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Math You Can Play Combo: Math You Can Play
Math You Can Play Combo: Math You Can Play
Math You Can Play Combo: Math You Can Play
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Math You Can Play Combo: Math You Can Play

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Math Your Kids WANT to Do.

You'll love these math games because they give your child a strong foundation for mathematical success.

By playing these games, you strengthen your child's intuitive understanding of numbers and build problem-solving strategies. Mastering a math game can be hard work. But kids do it willingly because it's fun.

Math You Can Play Combo features two books in one, with 42 kid-tested games that offer a variety of challenges for preschool and school-age learners. Chapters include:

•    Early Counting: Practice subitizing — recognizing small numbers of items at a glance—and learn the number symbols.

•    Childhood Classics: Traditional folk games invite the whole family to enjoy playing with math.

•    Number Bonds: Build a mental picture of the relationships between numbers as you begin to explore addition.

•    Numbers to One Hundred: Develop mental math skills for working with larger numbers. Practice using place value, addition, and subtraction.

•    Mixed Operations: Give mental muscles a workout with games that require number skills and logical thinking.

•    Logic and Probability: Logic games sharpen inductive and deductive thinking skills, while games of chance build an intuition for probability.

Math games prevent math anxiety. Games pump up your child's mental muscle, reduce the fear of failure, and generate a positive attitude toward mathematics.

Parents can use these games to enjoy quality time with your children. Classroom teachers like them as warm-ups and learning center activities or for a relaxing review day at the end of a term. If you are a tutor or homeschooler, make games a regular feature in your lesson plans to build your students' math skills.

So what are you waiting for? Clear off a table, grab a deck of cards, and let's play some math!

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 19, 2015
ISBN9781892083272
Math You Can Play Combo: Math You Can Play

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    Book preview

    Math You Can Play Combo - Denise Gaskins

    Math You Can Play Series

    Combined Volume: Two Books in One

    Math You Can Play Combo

    Number Games for Young Learners

    Counting & Number Bonds

    Addition & Subtraction

    Denise Gaskins

    Copyright © 2015 Denise Gaskins

    Ebook Edition 1.31

    All rights reserved.

    Tabletop Academy Press

    tabletopacademy.net

    Readers Love Denise’s Playful Math Books

    "These games are great for using and practicing maths skills in a context in which there is some real motivation to do so. I love how they provide opportunities to explore a wide variety of approaches, including number bonds and logical thinking.

    My children are always pleased, even excited, when I suggest one of these games. Sometimes they even ask to play them unprompted!

    —Miranda Jubb, online reader review

    It revolutionized our homeschool this year.

    —Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley, My-Little-Poppies.com

    "I have played several of these games with my son, and each one was met with delight on his part and the sharing of delightful conversation about numbers and thinking between us.

    "I love what Gaskins has to say about working with your children as opposed to simply assigning them work to do. This sums up the philosophy that I try to keep forefront in our home.

    Highly, highly recommended.

    —Amy, Hope Is the Word blog

    Wonderful games for elementary students. The author includes a link for printable game boards, ensuring that I don't spend more time making games than playing them. Variations for each game = SO many ways to explore numbers. You will love this book.

    —Marisa, online reader review

    Free Playful Math Newsletter

    Want to help your kids learn math? Join my free newsletter for monthly (well, most months) activity ideas. And you’ll be among the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

    tabletopacademy.net/mathnews

    Contents

    Title Page

    Sample Game: Nine Cards

    Sample Game: Tiguous

    Preface to the Math You Can Play Series

    Section I: A Strategy for Learning

    Introduction: How to Use This Book

    Chapter 1: Gather Your Game Supplies

    Section II: Counting & Number Bond Games

    Chapter 2: Early Counting

    Chapter 3: Childhood Classics

    Chapter 4: Number Bonds

    Chapter 5: Bigger Numbers

    Section III: Addition & Subtraction Games

    Chapter 6: Tens and Teens

    Chapter 7: Numbers to One Hundred

    Chapter 8: Mixed Operations

    Chapter 9: Logic and Probability

    Section IV: Playing to Learn Math

    Chapter 10: Diagnosis: Workbook Syndrome

    Conclusion: Master the Math Facts

    Section V: Resources and References

    About the Author

    Game-Playing Basics, From Set-Up to Endgame

    A Few of My Favorite Resources

    Quotes and Reference Links

    Copyright and Credits

    Sample Game: Nine Cards

    Math Concepts: addition, number bonds for ten.

    Players: two or more.

    Equipment: one deck of math cards.

    How to Play

    The first player shuffles the deck and then turns up the top nine cards, placing them face up in a 3 × 3 array: three rows with three cards in each row. The player captures (removes and keeps) any tens and any pairs of cards that sum to ten, then passes the deck to the next player.

    Each player in turn deals out enough cards to fill in the empty spots in the array, captures any tens and number bonds, and passes the deck on.

    The game ends when the deck is gone or when there are not enough cards left to fill in the holes in the array. Whoever has collected the most cards wins the game.

