Tag: Maths Games

The importance of playing games with children to aid their mathematical thinking cannot be stressed too much. Playing games improves logical thinking and thinking ahead. This great little game, which I have called ‘Three Hexagon’ is a variation of ‘Three in a row’ games, played on a hexagonal board. All you need to do is print the board out, perhaps cover it with sticky back plastic to make it last longer and get two sets of 3 counters.

The rules are straightforward:

This is a game for two people.
Each player has three counters.
The aim of the game is to get the three counters in a straight line.
The player going first places a counter on one of the circles.
The second player then places one of his/her counters on a circle. This continues until all the counters have been placed.
If neither player has got 3 counters in a straight line then the first player slides a counter along a line to a circle that is not already covered.
The other player then slides a counter to an adjacent circle.  Counters can only move along one line into an empty space. They can not jump over counters.
If a player can not move a counter she/he misses a go.

The more you play this game the more you realise that there are techniques to help with winning. Good luck!

Three hexagon game

This is a maths game more suited to upper primary school children as it requires quick mental arithmetic skills. The idea is to roll the die as many times as possible adding up the score as you go alon; but there is a catch!

Equipment:

A die

A scoring sheet is useful

Rules:

This is a game for two or more people, although usually played in pairs. It is good practice for addition skills up to 50, especially adding three or more small numbers.

The first player rolls the die as many times as he/she likes, adding up the total as he/she goes.

If, however, a 1 is thrown, all the score for that round is lost.

The player may stop at any time and put his/her score in the bank – that banked score cannot be lost.

When a score has been banked the die is passed to the next player who has his/her turn.

The winner is the first player to reach 50 or more.

Options: raise the winning score to 100 or more.

Use a 0-9 die with two losing options.

Pig

Whilst most of the mathsblog site gives away free worksheets I do have a small selection of fun maths games for reception/Year 1 children. Counting is a major part of maths iat this age and by the end of reception should be able to say and use number names up to 10. A good example of this would be to join in nursery rhymes or songs such as

“One, two three, four, five. Once I caught a fish alive.”

Children should also  be counting up in ones, up to 10 objects. This would be in a practical sense of counting a number of objects that they can touch (pieces of a jigsaw, coins, hats etc).  Later they can count things they can see, but not touch (panes in a window, cows in a field etc ).They can then begin to count down from a small number e.g. 5,4,3,2,1,0.

We have a great set of fun maths games on counting for Reception/Early Years and one of my particular favourites is the Counting Goats game. This is really good practice at counting up to 5. Young children can not get too much practice with this both in the home and on the computer. They may well use their fingers to help and count out loud, but after a time they will begin to count in their heads. Adults can often glimpse at a picture to see how many there are, almost without counting – don’t expect this of 5 a year old! Don’t forget to click on the banjo playing goat at the end for a happy tune!

We have a great set of counting games, so why not have a go today?

Go to our Counting games

If you like these games why not have a free trial of urbrainy.com, which has many, many more?

An often overlooked part of our site is the maths games category for Reception/Year 1. Here we have a number of simple maths games including this, the first in our addition and subtraction series, where children are given a number and have to state what is needed to make it up to 5. Ideal for a quick few minutes adding on practice. A simple print out is available after 5 questions, which is useful to show what has been done.

You can go to Reception/Year 1 maths games to play all our games.

Dora Dino has 5 eggs somewhere. She can only see some of them, so can you help her work out how many are needed to make 5.

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Playing board games and card games from an early age is a great way to help children with their maths. Whether it is matching pairs, counting on or back or throwing dice, the participation involves calculating skills, predicting, seeing patterns and thinking logically.

Here we have a great little maths game for young children, thanks to MathSphere from its CD, ‘It’s All Figured Out!’

The rules are as follows:

This is a game for two people.

Each player has three counters.

The aim of the game is to get the three counters in a straight line.

The player going first places a counter on one of the circles.

The second player then places one of his/her counters on a circle. This continues until all the counters have been placed.

If neither player has got 3 counters in a straight line then the first player slides a counter along a line to a circle that is not already covered.

The other player then slides a counter to an adjacent circle.  Counters can only move along one line into an empty space. They can not jump over counters.

If a player can not move a counter she/he misses a go.

Is there an advantage in going first? By careful placement of the counters at the start of the game can you ensure that you will always win?

3 hexagon