Mathematics
Math TogetherMath helps us in everyday activities like cooking, building a bird house, or going shopping. Here are some activities and games that will help promote math skills at home. Remember that your child's math skills will improve with time. Keep in mind that your child will work at a level of his interest and ability.
Practice counting by 2's, 5's, or 10's when jumping rope or throwing a ball.
Make up simple addition or subtraction number stories. Use favorite toys, candy, or goldfish crackers as manipulatives. Encourage your child to record the corresponding number sentence on a piece of paper.
Dice Fun! Player one rules two dice. The player arranges the dice to form two different two digit numbers and records them. Player two circles the number that is greater. Player two then rolls the dice to make new two digit numbers. Add a third die when your student is confident forming and identifying three digit numbers!
Addition Dice! Encourage your child to roll two dice. Then, have your child write a number sentence and solve it. For example, the dice rolled are 4 and 6. Your child could write 4+6=10
Take a Survey! Encourage your child to take a family survey and record the results. For example, your child could ask each family member what they prefer for dinner, chicken or steak? After collecting the information, encourage your child to create a graph. A clipboard makes this activity even more fun!
Number Hunt Write down some numbers on scraps of paper and then place them in a hat or jar. Invite your child to pick a number out of the hat. Then, search around the house or in the yard to find things that are exactly that number. For example, 6 light bulbs, 8 flowers, 12 dishes, etc.
Collection Counting If you have a collection of something at home like CD's or buttons, have your child count the total number in your collection.
Top It Take a deck of cards and remove all of the face cards. Then, deal out half of the cards to each player. To play, each player turns over the top card from his pile. The person with the highest number keeps both cards. Play continues until one person runs out of cards!
Cook up a storm! When baking cookies or brownies together, ask your child to measure the ingredients before adding them to the mixture.
Math Card & Dice Games
Familiarity with playing cards and card games can provide children with entertainment, social interaction, and educational benefits.
Addition Solitaire to 10
You will need: 1 pack of playing cards, The picture cards are worth 10 and the ace is worth 1.
What to do: Lay out 3 cards, face up, one beside the other. Lay out 3 more cards, face up, in a row under the other row. Lay out 3 more cards, face up, in a row under that row. You now have a 3 x 3 grid.Lay out 9 more cards, face up, on top of these 9 cards. Continue doing this until all the cards are laid out.
How to play: Look at the grid and find 1 or 2 cards that equal 10 when added together. You may take these cards from the deck. Continue taking 1 or 2 cards at a time that add up to 10 until there are no more cards adding up to 10. Can you take all the cards from the grid?
Addition SNAP!
Skills: addition, immediate recall of basic facts
You will need: 1 deck of playing cards (Ace=1) -9.
What to do: Players divide the cards evenly between themselves.
How to play: At the same time, each player turns over one card. Players add the two together as quickly as possible and say the answer out loud. The player who gives the correct answer first collects both cards. In the event of a tie, players leave their cards down. Play resumes until one player gives the correct answer before the other and takes all accumulated cards. Play continues until one player has collected all of the cards.
Addition Solitaire to 20
Skills: addition
You will need: 1 pack of playing cards, the picture cards are worth 10 and the ace is worth 1.
What to do: Lay out 3 cards, face up, one beside the other. Lay out 3 more cards, face up, in a row under the other row. Lay out 3 more cards, face up, in a row under that row. You now have a 3 x 3 grid. Lay out 9 more cards, face up, on top of these 9 cards. Continue doing this until all the cards are laid out.
How to play: Look at the grid and find 2 or 3 cards that equal 20 when added together. You may take these cards from the deck. Continue taking 2 or 3 cards at a time that add up to 20 until there are no more cards adding up to 20. Can you take all the cards from the grid?
Concentration
Skills: Recognizing odd/even numbers, memory
You will need: Cards (Ace=1) - 10, 2 of each
What to do: Mix cards and turn them over in an organized format, (ie: four by five grid). Players must locate two odd numbered cards, or two even numbered cards in order to collect a pair.
How to Play: The first players turns over two cards and determines whether they are both odd or both even. If so, player one keeps them and continues to play. If not, player one turns the cards back over and the next player precedes with their turn. When all the cards are matched, players count their cards. The player with the most cards is the winner.
Number 1 or Number 2 Salute
Skills: subtraction/addition
You will need: 1 deck of playing cards and 2 players.
How to play: One person holds the deck of cards and takes the top card and holds it at his forehead. The other person says one more or two more than the number on the card.The person holding the card at their forehead figures out the number on the card by subtracting one or two.Variations:
The number range can be changed (ie. three or four, four or five)
Take Away
Skills: 1 to 1 correspondence/counting/addition
You will need: 2 dice, 50 counters (cereal) per player, bowl
How to play: Each player gets 50 counters. Player number one rolls, states the addition sentence, and takes away that number of counters from their fifty and places them in the container. Players alternate turns, taking away their counters. The first player to have only one counter left is the winner.
Example: Roll dice. State Addition Sentence 2+5=7. Take 7 counters and place in bowl.
Snap
This is an amusing, and often very noisy game!
Skills: Matching, improving alertness, attention span, and speed of visual and verbal responses.
You will need: The standard 52-card pack is used.
Number of Players: Two or more people can play.
What to do: Any player can deal the cards. All of the cards are dealt clockwise, face down and one at a time, beginning with the player on the dealer's left. It does not matter if some players have more cards than others. Each player puts his cards in a pile, face down in front of him.
Object of the Game: The goal is to win all of the cards.
How to play: The Play. The player on the dealer's left turns over the top card of his pile and puts it face up and starts another face up pile of cards next to his face down cards. The next player to the left does the same and so on around the table. Snap. When someone turns up a card that matches a card already face up on another player's pile, the first person to notice the two matched cards (two kings, two 10s, two 3s, and so on) calls out "Snap!" and he wins both piles. This player adds the cards to the bottom of his face-down pile. When two players shout "Snap!" at the same time, the two piles are combined and placed in the center of the table face down. These cards form a "Snap Pot." Play continues where it left off with the player to the left of the last player who turned over a card. If a player spots a card that matches the card on top of the Snap Pot, he shouts "Snap Pot!" and wins all of those cards. During the game, if a player runs out of cards in his face-down pile, he turns his face up cards down and continues to play. Play continues until one player has won all of the cards. The game ends and that player is the winner
Commercial Card Games: Crazy Eight, Old Maid, Go Fish, Uno, Snap ...
(Game Directions gathered from usplayingcard.com.)