Addition Math Fact Dash {printable board game}

It's no secret. I hate flash cards. They're so ... not fun. To give my 1st grade son a little practice with simple addition and turn repetition into memorization (hopefully), I made a simple board game.

What You Need
Free two-page download of game board and spinner (download here)
Two pieces heavyweight cardstock
Printer & ink
Brad (to make the spinner spin)
Scissors
Small game pieces (different for each player)

How to Play
Game pieces are placed on the start square. The youngest player spins first. He/she solves the addition problem and moves their game piece to the nearest square with the answer. Turns alternate between players until a player gets the math problem where the answer is 5, the final square on the board.

Enjoy!

Number Grid Puzzles (free printable)

Our youngest son had a "fill in the missing numbers in the number grid" math assignment. I thought it would be a snap for him, but as he sometimes transposes numbers, it became a source of major frustration. Oy!

To familiarize him a little more with number grids and some of the quick addition and subtraction you can do with them, I made a few activities. These were inspired by Playdough to Plato's peek-a-boo chart and Mrs. T's First Grade Class number puzzles.

You can download this 100 number grid activity for free from Google Drive here. It's a 3-page PDF. 

NOTE: If you are a teacher, use your personal gmail account if it requires you to request permission. Most school districts restrict emails from outside their domain, and therefore I can't grant access and let you know it's available.

Activity #1: 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, 1 less
I printed the number grid on white card stock. I printed page two of the free printable PDF on colored card stock. I cut the center plus-sign out. Then I added white gift wrap tissue squares to the plus signs "arms" making those squares translucent (vellum would work well too), and left the center empty. For the sake of durability, I ran this sheet through my laminator.

With the 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, 1 less page laminated, I wrote some simple math problems on it in the blank area (e.g. 13+10= , 47-10=, 91+1=, 74+1=) with a dry-erase marker. My son placed the laminated page over the number grid so the first number in the equation was in the center. Then he could easily see in the translucent squares which was his answer (i.e. 10 less was directly above, 10 more directly below, 1 more to the right, and 1 less to the left). This made solving the math problems easy!

Activity #2: Number Grid Puzzles
Now I printed the number grid on colored card stock and printed an empty grid on white card stock. I cut the colored grid apart into a variety of puzzles that were about 10-11 squares each. 

Once done, I cut the number squares apart and handed him a few piles of puzzles. He arranged them wherever on the blank grid, remembering 10 less is above, 10 more is below, 1 more is on the right, 1 less is on the left. When he completed this puzzle, he moved on to the next. You can make approximately 7-8 puzzles per grid.

Flashcard Alternative: Flip-Top Math Facts

I love self-checking math activities. This one is perfect. All you need to do is place some calls to all your friends and family and ask them to hold on to some ketchup, toothpaste tube, and parmesan cheese lids.

What You Need
Lots of plastic flip-top caps 
Permanent Marker

Prep
On the lid of each cap, write a math problem; I stuck with addition problems since my youngest is in kindergarten.

Pop the top and write the answers on the bottom part of the cap. 

Practice
Give your kiddo the caps. They'll answer the problems, open the caps and check their math. 

This great idea came from Flap Jack Educational Resources.

5-minute Sight Word Uncover & Add

My son has successfully memorized 120 sight words this year. Unfortunately, not all of those words have stuck in his memory. With assessments coming up, his kindergarten teacher asked that we do some review at home.

Lately, my son has been really enjoying a Highlights' Hidden Picture book. His love for these puzzles inspired this game, in part. What I created is a basically modified BINGO game.

What You Need
Fun pictures either from photos or magazines for the game boards
PDF of the sight word game and call cards (download it here from Google Drive)
Heavyweight card stock
Scissors
Fine-tip marker
Star stickers (optional)
Timer (we used the microwave clock)

Have your own list of words to practice? Or another subject matter to quiz your kiddo on? No worries. The last page of the free PDF is a blank template.

Prepare the Game
Print the sight word pages on card stock. As a general rule, use a page of cards for each player and one to two extra pages of cards.

Cut the outer border of one sheet of game cards (the bigger square word cards). Use it to trace the shape onto one each of your pictures (I used some old LEGO Club magazine pages). These will be your game cards. Crop the excess but cutting along the lines.

Now trim one row at a time on the game cards, align with the game boards and trace a line along the edge. Use this technique until all the grid lines are drawn on each game board.

Once the boards are finished, add a star sticker (or drawn star) in one of the squares. In each of the other squares, write a number, cleverly hiding it for an extra challenge. Depending on your child's math abilities, keep the numbers small or make them bigger for harder addition.

