Skyjo is a card game that a student introduced to me this year. It quickly became one of my favorites, as well as a favorite of most of my students! This third grade group asked to play it every time ...

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Looking for great bargains on math games? Check out these Black Friday Math Games 2023 Amazon Deals! These are all math games I have previously recommended that are currently on sale. Another post is coming on deals on toys to ...

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Viva Topo is a beginning strategy board game for young children (probably 4-9 age range). They must make choices to balance risk and rewards. The game has won numerous awards in Germany, Australia, and Japan including Australia Awards “Best Children’s ...

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Math Dice Junior is a simple and easy to learn addition and subtraction game for 2-4 players. A 12 sided dice is rolled along with five 6 sided dice. Players then use the 6 sided dice to reach the target ...

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Using games for math intervention is one of the best ways to motivate students and help them make fast progress. Intervention students typically lack confidence in their math skills, and see themselves as “bad at math.” They have had bad ...

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Even Steven’s Odd Game was introduced to me by a friend who is a 3rd grade teacher. She commented on one of my Instagram game posts and asked if I had ever played it. I had heard of the Even ...

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Race to the Treasure was a surprise random discovery for me. I had never heard of it before I ran across a perfect condition copy at a neighborhood garage sale. A particular young tutoring student of mine is still learning ...

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The Absolute Zero card game is a good quick game for middle school students to practice adding positive and negative integers. Game play is very simple. There is a deck of number cards, with both positive (black) and negative (red) ...

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One of the students I currently tutor individually needed help last week with decimal place value and money. We worked on the decimal place value using my ideas in this post (Place Value Yahtzee was a big hit!) However when ...

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While I have many games made specifically for teaching math listed on this site, there are also lots of classic board games that can be used to develop math skills. They are beneficial just as they are but many also ...

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The Make a Splash 120 chart game from Learning Resources is one of my and my students’ favorites for practicing kindergarten-2nd grade math standards. (I have seen older elementary students enjoy it also.) The concept is simple- it’s a giant ...

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Proof is a simple and effective card game for developing mathematical thinking. It builds mental math skills, number sense, and fluency. You can use it to practice multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, and square roots. It can easily be very appropriate ...

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The Tiny Polka Dot card game is made by Math For Love. This is the same company that made my absolute favorite board game Prime Climb. Tiny Polka Dots was created for younger children, and is my top recommended “must ...

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Shut the Box is a simple and classic dice game that is simple to learn, fun to play, and develops fluency with addition facts. I recently learned that it was originally a traditional English pub game used for gambling! It ...

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Over Under was one of those simple games that surprised me in how much it benefited my kids. It is a very simple game of estimating. All questions have a number for an answer. Players draw a card, ask a ...

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Whenever I ask math teachers their favorite math games, the two that always seem to come up are Prime Climb for numbers and operations and Set for visual perception, critical thinking, and logic. The Set card game has won 35 ...

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Sushi Go is a fast paced strategy card game made by Gamewright. I haven’t been disappointed in one of Gamewright’s games yet, and this was no exception. It is one of those great games (as most of Gamewright’s are) that ...

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Racko is a classic card game originally released in 1956 and still popular today. It is a strategy game that uses the math skill of comparing and ordering numbers. The game is easy to teach and learn, fun to play, ...

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At this point if I run across any game by Gamewright at a used bookstore or garage sale I just buy it! None of their games have disappointed me yet, and the Granny Apples dice game was no exception. The ...

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Money Bags is a board game from Learning Resources designed for kids to practice counting and exchanging coins. It is a relatively quick game to play, probably 10-15 minutes. The game is ideal for first/second graders (or older children struggling ...

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Blokus is a strategy math game for 2-4 players that develops and builds spatial reasoning skills. I also use it to explore the concepts of area and perimeter as well as symmetry. In addition, it introduces transformations including reflections, rotations, ...

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Board Game Geek describes the game Rummikub as “mathematical skill meets pure luck.” The game was invented in the forties by a Romanian Jew living in Israel who hand made the original games. It is similar to several European card ...

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Mancala is one of the oldest strategy games in the world, and may have its origins in ancient Egypt or Ethiopia. Variations are played across many cultures including South Asia, Western Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. It was brought ...

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Quixx is a “fast family dice game” from Gamewright. It is great for developing strategizing skills and probability concepts with some bonus addition practice. The game takes only about 15 minutes to play. It is fun whether you play with ...

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This is a game variation I came up with spontaneously recently. I was at Half Price Books and saw this very cool set of Texas themed Uno cards that I just had to buy. We Texans love our state! Texas ...

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According to domino.com, there are 13 distinct types of dominoes! I use several of these for math instruction. We play games, do hands on activities, read a great book, and even learn about amazing domino art. Also included in this ...

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While there are many commercial math games that are worth buying, there are also quite a few good math card games you can play with a deck of standard playing cards. Here are some of my favorites for different concepts. ...

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Not only is using Legos in math class a way to build spatial and proportional awareness and develop creativity, but many math concepts can be explicitly taught using Legos. Multiplication and Division With Legos Hands On Activity: building a 3D ...

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We’ve all been there as a parent or teacher, when we have an unexpected 5 minutes to fill. We need a spontaneous no prep activity to keep kids engaged and also hopefully build their skills. Here are some 5 minute ...

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Sumoku, by Blue Orange Games, is an excellent game for practicing both mental multiplication and addition while developing critical thinking skills and strategy. It consists of a brightly colored cone shaped bag filled with 96 colorful number tiles and a ...

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This strategy card game from Gamewright is a favorite of my students just because of the fun illustrations on the cards. They love collecting doughnuts! It is quick to set up, easy to learn, and leads to a lot of ...

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Smath is a math version of Scrabble. I actually didn’t like it the first time I played it. The kids found it frustrating and unenjoyable. It sat in the closet unused for awhile, a regretted purchase, and then I brought ...

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Check the Fridge, by Melon Rind, is technically an addition game. The goal is to make sets of three vegetable cards that add to 25 while avoiding the three stinky cheese cards. However, kids figure out pretty quickly that any ...

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Clumsy Thief and Clumsy Thief in the Candy Shop were the first Gamewright games I ever purchased. They have been a favorite of every child I have played with and are one of my most used games. Both games practice ...

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The Suspend game is great for critical thinking and spatial reasoning (as well as hand eye coordination), but a 5th grade student had an idea where we could also practice addition and subtraction. This is a great example of how ...

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I play A LOT of math games with kids, but my favorite math game: Prime Climb. If I had to choose only one numbers and operations game for grades 3 and up, this would be it. I have never met a child ...

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Zeus on the Loose is another Gamewright game, my go to brand for card games that are both fun (to the point that the kids always want to play them) and educational. In this game, each player in turn plays ...

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Sleeping Queens is one of the favorite card games of my students from kindergarten through middle school. One 2nd grader told me she asked her parents to buy it and played every night with her stuffed animals! The kids love ...

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