| Games - What Better Way To Learn? |
| Plus & Minus Bean Game
Before teaching my children addition and subtraction I wanted them to fully understand what the "+" and "-" symbols meant. This fun, hands-on game requires only a deck of cards, 75 - 100 beans, small bowls or cups and paper. Preparation: Remove face cards from deck. Take 20 to 30 small pieces of paper and write a "+" symbol on half the cards and a "-" symbol on the other half. (The backs of old business cards work great. Shuffle both the playing cards and the symbol cards and make a stack of each. Each player will start with 20 beans (or chips, marbles, etc..) in his bowl. Put the remaining beans next to the cards. The youngest player starts and picks a card from the card pile and one from the symbol pile. The cards will determine if he will get beans or have to give away beans. For example: If he chooses the number 3 and a + symbol, he will add 3 beans to his bowl from the big pile of beans in the middle. However, if he chooses a 3 and a minus he will need to give away three beans from his bowl to the pile. The game ends when all but one are out of beans. |
| War
To learn/reinforce the concept of Greater Than/Less Than play a rousing game of War. Cards are divided between players. Each player turns one card face up. The player with the largest card takes both cards. The first player to run out of cards loses. |
| Addition/Subraction/Multiplication War A more advanced version of war. In this game you remove all the face cards and divide the remaining cards between the two players. The players each turn one card face up. They then add, subtract or multiply the two cards as quicly as possible. The first player to give the correct answer keeps both cards. This game can go until one person is out of cards or you can set a timer. If you use a timer, the person with the most cards wins. |
| Bingo!
Make up Bingo cards with multiplication products filling the squares. The caller will draw two numbers and players will need to multiply them together to determine the square on their card to cover. Example: The caller calls "7" and "8". The players must then determine the answer and cover the number 56 on their cards. This game can also be adapted to addition and subtraction. |
| Math Game - My First Homeschool Game!!
I just discovered my son can't make change. I sent him to the store, and he discovered on his own that they gave him the wrong change, but he didn't know how to calculate it. So I made up a game. I used the random number generator in Excel and made a chart of "costs" from $1.00 to $4.99. I printed the chart with row numbers (1-12) and column letters A-D. (Picture a Bingo chart, but I don't have Bingo letters.) We use dice and 4 Scrabble letters. You roll one or two dice and choose a letter. That tells you what price you pay for an imaginary item. Then I pay with a $5.00 and he makes change for me. He had more fun playing with Dad tonight, but I think 5 or 10 minutes of this after dinner should improve his change habits. He's also a very hands on, visual kind of learner so I hope this will help him visualize money! Laura Reifschlager |
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