Lets Make Math Fun

Volume 1 March 2010

Easter Math Games Using the Big Bunny to Make Math Fun Get Creative and Make Your Own Board Games Turning Kids Into Number Explorers

Free Math Printable Math Puzzle Sheet, Board Game and Game Sheet

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The Lets Make Math Fun MAGAZINE is brought to you by Making Math More Fun at www.makingmathmorefun.com

and

Math Board Games at www.math-board-games.com

Copyright 2010 Teresa Evans. All rights reserved. Permission is given for the making of copies for use in the home or classroom of the subscriber only.

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In thIs edItIon
Make Your Own Math Board Games Multicultural Math Great Game Easter Math Ideas Useful Links Be A Number Explorer Sequences Puzzle Worksheet My Square - Print and Play Game Sheet Fifteen in A Row - Printable Board Game .. . . . .. . .. . . .. . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. ... . ... . Page 4 Page 5 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 7 Page 9 Page 11 Page 12

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Welcome to the first edition of the Lets Make Math Fun Magazine. Ive been a math teacher for quite a few years and over the years I have learnt that a math game is the most effective way to get kids really enthusiastic about math. In fact, often a game will get them so engaged that they wont even consider what they are doing is math. Instead they think of it as just playing a game. Over the years I have seen kids get really, really excited about adding or multiplying or counting or calculating, because the math that they are practicing has been presented as a game. Thats why Ive wanted to put this magazine together for a while now - to give teachers and parents a quick, easy resource that will hopefully inspire them to get kids really having fun with numbers and math concepts. The plan at the moment is to create a new magazine every month. I really want this to be a practical guide to helping kids enjoy math and succeed in math. Surely every child has the right to this, because in todays world it seems that no matter where you live math is a skill that will be vital to every childs future. They may not need a masters degree to get by but they will need a solid foundation of basic skills and I am hoping that together you and I can help to give kids this. Hope you like the magazine and hope the kids like whatever you choose to use from it! Kind regards, Teresa
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Make Your Own Math Board Games

Making your own math board games is really is simple to do. All you need is some card and pens and youre ready to go. You can also involve the kids which will make it fun for them too. Best of all when the kids are involved in making them, it also gets them enthusiastic about using them, making this the perfect way to practice math. The simplest math board game to make is the Track game. Just draw a track either around the board or zigzagging across the board. The track for your math game can be made with spaces of any shape, e.g. circles, squares or triangles. Write Start on the first space and Finish on the last space. Next you can create hazard squares and reward squares. These are the ones that say, Have another go! Move forward 2 spaces. Go back to the start! Miss a turn! and things like these. You can choose a theme for your board game like car racing or the beach. For the car racing game, the game might be a racing track and the markers for each player might be a car draw on the marker. For the beach game, the track might contain beach themed hazards and rewards, e.g. You see a shark in the water. Go back to the start. Now you create some feature spaces. These will be marked with a special shape or figure, eg a star, a shell or a car. There should be many of these as this will be what creates the math practice element. When a player lands on one of these, they will pick up a card. You will need to make the cards too. Each card will have a math question that relates to the skill you want to practice. It might be an addition or times table, e. g. 7 x 6. Your math board game can now be decorated by adding drawings or coloring the spaces. You can also give your game a name and write this on the playing board. Now it looks like you are ready to play. Each player puts a marker on the start and you decide who is to go first. This can be the youngest or the one who throws the highest number. Use a dice or a spinner to tell how many spaces to move. Players then move forward the number of spaces shown and follow the instructions on the hazard spaces and reward spaces. When a player lands on one of feature spaces, they will pick up a card and answer the math question. If they answer correctly, the player can then have another turn. If they answer incorrectly, they will miss a turn. Of course the first player to the Finish will be the winner. You will need to decide before you start whether you have to throw the exact number to finish or not. This simply means that if you are 3 spaces away from the Finish, do you need to throw 3 or can you move to the Finish if you throw 4, 5 or 6? The great thing about this math board game is that you can use it practice different skills. Just change the questions on the cards and you can practice a completely different math skill. So why not grab some card and some pens and start creating. Within a short time, the kids can be having fun playing a game and practicing math at the same time.
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MULTICULTURAL Math
Recommended Book Math Games and Activities from Around the World by Claudia Zaslavsky

Great Game
Recommended Game Equate - The Equation Thinking Game

With this book you get an unexpected bonus. Yes it is a book about math games but while the kids and you have fun with these games they can also learn about the world. Dont be surprised when you find the kids researching to learn more about the countries that the games come from. The games and activities are hands on games that get kids using math to play the games, solve puzzles and even to design the game boards. It includes games from Africa, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Greece and more. There are board games, puzzles, strategic thinking games and games of chance. It is also loaded with interesting facts about the origin of the games and the countries that they originated in. It is recommended for children 9 years and up. This one is certainly worth a look at and when once youve tried all of the games in this book, there is a second edition called More Math Games and Activities from Around the World. This book contains board games and puzzles, and also looks at measurement, patterns, symmetry and more.
Lets Make Math Fun

When I first saw this I thought, Why hasnt someone done this before? It is such a great concept. Its a bit like Scrabble and a bit like a crossword but forget about letters and words Equate uses numbers and equations. I love games that make kids think! This one certainly does that. It is recommended for ages 8 and up but it really is a game that can grow with the kids. They can start with basic equations and as they learn more complex skills they can incorporate these into playing the game.

Math Puzzlers
How many times do I write the numeral 7 if I write all of the numbers from 1-500? What is the least number of colors needed to color this shape so that no two touching areas have the same color?

