Maths is an essential part of a child’s learning development, and this key transferable skill is mandatory in schools up until at least GCSEs, although many more technical university degrees will also require an A-level in the subject. Regardless of whether a child loves or hates it, they will have to complete the qualifications in maths to at least a basic level.
If your child finds it difficult to work with numbers or if it doesn’t come as naturally to them as some, don’t despair, as there’s plenty that you as parents can do at home to improve their performance in the classroom. We’ve created a list of some of the best, mathematical games that are as fun and creative as they are educational that can benefit children from every learning type. The list includes games that are suitable for younger infants along with those that can be played and enjoyed throughout their time at our private school in Devon, and beyond.
1. Shopping Games
It’s well known that children like to imitate adult activities such as ‘doctors and nurses’, talking on the phone, looking after dolls as if they are their own children and shopping. There is an array of different ways you can make these mathematical. Take shopping, for example, games can range from counting out the amount of a certain product to practise basic counting, to finding all the ingredients required for a specific recipe and encouraging the children to find out the price for each item and add them all together for a total cost. The joys of this game are that it can be easily adjusted depending on the skill level of the child, and makes an everyday example they are familiar with and understand which will help them to make sense of the numbers.
2. Monopoly
Hours are spent on rainy weekends in front of the Monopoly. There’s laughter, there are tears and there are all sorts of disputes, but ultimately this game provides an afternoon of entertainment with friends and family. The rules of the game require every participant to have a basic understanding of money and its value, along with markets, properties and investments. Younger children who need a little more help can join an adult team and add up the numbers on the dice or count out each move, while older children can practise strategy.
3. Guess My Number
Much like I-Spy, this word game takes on a numerical twist, providing the perfect car journey entertainment that will soon make those long, stressful trips fly by whilst also practising some basic arithmetic skills. One player must think of a number, whilst the other participants ask questions to narrow down the possibilities until they guess the correct answer. Questions can vary in difficulty depending on the abilities of those playing, for example, for younger children you might ask ‘Is it an odd number?’ whereas older children can differentiate between prime numbers and more complex divisions.
4. Fizz Buzz
Another spoken maths game that can be played virtually anywhere, Fizz Buzz entails counting aloud but replacing multiples of three, and any number with three in it, with the word Fizz. Similarly, multiples of five, and any number with five in it, are replaced with the word ‘Buzz’. If it gets to someone’s go and the number in question includes both threes and fives, the player must state ‘Fizzbuzz’. As soon as a player makes a mistake, or says the next sequential number, as opposed to fizz or buzz, it means you have to start again from zero. See how far you can get as a family, or for larger groups, split into teams to see who can get the furthest.
5. 101 and Out
All you need for this game is some dice, and as the name implies, the objective is to score as close to 101 points as possible without going over. Take it in turns to roll the dice and either multiply the amount shown by 10 or stick with the original amount and keep track of your scores until the first persons gets to 101. This game will quickly turn competitive, and children will need to strategise their techniques and demonstrate basic multiplication and adding up in order to play.
6. Maths Riddles
Here are some math riddles for you and your kids to try out! You can find the answers at the bottom of the article.
- How can you add eight 8s to get the number 1,000?
- Two fathers and two sons sat down to eat eggs for breakfast. They ate exactly three eggs, each person had an egg. Explain how.
- A merchant can place eight large boxes or ten small boxes into a carton for shipping. In one shipment, he sent a total of 96 boxes. If there are more large boxes than small boxes, how many cartons did he ship?
- If you buy a cockerel for the purpose of laying eggs and you expect to get three eggs each day for breakfast, how many eggs will you have after three weeks?
- If you multiply this number by any number the answer will always be zero. What number is it?
- When Miguel was 6 years old, his little sister, Leila, was half his age. If Miguel is 40 years old today, how old is Leila?
7. Count Down
Inspired by the TV show, this game can be played with a number of different players.
You’ll need 4 large-number cards, these will have ‘25’, ‘50’, ‘75’ and ‘100’ on them and two sets of cards with the numbers 1-10 on them.
How to Play:
Step 1 – Mix up the large-number cards and place the cards face down.
Step 2 – Mix up the 1-10 cards and place them in a pile face down.
Step 3 – Players can then take it in turns to select either a large number card or 1-10 card until there are 6 cards laid out together.
Step 4 – By rolling a die, a 3-digit number will need to be generated.
Step 5 – The number generated will then need to be made by using any of the 6 selected numbers.
Step 6 – Each card can only be used once. The winner will be the player who is the first to reach the total, or closest to the total after an allotted time.
For a younger group of children, you can tailor the number to a 2-digit total and choose the card numbers carefully.
8. Bingo
Bingo is a wonderful game that can be enjoyed by any and all ages! This game of bingo takes on a multiplication twist, a great way to encourage confidence and your children’s maths skills.
To play this you will need a piece of paper on which to write numbers.
How to Play:
Step 1 – All players must write down 5 numbers. Each of the five numbers will be a multiplication of a given times table.
Step 2 – Either someone can call out multiplication questions, or the players can take it in turns to take a card from a shuffled pile of cards that will have the multiplication questions written on.
Step 3 – If a player has the answer on their bingo board, they can then cross it out. The first to cross out all the numbers wins.
9. Wild Jack
This fast-paced game requires a pack of cards. The aim of this game is to reach a target number.
To make the target number you will need to shuffle the pack and turn over the top two cards. If the chosen cards are either a 10 or jack, place them at the bottom of the pack and choose two more.
These numbers will create the target number, for example, 3 of diamonds and 4 of spades will create 34. Depending on the age of the child you can add more cards to increase the target number.
How to Play:
Step 1 – All picture cards apart from the jack will need to be removed from the deck. Jacks are ‘wild cards’ and will be used to represent any number between 1-10.
Step 2 – The cards will be dealt so that the players will have five each. The players can then use their cards to create an equation to reach the target number. If all cards are used the player will receive ten points if fewer cards are used the player will receive 8 points.
10. Guess the Rule
Rather than guessing the number, players instead have to guess the rule.
The players will give a number, and the selected person will then apply their rule to the number and tell the players the new number.
For example, if the number is 3 and the rule is the four times table, the new number will be 12. This game can be tailored to the child’s academic age by using equations etc.
11. Five to One
This will test your child’s verbalisation and problem-solving skills.
You will need cards with maths clues written on them. The cards will have five clues that point towards a single answer. The first clue will be the vaguest, each clue will decrease in difficulty.
How to Play:
Step 1 – The first player will choose a card and will read out the clue.
Step 2 – Player two can choose to give an answer. If they get it right, they will win their points according to the clue; the first clue equals five, the second clue will score 4 and so on. If the player gets the answer wrong, they will score zero.
Step 3 – If they choose not to guess the answer, they can pass and hear the next clue until they are confident with their answer.
These are just some ideas for quick and easy maths-related games that might help to improve a child’s numerical confidence in the classroom. With younger children, particularly, basic skills such as addition, subtraction and multiplication will help them with a variety of mathematical challenges they’ll face in school, and the more you can practise with fun and engaging games, the better.
Maths Riddles Answers
- 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000
- A grandfather, his son and his grandson. The son of the grandfather is both a father and son.
- 11 cartons total. 7 large boxes (7 x 8 = 56 boxes) 4 small boxes (4 x 10 = 40 boxes. 11 total cartons and 96 boxes.
- Cockerels can’t lay eggs.
- 0
- She is 37 years old.
