Number Games (F-2)

5 Moves to 100

Concepts covered: Place Value and addition

Equipment: Dice (6 sided), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What are you hoping to roll?”; “How did you work that out?”

Thanks to Rob Vingerhoets for teaching me to play this game.

109

Concepts covered: Place Value and addition

Equipment: Dice (6 sided), paper and pens, counters

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What are you hoping to roll?”; “How did you work that out?”

Thanks to Paul Swan for teaching me to play this game.

Domino Golf

Concepts covered: Variety of concepts (e.g. even/odd, addition, greater than/less than etc.)

Equipment: Set of dominoes, paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What are some examples of good questions to ask? Why?”;  “What are some examples of not so great questions to ask? Why?”   

Double Double Cross

Concepts covered: Place Value

Equipment: Dice (6 sided), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What are you hoping to roll?”; “Why did you cross this 5 out instead of that 5?”; “What would you do differently next time you play this game?”

Thanks to Paul Swan for creating this game.

GET OUT OF MY HOUSE 2.0

Concepts covered: Sequencing numbers

Equipment: Deck of playing cards, counters/tokens, paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What’s the other number you can place your counter on?”  (Students might initially only focus on what number comes after their card and neglect to consider what comes before.); “Is it a good idea to place lots of tokens on the one square?  Why/why not?”; “What would you do differently next time you played?”

Shout-out to Kerri Smith for providing ideas for this game.

Greater Than

Concepts covered: Place value, comparing/ordering numbers

Equipment: 0-9 dice (3 dice for 3 digit numbers, 4 dice for 4 digit numbers etc.), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What numbers can you make?”;  “Why did you choose to make ___?”;  “Why did you choose to place __ in that particular row?”; “What are you hoping to roll?  Why?”;  “What would you do differently next time you play?”

Shout-out to Paul Swan for teaching me this game. 

In The Club

Concepts covered: Variety of concepts (e.g. even/odd, square numbers, prime numbers, greater than/less than etc.)

Equipment: Paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What do you notice about all the numbers that are in the club?”; Why did you choose ___ as your next guess? What were you thinking?” 

Just Gridding

Concepts covered: Place Value and addition

Equipment: Dice (10 sided), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What are you hoping to roll?”; “How did you work that out?”; “What would you do differently the next time you played?”

Thanks to Rob Vingerhoets for teaching me to play this game.

Mastermind

Concepts covered: Place value

Equipment: Paper and pens…that’s it!

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Can you read that number?”; “How much is the 8 worth now?”; “Which is the largest/smallest number on our board?  How do you know?”; “How did you know the 7 went in the tens?”; “What would you do differently next time you play?”

Shout-out to Rob Vingerhoets for teaching me this game. 

Mathematical Unicorns

Concepts covered: Variety of concepts (e.g. even/odd, square numbers, prime numbers, greater than/less than etc.)

Equipment: Paper and pens, deck of cards

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Why did you choose to play that card?”;  “Is there another reason for the card you just played?”; “What would you do differently the next time that you played?”

Shout-out to Jen Bowden for providing the idea that helped us to create this game.

Maths Grid

Concepts covered: Variety of concepts/vocab (e.g. even/odd, square numbers, prime numbers, greater than/less than etc.)

Equipment: paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Why did you choose to write ___?”;  “What other numbers could you written in that spot?” 

Number Snake

Concepts covered: Ordering numbers, counting

Equipment: Deck of cards

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Can you read that number?”; “Why did you place the __ card there?”; “What card would go before the __?” (Or after, or in between); “What card are you hoping to get next?”

One Minute Challenge

Concepts covered: Counting

Equipment: Ball, stopwatch

Good questions to ask while playing:  “How many catches do you think you will get the next time we play?”; “What makes you think that?”; “Would it be more than less than 30? How do you know”

Order, Order

Concepts covered: Sequencing numbers

Equipment: Deck of cards

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Can you read that number?”; “Why did you choose to place that card next?”; “What card would go before/after the __?”

