Four Free Math Games

I do not remember learning how to read. I swear, I feel like I was born reading. I was a little mini-geek, getting all excited when I got to work in my phonics workbook. I loved me some Letter People and drove my family crazy reading along with every word on Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Zoom. But I hated math. Hated.Math. Math just never made sense to me. I remember in third grade when we had to memorize our times tables I was embarrassed, ashamed and confused. I had never had any trouble in school before and those times table quizzes produced anxiety that I had never known. Ugh.

It's because of those experiences in math that I strive to make math as hands-on, engaging and fun as possible. Our district adopted Go Math last year and lets just say, I was less than enthused. I feel like I did less hands on than ever before. I will not do that this year. I'm sneaking in my games, dang it!

So in honor of my big, brave decision, here are a few of my favorites (that the kids end up begging to play!). Click on the pic to see it a little bigger.

For this one you'll need to do some advance preparation. Gather a bunch of popsicle sticks and draw ten black dots on one side and one red dot on the other. Each group of kids that plays together needs 10 sticks.

Click here to get a copy of the directions for each game.

For more great math games, click here to visit Laura Candler's Math Game Round-up!