Children love to play games.   Playing games is a wonderful way to share time with family members, to have fun, and to learn math concepts.

In simple card games such as Go Fish, Concentration, War or Crazy Eights children learn to identify numerals, match numerals to the number of objects, recognize more, less and equal and practice memory skills. They also develop fine motor coordination by picking up and handling the cards.

By playing dominoes or games with dice, children learn to count the dots and relate those dots to the number they represent. Moving game pieces the right number of spaces on a board adds the concept of one-to-one correspondence (being able to point to an object as it is counted), and constantly comparing the rolled numbers helps develop number sense.

Children can increase their fluency in adding numbers to ten by playing a card game called Make 10 .  It is played like Go Fish except that you make pairs that add up to 10.  So if you had a four in your hand, you would need to ask for a six to make a pair.

As you play games your child, you can extend his/her mathematical thinking by asking simple questions: “How many matches did you get? Do you have more red cards or black? Can you deal us 6 cards each? Can you count on from that number?”

 

So let the games begin!