Play
With two piles - the call cards face down and the game cards face up - scrambled, each player should add sight word cards (face up) to their game board until its filled.

Set a timer for 5 minutes. Begin selecting one by one the call cards. Have the child(ren) read the words on the cards, search their game board for that same word, and if it's present, remove it from the board.

At the end of 5 minutes, the child(ren) hunt for the hidden numbers in each uncovered square. They add them together. If the star is uncovered, they double the total.

The player with the most points is declared the winner.

Order of Operations FREE Printable Game

Knowing the order of operations is important. Without knowing what to do first, next, after that, and last in a math problem like the following means the difference between getting the answer right or getting it very wrong.

7 x (4 + 1) - 7 x 2 =

Aside from the acronym PEMDAS and the acrostic "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally," I wanted to find a fun way to reinforce the order:

1. parenthesis
2. exponents
3. multiplication or division
4. addition or subtraction

I made a fun game for us to play.

What You Need

The PDF of the game board, cards, and spinner (download it from Google Drive here)

Heavyweight card stock

Scissors or paper cutter

Recycled chip board (aka empty cereal box) to mount the glue the spinner to

Glue

Brad

Safety pin (optional, but this makes a quick, easy, and effective spinner)

Preparations

Print a copy of the game board for every player (page 1 of the PDF). Print the spinner. Print an extra page of the SPIN cards. If you're playing with more than two people, print two sets of cards (i.e. two pages of each card type and four SPIN cards).

Cut the cards apart and shuffle well.

Glue the page with the spinner on it to the chipboard and cut out. Either poke a hole with a nail through the middle or use an unconventional hole punch to make a hole. Thread the hole of a safety pin through the brad and into the spinner hole; separate the prongs on the back. Voila.

How to Play

Players take turns drawing cards and placing them on their game board, saying out load, "Parenthesis go first," "Multiplication follows Exponents," etc. If a player already has the card they've just drawn, it goes into a discard pile. If the player draws a SPIN card, they must flick the spinner and follow the directions it points to when it stops moving.

If necessary, you may need to reuse the discard pile. The first player to completely fill their game board wins.

VARIATIONS: Have players try to get TWO cards of each kind on their game board to extend play. When our game was "over," my son was having so much fun he suggested we keep playing this way.

Adding and Subtracting Positive & Negative Numbers with a Zipper Bag

What can you do with a gallon-size zipper plastic food storage bag? Believe it or not, you can practice adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers!

This can be mighty confusing for kids and rather than worksheet them to death, why not grab a bag, and play a little game?

My son and I had lots of fun with this and played for quite some time.

What You Need
A plastic gallon-size zipper food storage bag for each player
PDF of number line and die (download free from Google Drive here)
die
heavyweight card stock to print the PDF on
Scissors
Glue
fine-tip permanent black marker

Preparation
Print as many copies of the first page of the PDF as you have players. Trim each end so it just fits into our zipper bag. 

With the marker, make a small line in the center of the bag's zipper pull.

Print the page with the die onto another sheet of heavyweight card stock. Trim the two dice templates, fold, and glue (I use a hot glue gun).

How to Play
Players should place the zipper pull with the mark lining up with the zero. This is where everyone starts. Player 1 rolls all three dice (the add/subtract, the -/+, and the number die). This will tell the player what their equation is. For example if they roll ADD, negative (-), and four, they will need to solve the problem

0 + -4 =

They'll then move their zipper slider to -4. 

Now it's the next player's turn to roll the dice, solve the equation, and move the slider on their own bag.

The first player to reach either end of the timeline (i.e. 19 or -19) first is the winner.

Need a refresher on how to solve these equations? Check out Khan Academy's great online tutorial here.

Adding Fractions Tic-Tac-Toe {free printable}

Tic-tac-toe is a favorite of my oldest son's. We have passed many minutes playing the age-old game on children's menus at restaurants while we waited for our food.

To add a little math practice in, I made four tic-tac-toe game boards with fraction addition problems. To start, these boards only have problems with like denominators that only add up to 1 or less.

Download the boards I made for free from Google Drive here. There's a blank page of boards too so you can write in your own problems!

Prep

I printed the boards on cardstock and then slipped them (front and back) inside a plastic sheet protector. I trimmed it down and grabbed two different colors of dry-erase markers. 

No sheet protectors? No problem. You can also laminate the cards or place a clear plastic report cover over the pages so the dry-erase marker wipes clean and you can reuse them again and again.

Play

This game of tic-tac-toe has no Xs or Os. Instead players select their space on the board, solve the fraction addition problem and mark the spot with the answer in their colored dry-erase ink.

