2. Play math bingo.
3. Find fun ways to teach multiplication. Lucky for you, we have 22 fun, hands-on ways already gathered right here.
4. Turn regular board games into math games. Have students add, subtract, multiply and divide based on the the numbers on the cards, dice, and/or pieces.
5. Play War.
6. Go online. You can find lots of free math games online, and students will love this break in the day! Some of our favorites are Sushi Monster, Aplus Math, Prodigy, Mathville, Math Cats and Math Playground.
7. Make your own deck of cards. Then create your own math or word problems. By covering the entire card, you’re really just using the card as a template. You could also make cards out of poster board or recycled cereal boxes. But this method is great because they all fit nicely into the card box, making for easy and portable storage.
8. Make a recipe. When you have to follow a recipe—especially when you have to adjust the recipe—there’s a lot of math involved in making sure you get it right.
10. Download Sudoku and Kakuro puzzles.
11. Download math apps. A few we recommend include Mathmateer, Thinking Blocks Multiplication and Crazy Times Tables.
12. Create a math Concentration game. Here’s how: Have the math problem on one card and then the answer on another. So you might have 4 x 5 on one card, and then another card would have 20. Have the students find each answer for a correct match. You could even color-code the cards to make it easy to distinguish questions vs. answers.
13. Have a math scavenger hunt.
14. Weave math into other subjects.
15. Cut up the worksheet.
A piece of paper can be oh-so boring to kids. Try cutting up the math worksheet you were planning to give your students. Fold up the various problems and put them in a box. Then let each student draw one to work on. This is a really simple idea, but it can add just the variety you need.
