Here is a game that involves fractions, memory-strengthening, and a litttttle bit of gambling (…sort of… not really). It takes a little more explanation in the beginning than say, the game of 99, but once you get the hang of it, it’s very simple.
Although this is recommended for grades 4-6, if your child understands the concept of fractions (even just visually), then they might be able to play. They may just need some help adding up their totals at the end. You can also cut out fraction bars or circles to help them visualize the totals at the end. Then again, you could just wait until fourth grade. There are plenty of other games to play in the meantime! 🙂
Does the title sound familiar? Chances are you originally found my blog after reading my piece on teaching kids how to apologize. I’m pretty sure that’s how Verily Magazine found me, after which they asked me to write a version of apologies for adults. So I did! You can read it below, or find it HERE.
Thanks again for reading along on my blog! =D
***Congratulations to Charlama C., winner of the book giveaway!
Thanks for participating!***
This game is a little like Go Fish, where you try to match up cards and make pairs. Unlike Go Fish, however, you don’t just pick matching pairs of cards. Instead, you can make a pair if one number divides into the other. Well, that’s about it. There’s the game. You don’t need to read any further =).
…But go ahead. Cuz I went through the trouble of formatting it all nice for you and everything :).
>>>CLICK HERE FOR A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION WITH THE SCORING TEMPLATE AND INSTRUCTIONS.<<<
8/1/2014 UPDATE: And the winner is… Charlama C.! (Winner selected by Random.org.) Congrats!
Click here if you still need a copy! 🙂
Thanks, all, for participating!
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A week ago, one of my lovely blog readers reached out to me and asked me to read and review a book she had written on teaching kids how to understand and talk about their feelings. I liked it so much I offered to do a giveaway of the book on my blog! Just in case you were wondering, I was not paid to read the book, write the review, or host a giveaway.
I am pleased to share with you Yell and Shout, Cry and Pout: A Kid’s Guide to Feelings
This is probably the easiest, and arguably the most fun game of the bunch. This is always the first math game I teach, because students pick up on it very quickly and have a lot of fun. It leaves a good taste in their mouth for math games!
I should have introduced it first. Sorry. I started with my own personal favorite =P.
It’s mostly addition, doesn’t require too much strategy, and is closer to a normal “just for fun” card game than any of the other games. This is nice when you just want a low-key game! This is also the math game I most often see my kids choose to play on rainy day recesses or Choice Time. It just requires one deck of cards and a little bit of math know-how.
The hardest thing about this game is probably learning the special card values. I would recommend printing up the printable/instructions, then you can just set it out and refer to it whenever needed. Read on to learn this easy and fun game!
This is probably the most influential book that I have never read.
The text on each page measures about 4 x 5″ and there are 29 pages. 26.5 if you don’t count the title page and publishing information. That makes it what, 3 pages long in a Word document? And yet it continues to sit, patiently on my nightstand, laughing ironically at me as I continue to pass it up for lesser activities.
But maybe it’s more powerful unread. Ever since my friend Jason mentioned this pamphlet in college, the simple title has put its hands on its hips and given me the know-it-all look several times, especially lately.
Phones, perhaps are the most notorious.
I’m a firm believer in consequences. Children should know that certain undesirable behaviors will result in consequences, and well, you can read my detailed thoughts on that topic here.
Have you read that post? Because if you have, then you’ll probably agree with me that it’s pretty long, and not the easiest thing to implement. I really do believe it can be extremely effective, but it takes a thoughtful plan and a lot of consistency, and I’ll be the first to admit that consistency can be hard!
Maybe you’ve been with me for a while and you read that post back in May, and now it’s July, and you’re thinking, “Oh man. I totally meant to try it, but… well, the end of the school year came… and graduations… and summer camps… and Grandma’s… and vacation and… ah what summer is half over?! It takes too much planning and now it’s too late…”
No, no, my friend. It is not too late.
Maybe that was too big of a project and you weren’t ready to commit to something so involved. Okay, no problem. I am still all for the cause of parents training their children up, so I have an easier alternative for you. It is still very effective (I wouldn’t share it otherwise!), and I’m honestly not sure why I didn’t share it with you sooner. Maybe because that post was already 23 pages (…size 12. Times New Roman font. Without the pictures. Yeahforreal.).
This is a simple addition game called 42. It’s great for younger and older kids, and again, offers opportunity to dig deeper and think about adding and subtracting in a fun way! While it seems very simple at first, it actually gives opportunity for rather complex thinking and many mental math calculations.
I recently shared some of these math games with a neighbor, and she said she couldn’t really figure out one of the games just by reading the directions on my blog. It got me thinking that I should probably just make videos of me teaching/playing them. Personally, even I don’t like reading through instructions to learn a game and would much rather have someone just show me. So I’ll try to go back and add videos for the last three games I posted (in addition to making videos for the future games). Here’s the first!
This game is from Mr. Bailey, one of my mentor teachers from my credential days. I still remember him teaching it to me during one of our lunch breaks, with his hand full of dice. I was skeptical at first, because I had never really played “math games,” but then I started to really get into it! Like, I spent the rest of my lunch break trying to make math expressions. Just for fun. Yeah, really.
It was in this sixth grade classroom that I first saw what a great tool a good math game could be to help kids have an enjoyable time practicing math! I love this game because it really pushes kids to think mathematically in different ways. I suppose it can be used for kids who only have addition and subtraction under their belts, but it is probably most challenging and fun for kids who have learned the order of operations: PEMDAS, anyone?
I have yet to find a kid that does not love writing on a whiteboard.
Heck, even most adults find it kind of cool. At least, I do… even after nearly a decade of writing on them for my day job.
Ask kids to do a math problem on a sheet of paper with a pencil, and it may feel like a chore. Have them copy the exact same problem on their whiteboard, and suddenly there is an air of excitement and motivation. Maybe it’s the safety of not having to commit their thoughts to something as permanent as paper. Maybe it’s the excitement of writing on a whiteboard the way the teacher does in the classroom. Maybe it feels more like drawing than working. Maybe they just like the smell of the marker… who knows.
What I do know is that whenever I said, “Take out your whiteboards,” there was a collective sprinkle of “YES!” echoing around the room. Day after day, no matter what subject. And it’s not like I rarely used them… we used them all the time: daily for math, frequently for spelling, and oftentimes for other subjects. Still, whenever I said those magic words, the kids were raring to go, ready to write in a way that would make paper and pencil envious.
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