Math can be a tricky subject. While some kiddos love it, the general consensus about math is that it is "not fun!" So today, to squash that misconception, we've come up with a selection of our favorite math activities that will transform math from not fun to. . . SUPER FUN!
Like DIY board games that incorporate a little long division and a lot of laughs. . .
. . . or beautiful math tools that let you play with shapes, color, and fraction robots!!. . .
. . . to handmade math scrabble boards. . .
. . . and fraction flags. . .
. . . that look quite nice on delicious math cake!
Making Math Fun: Free Activities and Downloads!
1. Love playing Candy Land? We bet you'll love Math Land too! This simple DIY math board game is quick to make and bound to take a lot of the frustration out of learning basic math skills. Concepts start small and can become more complex as your little mathematicians gain confidence.
2. Scrabble more your speed? Try your hand at this homemade Math Scrabble game set. Not only can this activity incorporate a hike (to find the branches for the game pieces), it's also a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon or a Saturday morning. Fun to make and fun to play!
3. We love this handmade back to school satchel filled with fun flash cards that teach kids multiplication tables while they make them!
4. Math never tasted this sweet. In this activity kiddos have fun baking a cake and using fractions. More of a cookie fan than a cake fan? No problem, we've got a math activity for that too.
5. And finally, prefer your games to be of the card deck variety? You're in luck! We made these printable cards to play a game of Math Go Fish and more:
To make the game simply click on the image above for a full size printable download. Drag the image to your desktop or print from the page directly. Each page will print templates for 4 playing cards.
To start off, use the four basic functions of math as your starting point (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Make those functions into the different card suits by drawing pictures of their symbols in the center of the blank side of the cards numbering them like a regular card set up to the number 13 (we used the numbers 11,12, and 13 instead of Jack, Queen, and King). You would then have four groups of 13 cards, with cards like a "4 of division" or a "6 of subtraction".
Use these cards to play a standard game of go fish like you would with any other card deck.
Then, to make the game even more educational and fun add math trivia to each card and grant players extra points for answering the trivia correctly. Super bonus round? Allow players to "steal" each others card pairs when a wild card function is pulled by doing what is on the card to the completely pairs (multiplying/dividing/adding/subtracting the value of card pairs etc.)
Additional Resources
Try out these beautiful and useful tools for math play:
A set of math blocks that you can use to make a math robot!
A drawing compass for making pretty pictures an learning about geometry
Oh how we love this book: The Secrets of Mental Math
~ Sarah
*Last time in Crafts and Activities: For the Love of Words