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Easter Math Ideas

That Big Bunny is on the way so why not have some Easter Math Fun? Listed below are a few suggestions for using Easter as a stimulus for some math fun. Bunny Hop Begin by nominating a start line and a finish line. Two children compete to jump from the start to the finish but they can only make two jumps when they are first to answer a math question. Use questions with skills that you want the children to practice, e.g. 6 times 8, half of 34, What is the number before 87? The first child to answer takes two jumps towards the finish line. Easter Counting The old favorite counting game Buzz can become an Easter counting game by replacing the word 'Buzz' with an Easter word. Try 'Bunny' or 'Easter Egg' instead. Children count around a circle but replace the number 7, every multiple of 7 and every number containing a digit 7 with the word 'Bunny'. If a child says the number instead of saying 'Bunny' they are out. This is a challenging game and it requires concentration and knowledge of multiples. It can also be played with other digits instead of 7. Easter Brain Teasers Number problems can also be made much more interesting by using Easter themes for the problems. Here are a few that you can use to start you off. The Easter Bunny starts with 15 Easter Eggs in a Basket. He gives out 4 then collects 6 more then gives 4 children 2 eggs each. How many eggs in the basket now? Tom has been dyeing eggs. He is using red and yellow dye. He has dyed 17 eggs and has 5 more yellow eggs than red eggs. How many does he have of each? How many eggs did I find in the Egg Hunt? I found between 10 and 30. The number is divisible by 3 but not by 4 or 5. I found an even number of eggs. Change the numbers in these problems and you can have a new set of Brain Teaser ready in a flash. There are many different ways to use Easter to make math more exciting. Yes Easter math is definitely much more interesting than regular math.

More Easter Activities and Games are available from

Kids Easter Activities

www.kids-easter-activities.com

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USEFUL LInks
There are loads and loads of great math games and activities online, but unfortunately you often need loads and loads of time to find them. Thats why I want to feature some great sites that I have found.

BE A NUMBER EXPLORER
Exploring numbers is a great way to develop number sense. There are loads of questions that you can present to kids to get them exploring numbers, place value and number qualities. These questions are presented to give you a starting place but by changing the number values in the questions, you can have an endless supply of interesting questions to get kids exploring numbers and their properties. How many different numbers can I make using the numerals 2, 5, 7? (Change the digits and change the number of digits to create new questions.) How many even numbers are there between 23 and 79? (Change the numbers and change even to odd, prime or composite.) What is the largest prime number before 100? (Change 100 to any number and see the degree of difficulty increase.) What are 3 prime numbers that I can multiply together to get 45? (3, 3, 5) (Create new problems by choosing 3 prime numbers and multiplying them together, eg 3, 5, 7 = 105.) How many different odd numbers can I create using the following numberals 2, 3, 4, 5. Have a go at presenting some of these questions to kids and watch the kids discover the joy of being an explorer.

Alegbra Games
I often get asked for Alegbra Games to reinforce skills in this area and to help students who struggle with algebra. I still havent come up with my own games but you might like to try these online games. www.mathplayground.com/Algebra_Puz zle.html www.mathplayground.com/MTV/mathtv 15.html www.mathsnet.net/algebra/l1_equation. html

Fractions, Percentages and Decimals

An interesting way to compare fractions, percentages and decimals www.mathplayground.com/Decention/D ecention.html

Multiplication Games
Timez Attack is real multiplication fun! Try the free version and see what you think! www.bigbrainz.com

Lets Make Math Fun

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ThIs Months Free PrIntable Math includes

Sequences
This is a counting worksheet with a difference. Children have to work out the pattern and the correct pathway to follow. The Solution is included.

My Square
This is a Print and Play Game Sheet for 2 players.

FIFTEEN IN A ROW
This is a Printable Math Board Game that practices adding to 15 but also requires a bit of strategic thinking. Yes as I have said before, I love games that make kids think!

More Printable Math Games are available from www.makingmathmorefun.com and www.math-board-games.com

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Sequences
Complete the counting sequence in each grid. HINT: The sequence may go left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top or a combination of these.

A
1 5 11 14 4 5 2 3 4 1 2 8

B
9 10

C
6 7 12
13

10 15

18

21

D
24 25 26 27 31 32 36 28 2 4 6 8

E
18 20

F
25 19 13 9 5

10

26

G
20 15 10 25 35 50 70 32 5 26 28

H
42 37

I
13 10 7

36 50 25 22

4 1

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Sequences SolutIon
A
1 5 9 2 6 3 7 4 8 1 2 3 4 8 7 6 5

B
9 16

C
6 7 8 9 10 14 18 11 15 19 12 16 20 13 17 21

10 15 11 14 12 13

10 11 12

13 14 15 16

D
24 25 26 27 31 30 29 28 32 33 34 35 39 38 37 36 2 4 6 8

E
16 18 32 14 20 30 12 22 28 10 24 26

F
31 29 27 25 17 19 21 23 15 13 11 1 3 5 9 7

G
20 15 10 5 25 30 35 40 60 55 50 45 65 70 75 80

H
26 40 42 56 28 38 44 54 30 36 46 52 32 34 48 50

I
37 34 13 10 40 31 16 43 28 19 46 25 22 7 4 1

Lets Make Math Fun

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My Square
A game for 2 players Each player uses a different colored pencil. Players take turns to color a dot. The first player to color the four corners of any square is the winner. HINT: The four corners could be the four corners of any square, even the large square. Game 1 Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

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FIFTEEN IN A ROW
a game for two players Players take turns to place a number card on the board. The winner is the first player to complete a row of 3 cards that add to 15. The row can be made up of cards placed by both players.

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Cut Out Number Cards for Fifteen in a Row Board Game

0 4 8 2 6
Lets Make Math Fun

1 5 9 3 7

2 6 0 4 8

3 7 1 5 9
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