This game offers upper-elementary and middle school students plenty of practice doing estimation and mental math with fractions.
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.
Math Concepts: proper fractions, comparing fractions.
Players: two or more.
Equipment: one set of double-six or double-nine dominoes.
This game helps young children build mental math skills. And it’s fun for older kids or adults to play along!
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.
Math Concepts: addition, number bonds for ten.
Players: two or more.
Equipment: one deck of playing cards, face cards and jokers removed.
This game offers a fun twist on the old classic Battleship. Can you discover your opponent’s secret shape before they find yours?
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.
Math Concepts: coordinate graphing (first quadrant), simple linear equations, irregular polygons.
Players: two players or two teams.
Equipment: printed gameboard or square grid paper for each player, pencils, ruler or other straightedge.
This simple counting game helps children grow comfortable with 2-digit numbers and learn the value of coins.
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.
Math Concepts: counting, addition, coin value.
Players: two or more.
Equipment: printed hundred charts, six-sided dice, and a large pile of assorted coins.
This game is simple to learn, allowing kids to focus on their strategic thinking. Then ask your students to invent their own tic-tac-toe variation.
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.
Math Concepts: Logic and strategic thinking.
Players: only two.
Equipment: pen and paper.
This game gives young children practice adding numbers within twenty. And it’s great strategic fun for all ages!
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.
Math Concepts: addition to twenty, thinking ahead.
Players: two or more.
Equipment: two decks of playing cards (face cards removed), six tokens per player.
“Play and rigor support each other.
“When students are invited to play with math, they learn more deeply, more robustly, and remember more consistently.
“Play is promoted as something that can engage kids and give them a more positive attitude about school, but it’s easy to assume that it’s not useful for learning, when in reality the opposite is true:
“The student who is playing tends to be the student who is learning most deeply.”
—Dan Finkel, Math for Love newsletter
I continue to dig myself out of the avalanche of tasks that built up during the years that I spent mostly down south with my mom as she was weakening.
But here are two tidbits of mathy fun that came across my desk recently, which I think you’ll enjoy…
I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love the Numberhive game. They recently posted a series of print-and-play freebies for their new place value variation.
This cool-looking game is in prelaunch on the crowdfunding site Gamefound, but the creator has posted a free Mini Print & Play version you can download now, suitable for prealgebra and up. (The full game will have multiple variations, including a preschool level.)
Finally, the Math Journaling Adventures books and kids’ gear are now live in my store, and all my math game books are still on sale through the month of June.
Have fun playing math with your kids!
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Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Join my free email newsletter.
This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.
“Playful Math for the Summer” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © damedeeso / Depositphotos.
ALL my math game books are on sale now at the Playful Math Store.
What a great way to prepare for a summer of mathematical play!
I have a new podcast interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it!
Check out Cindy Rollins’s The New Mason Jar on your favorite podcast app, or listen on the website:
Here’s an excerpt…
Just as a nature journal records our children’s explorations and discoveries in nature, so a math journal tracks our children’s explorations in the world of mathematics.
In a math journal, children record their experiences with numbers, shapes, and patterns through drawing or writing. Journaling teaches them to see with mathematical eyes — not just to remember what we adults tell them, but to create their own math.
The process of writing forces children to pin down their thoughts, to transform nebulous concepts into firm ideas, to struggle with vagueness and build understanding.
As William Zinsser says in his book Writing to Learn: “Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know, and what we don’t know.”
Through journaling, children develop a richer mathematical mindset. They begin to see connections and grow confident in their ability to think through new problems.
We had a great discussion! Listen to the whole thing:
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Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my free email newsletter.
This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.
“Podcast: Using Math Journals and Games” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © AntonLozovoy / Depositphotos.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 