Beat the Winter blahs with Math Games!

Math games are a great way to have students practice a math skill or concept without really seeming to! Kids love to play games and math games are no exception. We play a lot of math games in the small group and I have seen students make connections during play time and become more confident math students because of the games we play. Games are easy to play at home as well. You do not need to go out any buy any materials - all you need are a pair of dice, a deck of cards and perhaps some counters, such as dried beans or coins, to play many math games as well as for fact practice. I sent home to many of my younger students a game/activity to play from the Marilyn Burns, Do the Math, program at the beginning of January. From time to time, I will be sending home math games to play and at the end of the year, I plan to send home a math game packet with ideas for you to play with your child over the summer so that their math skills can continue to be worked on.

I have also added a new website to my blog that I recently discovered called gregtangmath. Greg Tang writes math books that are a lot of fun and that reinforce the concepts. On his website, there are games that can be played that really emphasize number sense and are not just straight math fact practice. Many of the students went on the site and really enjoyed the games!

Hope you have fun beating those winter blahs!!!