Play alternates between players until either the board is filled or one player gets three problems completed in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).

Self-Checking Addition Hunt

Just this week our 5-year-old told me that he liked numbers better than letters. With so much energy spent on phonics, identifying and blending sounds, I thought it best to switch gears and practice early math skills.

To practice some basic addition (or any kind of math facts), I grabbed two post-it note pads in different colors and a black marker.

On one color, I wrote simple addition problems. On another color post-it, I wrote the answers. On the back of each set of cards, I drew simple shapes like a heart, sun, triangle, etc.

I tacked up both colors of post-its around our living room, kitchen, and entryway areas and when my son got home from school, he grabbed one of the orange cards (addition problems), solved it, and searched for the answer. 

When he thought he'd found it, he turned both post-its over and if the shape on the back of both cards matched, he knew he'd answered correctly!

This was SUCH a simple game that took less than 10 minutes of prep. Because kids are up and moving, it makes practicing math skills WAY more fun than solving problems on a worksheet. Want to make it even more challenging? Time kids! See if they can beat their best time next time!

Give it a try!

Button it Up (Beginning Addition Practice)

Number sense takes practice. Our youngest son is getting good at counting and associating numerals. I wanted to reinforce what he's learned and introduce simple addition sentences. 

I made a fun game to play with him. Not only does it practice math, it also works fine motor skills.

Because he's five and his attention span is still pretty short for seated activities, we only played for 10 minutes. I know we'll be playing it again… and again… and again, though.

Want to play?

What You Need

Die

1-page PDF of Button it Up Game Board (download it free here)

Paper (1 sheet to print the PDF on)

12 small buttons (6 of each color)

Plastic Sheet Protector (or laminate)

Fine-tip dry-erase marker

How to Play

Once your game board is printed and either laminated or placed inside a plastic sheet protector, you're ready for your child to play.

1. Have him/her roll the die and count the dots.

2. If your child is proficient enough, have them write the numeral in one of the hands on the game board. If writing numbers is a skill that your child hasn't mastered yet, do this step for them.

3. Now your child will place the number of buttons rolled down the center of the shirt. I like to have them use the same color of buttons for each number rolled.

4. Now repeat steps 1-3, putting the numeral in the other hand, and using buttons of the other color.

5. Now say the addition sentence out loud (e.g. "Three plus four equals what? How many buttons are there all together?"). Write the answer in the shirt pocket (or have your child do this).

6. Use a dry cloth or paper towel to wipe the dry-erase marker from the board and start again! Repeat until your child's attention begins to wane.

Pair a Book with It

Even though this Pete the Cat book is more about subtraction than addition, it complemented our activity beautifully. Pete is a favorite in our house and even reading it over and over again is still enjoyable.

Roll and Make Whole (Adding Fractions Board Game)

My son's fourth grade class has been revisiting fractions lately. I thought I'd test my son's knowledge a bit and make a fun board game.

Roll and Make Whole practices two skills:

1. Reducing fractions to their lowest terms (i.e. simplifying fractions).

2. Adding fractions (sometimes with different denominators) to equal one.

It didn't take long for my son to catch on to our game and even though I won (which almost NEVER EVER happens) he was a good sport and hours later was still talking about the fractions.

Supplies

3-page PDF download of the game board and die

3 pages heavyweight cardstock

Different game pieces, one for each player (we used oversized buttons in two different colors)

Scissors (to cut out the die)

Hot glue (to hold the die together)

Tape (to tape the game board together)

How to Play

All players put their game pieces on the start square. The youngest player rolls first. Whatever fraction is revealed on the top of the die when it stops moving, is one part of a fraction addition problem. For example, if the player rolls a 2/5, they must ask themselves, "what fraction do I need to add to 2/5 to make one whole?"

They'll then look at the board and find the first occurrence of either 3/5 or another fraction that can be reduced to 3/5 (e.g. 6/10 or 9/15).

Their game piece will then be moved to that square. If a player rolls LOSE A TURN, their game piece remains in its place and an opponent gets to roll and move. If a player rolls ROLL AGAIN, they must do as the die says.

When players near the end, they must roll 2/3 to win, as 3/9 is the final square on the board. The first player to arrive at the finish wins.

Mean-Median Match-Up [free printable game]

It's been ages since we worked on mean, median, mode, and range (see our last activity here) and since finding these numbers requires kids use so many math skills, I thought we'd revisit it.

Our game practiced ordering numbers from least to greatest, addition, division, and greater than/less than. All of it was a breeze for my fourth grader, but doing division in his head was good practice. Plus, this was fun.