Shout-out to Paul Swan for creating this game. 

Part-Whole Triangles

Concepts covered: Addition, subtraction, part-part-whole

Equipment: deck of cards

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Why did you set your triangle up like that?”;  “What card are you hoping for?”;  “What about if you rearranged your cards/triangle?”;  “Do you have to have the __ card at the top?  What are your other options?”;  “Can you check if I have won?”

Shout-out to James Russo for inventing this game (www.surfmaths.com).

Place Value Knockout 2.0

Concepts covered: Place value, ordering numbers, chance/probability

Equipment: six-sided dice (3 dice for 3 digit numbers, 4 dice for 4 digit numbers etc.), counters/tokens, paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What numbers can you make?”; “Why did you choose to make ___?”; “What are you hoping to roll?  Why?” (This is especially good to use if you get students to roll the dice one at a time); “What would you do differently next time you play?”

Shout-out to Paul Swan for teaching me this game.

Place Value Pebbles

Concepts covered: Place value, ordering numbers, chance/probability

Equipment: 2 x 0-9 dice (or deck of playing cards), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What numbers can you make?”; “How do you know that goes there?”; “What numbers might go between these  two pebbles?”; “What are you hoping to roll?  Why?” (This is especially good to use if you get students to roll the dice one at a time); “What would you do differently next time you play?”

Skip Counting Something

Concepts covered: Skip counting, patterns/algebra

Equipment: Deck of cards

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Why did you choose to make your middle number ___?”;  “What are you trying to skip-count by?”; “What card/s are you hoping to pick-up?”; “What would you do differently next time you play?”

Sleeping Stormtroopers

Concepts covered: Addition (part-part-whole concept)

Equipment: collection of storm troopers (or some other substitute), plastic cup

Good questions to ask while playing:  “How did you know there were _ stormtroopers asleep?”; “Can you explain how you worked that out?”

Shout-out to Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling for providing the inspiration for this game.

Squeeze

Concepts covered: Place value, ordering numbers and probability

Equipment: six-sided dice (3 dice for 3 digit numbers, 4 dice for 4 digit numbers etc.), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What numbers can you make?”;  “Why did you choose to make ___?”;  “What are you hoping to roll?  Why?” (This is especially good to use if you get students to roll the dice one at a time);  “What would you do differently next time you play?”

Shout-out to Paul Swan for teaching me this game. 

Swap

Concepts covered: Ordering numbers

Equipment: Deck of cards

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Why did you choose to swap that card?”; “What card would go before/after the __?”

Shout-out to Paul Swan for creating this game. 

Tenzi

Concepts covered: Numeral recognition, counting

Equipment: Dice (ten-sided work best)

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Can you read that number?”; “How many __s did you roll?”

Tumbling Towers

Concepts covered: Place value

Equipment: 0-9 dice (or deck of playing cards), paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “What numbers can you make?”; “Why did you decide to make __ instead of ?”; “Why did you decide to place __ there?”; “What card are you hoping to turn over?  Why?” (This is especially good to use if you get students to turn over one card at a time when they have one remaining spot on their tower)

Shout-out to Andrew Lorimer-Derham (Thinksquare) for creating this game.

Which Is Bigger?

Concepts covered: Counting, numeral recognition, comparing

Equipment: Counters/tokens, playing cards, tens frame

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Which number do you think is bigger?”; “How could you check?”

Which One Doesn’t Belong

Concepts covered: Variety of concepts (e.g. even/odd, square numbers, prime numbers, greater than/less than etc.)

Equipment: Paper and pens

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Why did you choose ___?”;  “Is there another reason why ___ might not belong?”

Which One Doesn’t Belong 2.0

Concepts covered: Variety of concepts (e.g. even/odd, square numbers, prime numbers, greater than/less than etc.)

Equipment: Paper and pens, deck of cards, six-sided dice

Good questions to ask while playing:  “Is there another reason why ___ might not belong?”

Shout-out to Tricia Minter for helping us to create this game.