 is also a polyiamond number. If you connect 9 equilateral triangles side-to-side, a complete set of 9-iamond shapes would have 160 pieces.
But sets that large can be overwhelming. Try playing with smaller sets of polyiamonds. Download some triangle-dot graph paper and see how many different polyiamond shapes you can make.
What do you notice? Does it make you wonder?
What designs can you create with your polyiamonds?
Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash
This preschool game builds counting and subitizing skills. (Subitizing means recognizing at a glance how many objects are in a group.)
“Collect Ten” is an excerpt from Counting & Number Bonds: Math Games for Early Learners, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
The Math Game Monday posts will be available for one week only. If you missed this one, explore the Topic Tag links in the sidebar. There are more than forty free games scattered around the blog. Have fun playing math with your kids!
This game gives players lots of practice with their multiplication facts while strategically blocking their opponents.
“Ultimate Multiple-Tac-Toe” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from Multiplication & Fractions: Math Games for Tough Topics, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.
The Math Game Monday posts will be available for one week only. If you missed this one, explore the Topic Tag links in the sidebar. There are more than forty free games scattered around the blog. Have fun playing math with your kids!
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 