Using the calculator on your phone, tell your child to pretend that the buttons 3 and 8 are broken. How can your child make the screen read 38 without using those buttons by using addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division? The possible solutions are endless. One example could be 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 - 2. Have your child test out his or her solution.  To make it more challenging, try a three digit number the next time!  This activity challenges your child to think more deeply about place value and gives a meaningful purpose for your child to consider how to use operations like addition and subtraction.

This game works best with two or more people. You'll need a pair of dice (click HERE to learn how to make them if you don't have any), and each person playing will need a piece of paper and something to write with. Each letter represents one round of the game and all math for that round will be added up in the space below the letter. The goal of the game is to be the first player to get 100 points. The first player rolls two dice, adds up the numbers, and writes the total down on the game board below the S. The player can continue rolling as many times as he or she wants to add more points to this column. However, if the player rolls a 1 on either dice, all points in that column are lost! When the player decides to stop rolling, he or she should add up the points in that column, write the total, and then pass the dice to the next player. Play continues until each player has finished all the SKUNK rounds or until one player has scored 100.