Fun Quick Math Counting Game

Sometimes in your homeschool math lessons you need a quick easy game to get the point across.  This was part of our homeschool Christmas lessons, but that’s only because I had Christmas stickers.  It could just as easily have been dogs, I have lots of dog stickers.

easy math counting game

 

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Materials Needed for math counting game:

quick math game

rewards stickers* (these work well for this math game because they are small), dice* (this set is overkill, but there are many activities you can do with dice, and these are just awesome), grid sheet of some sort(graph paper works great,  I used a blank table I made in word)

 

How to play this quick math counting game:

Each person rolls the dice and adds that number of stickers to their page.  The first person to fill up their sheet wins.  It’s that easy.

 

easy math game for many levels

Adapting the math counting game for different ages:

First off if you don’t know it, dice comes in different sizes than just six-sided.

Common types of dice you can get: 4-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, 20-sided. The dice I linked to on Amazon has all of these types.

There is also a 100 sided dice, but truthfully it’s a little hard to read.  If you want to work in numbers up to 100 I’d get two 10-sided dice and designate one to be 10s and the other 1s.  There are also 10-sided dice sold that are printed with 10s already on it.  You can also buy large dice.  I have a couple of large 10 sided dice and some large 6 sided dice.

Now, what does that mean for adapting it?  Well, my kids are still working on counting, so as they got more comfortable I would move them up from a 6 sided dice to one that goes higher.

If your child is working on additon have them roll two dice or several.  Next time I’m probably going to dig up the big 10 sided and use that one because the boys are ready for that.

Another thing you can get is a 6-sided dice that has different numbers printed on it.  From my teaching days I have a six sided dice that has 7-12 on it, and I think I also bought math operations dice* (+, -, x, hmmm my keyboard doesn’t have a division sign on it).  You can combine this with the dice I mentioned at the beginning of the post and create complicated math problems.

For the student working on addition and subtraction, roll two 10-sided dice and the addition/subtraction dice.  Another student might be working on multiplication and division and you use that dice.

What about the middle schooler?  In that case have them roll a handful of dice with operations dice included.  Then they can work on order of operations (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction).

 

Obviously, as you are working with more complex operations, you’ll be increasing the number of boxes to fill in.

 

Looking for more math ideas?  Check out my math Pinterest board.


Comments

9 responses to “Fun Quick Math Counting Game”

  1. Knowing that you are a game fanatic, I am not surprised that you have all those obscure dices. They are popular with D&D people, and we have them as well. It's a clever idea to use them for counting games.

  2. JDaniel4's Mom Avatar
    JDaniel4’s Mom

    What a fun game! Thanks for stopping by JDaniel4's Mom.

  3. Great idea! I love it when people find educational uses for dice. I have twin pre-schoolers myself, so I can relate to your daily adventures. If you like games, please visit my site some time for more fun ones to play. I'd suggest looking at the page on Dice Games for Kids. There's a game called “Old McDonald” that may be fun for your kids too.

  4. An Almost Unschooling Mom Avatar
    An Almost Unschooling Mom

    I like the sticker idea – we've played similar games, just keeping a running total to 100, or so – but the little ones would probably like it more with stickers.

  5. My Boaz's Ruth Avatar
    My Boaz’s Ruth

    You're a game person?

    I was just about to come here and say that most gamers use two 10-dice instead of the hundreds. They call them percentile dice. (or did back when I was into gaming)

  6. I love any game that makes learning hands-on and fun. Way to go!

  7. I should do this with Anna. It’s right up her alley.

    1. She’s right at the age I did this with my kiddos.

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