Supplies
PDF of the die and personal recording cards (download mine free from Google Drive here)
Heavyweight cardstock to print the 2-page PDF on
Scissors and glue to cut and put together the 12-sided die
Lamination (or plastic sheet protector sleeves)
Fine-tip dry-erase markers for each player

Prep
Cut apart the personal recording cards (laminate first if doing so). If not laminating, place inside a plastic sheet protector so they can be used with dry-erase markers.

Cut apart, score the folds, and glue the 12-side dodecahedron die together. I used a low-temp mini hot glue gun for ours.

Play
This game can be played with one player or many. It's easily adapted and can be played a number of ways. 

Single Player Mean-Median Match-Up 
The child rolls the die five times, recording the numbers rolled at the top of their recording card. When all six numbers have been rolled, they are put in order in the light blue boxes on the card from smallest to largest. Then the child finds both the mean of the numbers and the median. Which number is greater (mean or median)? That's the winner.

Note: It doesn't matter if two of the same number is rolled. Whatever number is in the middle spot on the card after the numbers are put in order, is the median.

Multiple Player Mean-Median Match-Up
Each player takes a turn with the die, rolling it five times, writing the numbers on their card and figuring out the mean and median of the collection of numbers. When all players are finished with their calculations, each will select the larger of the two numbers (either mean or median) on their card and ask their opponents to do the same. The player with the largest number wins the round.

Wipe the cards clean with a dry paper towel and get ready to roll and record six new numbers!

Play any number of rounds you'd like. My son and I played best out of five. If he won the round, he simply made a star at the top of his recording sheet, and if I won, I did the same on my card. As soon as one of us had three stars, the winner was declared.

This is a fun, fast-paced game that practices many math skills. We had loads of fun with it!

Adding Decimals with a Visual Model

My 9-year-old son is a whiz at math. I wasn't sure though, how he'd do adding decimals. I thought I'd make it a little bit easier. Sometimes seeing and doing is understanding.

A simple 10x10 grid makes a wonderful visual model.

I made 10 grids with some of the squares filled in, and two grids without. Download them free from Google Drive here.

I printed the eight with colored blocks on heavyweight cardstock and cut them apart. Next, I laid a piece of acetate (an overhead projection transparent plastic sheet) over the top and with a ruler and fine-tip Sharpie marker, drew the grid.

Then I turned the paper over and laid it on top of one of the colored grids. I put the other colored grids underneath the first and tucked them all under the clip on a small clipboard.

With the addition of some fine-tip dry-erase markers, I was ready to teach my son to add decimals.

When my son came home from school, I added a second number with dry-erase ink to the acetate page to complete the math problem. My son then colored the white squares to represent the second decimal number and looked at the total number of colored squares, writing the answer in the blank rectangle to finish the equation.

This really clicked with my son and after four problems, he didn't need the visual model.

Don't have an acetate sheet? No sweat! Either laminate the cards (blank or colored) or place them inside a clear glossy plastic sheet protector. Both work with dry-erase markers.

This great idea was inspired by the visual models in the book Dazzling Decimals. Check it out!

Numbers Froggy Hop Game

Our young son has counting down, but associating the numbers with the numerals is coming slower to him. To help practice, I made a fun game (perfect for a kinesthetic learner!).

It's short, sweet, and simple. And it gets children moving.

This game is geared toward one player, however, you could easily adapt it for siblings or classmates to play along.

What You Need

8-page PDF of the lily pads, flowers, and die (download it free here)

poster tack or tape (optional)

heavy weight cardstock (6 green, 2-4 white)

What to Do

Consider your child's proficiency with numbers. You may want to only play with numbers 0-5. If so, print the first three pages of the 8-page PDF onto green cardstock. Otherwise, if you're playing with the full set of numbers (0-10), print the first six pages onto green cardstock.

Print the pages of water lilies and die onto white cardstock. Again, think of your child's early math skills. If playing with numbers 0-5 print one die. If playing with 0-10, the child will either have to roll the die twice or you can create two dice to have the child roll. The latter is perfect for kids that still need to see the objects to count them. Older kids working on simple addition might enjoy the challenge of adding the two numbers in their head after rolling the same die twice.

Cut out the water lilies, lily pads, and die (or dice, if you printed two). Score the lines on the die with the backside of a butter knife, fold and glue into a cube shape. You can laminate the lily pads and flowers for added durability if desired.

How to Play

Set the lily pads on the floor in a random pattern.

Because we were doing this activity on hardwood floors and I didn't want my son to slip on the lily pads, I used poster tack to secure them in place. I also added a piece of poster tack to the back of each water lily flower.