    [Picture below] Claim the ten and the pairs of cards that add up to ten. Do not take longer sums, like 5 + 2 + 3.

    Variation

    Concentration (Memory): Lay all the cards out face down on the table in a single layer with no overlaps. On your turn, flip two cards up. If you find a ten or a number bond, take it. If not, leave the cards showing long enough that all the players can see what they are. Then turn them face down before the next player’s turn.

    History

    Tens Concentration has always been one of my favorite math games. The face-up Nine Cards version comes from Constance Kamii’s Young Children Continue to Reinvent Arithmetic.

    Sample Game: Tiguous

    Math Concepts: addition, subtraction, multistep calculation.

    Players: two or more.

    Equipment: game board, three six-sided dice, pencil or marker(s), scratch paper for keeping score.

    [Picture below] Which square would you mark?

    Set-Up

    You can print the Tiguous game board from the Number Game Printables Pack, download the Contig, Jr. game from Terry Kawas’s MathWire website, or have your children make their own game board.

    tabletopacademy.net/free-printables

    mathwire.com/games/contigjr.pdf

    If students make their own board, they can arrange the numbers however they like:

    Draw a 6 × 6 grid of squares, each big enough for a two-digit number.

    The first player writes the number one in any square. The next chooses a square for the number two. Players take turns writing the numbers 118 anywhere they wish, one number per square.

    After eighteen, the next player goes back to one, and the turns continue until the board is full.

    How to Play

    On your turn, roll all three dice. If any die falls off the table or lands at a slant, all three dice must be rolled again. Do not touch the dice with your hands after they are rolled, though you may use a pencil or marker to scoot them next to each other.

    Add or subtract these three numbers in a two-step equation that equals the number in any unmarked square on the game board. Think of as many possible combinations as you can, in order to choose the highest-scoring square. Mark your answer on the game board with a large X. At the same time, say out loud how you calculated the number.

    You score 1 point for the square you marked, plus 1 point for each already-marked square that is touching (contiguous to) any side or corner of your number’s square. The maximum score for any turn is 9 points. If all the numbers you can make have already been marked, you score a zero—but if anyone else can find a valid calculation using your dice, that player may challenge you, mark the square, and steal those points.

    If another player thinks you made an arithmetic mistake, that person may challenge your answer before the next player rolls the dice. If your answer was wrong, the challenger takes the points you would have won, and you score zero. If your calculation is correct, you get one bonus point for having withstood the challenge.

    Play until each player has had ten turns, or five turns each for three or more players. Whoever has the highest total score wins the game.

    Variations

    The most common variation I have seen is not to score a point for the marked square. Just score 1 point for each contiguous square that was previously marked, which makes the maximum possible score per turn only 8 points. I strongly prefer the scoring system above, which awards at least 1 point for any valid calculation.

    Tiguous-Tac-Toe: Two players mark numbers with X and O, and the first player to get three squares in a row wins. Rows may be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. For a longer game, try to get four or five in a row.

    Multiplayer Extended Game: Keep playing until almost all the numbers are marked. Any player who gets a zero three turns in a row drops out of the game. When the last player gets a third strike, the game is over. There is no bonus for the last player, other than the extra turn(s).

    Tournament Rules: Two players per game board. Set a timer, giving each player only thirty seconds for each turn. Think fast! If you do not mark a square within the thirty seconds, your score is zero for that turn. Scores of zero may not be challenged in tournament play, but opponents may challenge arithmetic errors. After each player has ten turns, add up the players’ scores for that round. Then trade partners, get a new game board, and play another round. After three rounds, award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons to the top scorers in each age group/grade level.

    History

    Tiguous is a simplified version of F. W. Broadbent’s game Contig, which is played on a larger board and allows the use of multiplication and division. I took the name from an even simpler version by Constance Kamii.

    For as long as I can remember, our local homeschool group has held a series of Contig practices every spring. Then we host a school tournament, and the top two players in each grade level proceed to a regional tournament against other public and private school teams.

    Preface to the Math You Can Play Series

    The playful, puzzle-solving side of math has always attracted me. In elementary school, calculations were a tedious chore, but word problems provided the opportunity to try out my deductive powers. High school algebra and geometry were exercises in logical reasoning, and college physics was one story problem after another—great fun!

    As my children grew, I wanted to share this sort of mathematical play with them, but the mundane busyness of everyday life kept pushing aside my good intentions. Determined to make it happen, I found a way to defeat procrastination: invite friends to bring their kids over for a math playdate. We grappled with problems, solved puzzles, and shared games. Skeptical at first, the kids soon looked forward to math club. When that gang grew up and moved on, their younger siblings came to play, and others after them. Sometimes we met weekly, sometimes monthly or just off and on. At our house, at the library, in the park — more than twenty years of playing math with kids.

    Now I’ve gathered our favorite math club games into these Math You Can Play books. They are simple to learn, easy to set up, and quick to play, so even the busiest parents can build their children’s mental math skills and promote logical thinking.

    I hope you enjoy these games as much as we have. If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.

    —Denise Gaskins

    LetsPlayMath@gmail.com

    Section I

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