Category: Maths Games

Maths game: Three hexagon

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

Reception maths games: counting and colouring

We have a good selection of simple maths games which your reception/year 1 children may like to play. Here is one example.

Help Ted colour his white balloons. Just by clicking in the balloons the colour will change.

One click will make a balloon go Red.

Two clicks will turn the balloon Blue.

Three clicks will change the colour to Gold.

Don’t forget to press Go when you think the colours are correct!

This is great practice at counting, why not have a go?

More games can be found in our Maths Games section.

[flash http://mathsblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/colour8balloons1.swf]

Counting games for Early Years

Counting is a major part of maths in Reception and Year 1. Children 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

iPhone app: multiplication game

It’s a first for me: an iPhone App. But, it is a good one if you’ve only got a few pence to spare and you will need to be pretty nifty with your tables to get a good score. Practice your tables and see those cows move faster and faster with this great app. It’s easy to begin with, but don’t be fooled!!

  • Practice any table from 1 to 12
  • Challenge yourself to see how many correct answers you can get
  • See if you can beat your highscore!

The app is available in the app store now.


Maths game: one less than

dice Here is a very simple game for two players aimed at re-inforcing the term ‘one less than’ with numbers up to 6. This is aimed at children just getting ready to go to school or those who are in the Foundation Stage. It is a page from an exciting new venture called ‘You Are Brainy’ which will be launching at the end of the summer and they have kindly allowed me to put up one or two of their resources.

Maths game: one less than


Ordering game: Put the clowns’ balls in order

Drag the numbers on to the yellow balls, in order, starting with the lowest from left to right.

The clowns are trying to sort their balls into order. Help by dragging the numbers on to the yellow balls, in order, starting with the lowest from left to right.

Press Go when finished.

[flash http://mathsblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/orderunder10clowns.swf]

Counting game: colour 8 balloons

Help Ted colour his white balloons. Just by clicking in the balloons the colour will change.

One click will make a balloon go Red.

Two clicks will turn the balloon Blue.

Three clicks will change the colour to Gold.

Don’t forget to press Go when you think the colours are correct!

This is great practice at counting, why not have a go?

[flash http://mathsblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/colour8balloons1.swf]