Here's the play-by-play:

1. Child rolls the die (or dice).

2. Child counts the frog faces that land face up.

3. Child looks for the lily pad with that numeral.

4. Child jumps to the lily pad.

5. Child places a water lily on the lily pad to signal that he/she has already visited there.

6. Play continues until all lily pads have a flower or the child's attention wanes.

Variations: You can time the child to see how many different lily pads they jump to in 5-10 minutes. An opponent can then take their turn and try to beat the first player's score.

Want a great book to pair with this activity? Here's a few counting frog picture books we read. They're all perfect for this fun game.

Race Around the Clock Game

My almost nine year old son is great at time telling, probably better than I am at 38 years old. But I knew he'd have fun with this game.

It's simple and great practice telling time, counting, adding minutes, moving the hour and minute hands practice, etc.

What you Need

A clock for each player with movable hands 

A deck of playing cards (My son chose Star Wars Villain playing cards.)

Don't have a clock? Don't worry! Print mine free from Google Drive here and use a brad to attach the hands.

Objective

Beat your opponent around the clock first.

How to Play

Shuffle the cards and make sure each clock is set to 12:00.

Before you begin, decide if players will move the hands one hour or multiple hours. Playing the game to see who can move the hands from 12:00 to 4:00 first, enables players to move both the hour and minute hands more often, whereas moving the clock from 12:00 to 1:00 means they only move the hour hand once. You decide, based on attention span, as well as your child's attention span and proficiency.

The youngest player starts first and draws a card off the deck. The number on the card tells the player how many minutes to move their clock. Draw a 6, and the player moves their hand to 12:06, and announces their new time.

The next player does the same, drawing and moving the hands on their own clock.

If a player draws the following face cards, they earn the designated times.

Jack = 15 minutes

Queen = 20 minutes

King = 25 minutes

Ace = lose 30 minutes

Joker = lose a turn

If you've just started the game and a player draws an Ace (e.g. they have not moved past 12:30), they must move back to 12:00. Or if they have moved past 12:30, they must move back the full 30 minutes.

This game is incredibly simple and yet fun too. I hope you enjoy it as much as my son and I did!

Balls and Shapes Bullseye Game

Finding a game for multi-agers can be difficult. This game is extremely simple and can be customized to challenge kids at varying levels.

All you need is a piece of paper and pencil for scoring, painters tape, and a few small balls.

Set up

Using the painters tape, make three different shapes, one inside the other, on the floor. Ours were a triangle inside a rectangle, inside an octagon. Add a strip of tape for a starting line about five or six feet back.

Now grab your kids and some balls.

How We Played

I tore off a piece of paper from a notepad and wrote down the points for each shape.

My two sons took turns tossing three balls at the shapes bullseye. When it landed in a shape, they'd proclaim, "You got an octagon!" or "It landed in the triangle." This was great reinforcement of the shapes for my four year old!

My oldest son kept score (i.e. got some math practice in).

They played five rounds and then the score was totaled. The player with the most points wins.

Smart. Simple. Cheap. Fun. All you need are balls and a shapes bullseye made of tape!

This activity was inspired by What to Expect.

Printable Numbers Bowling

It's been awhile since I made a game for multiagers. Numbers Bowling is one, though. Preschoolers can practice counting and numeral association and older siblings can work on their division skills.

Here's how we played.

Print the alley lane. Grab 10 pennies (or buttons, or other small round do-dads). (Download the file free from Google Drive here.)

For preschoolers, print the dotted bowling pin cards. I made two copies. (Download the cards free here.)

For older kids, print the division problem bowling pin cards. One set is all you need. Although, if you want to amp up the challenge, print two copies of page 7 (the gutter ball cards). Download the division cards for free here.

That's it. You're ready to play. Well … you might want paper and pencil to keep score.

If using both decks, make sure the cards do not become mixed. Each player draws only from their deck.

To begin the game, Player 1 draws five cards. Preschoolers will look at one card at a time, count the dots on the pins, and find that numeral on the alley pins, covering it with a game piece.

Older kids must solve the division problems to "knock down" (i.e. cover up) the pins. The division deck contains gutter ball cards. There's two ways to play with these: 1) when a player has a gutter ball card, they get no pins/points that round, or 2) the gutter ball card just gives the player one less chance to knock down pins that round.

Players draw two sets of five cards (10 total) per round. The number of pins covered after the 10 cards are played is the player's score for that round.

Play as many rounds as you wish. Preschoolers have shorter attention spans, so if they're playing with siblings, keep the game short. Remember, learning stops when you lose their attention.

The player with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner.