Welcome to my page of 'elementary math games' - full of games
for teaching elementary math! elementary school students will love them
and. This is why I've put this site online - so teachers and parents
like you will have plenty of ideas for math games to make math fun for
the kids you care for.
When I was a kid I loved to play with math. My mom and dad
encouraged this, providing me with many math games and math toys, which
gave me a deep intuitive sense of important math concepts. Number,
shape, size, arithmetic, logic, and much more. After all, kids learn best by playing, don't they?
Why should your kids miss out? They shouldn't! Your children
(if you are a parent) or pupils (if you are a teacher) should have the
same opportunity that I did to have math ingrained in them through the
fun that playing with these elementary math games can provide! If you
agree with this, then you've found the right page. Read on. The
children in your care will love you for it.
Your kids need not miss out! I believe your children (if you
are a parent) or pupils (if you are a teacher) should have the same
opportunity that I did, so math becomes ingrained in them through fun
and play! If you agree, and you'd like to give them that opportunity,
you've found the right page. What follows below is a list of all the
math games on this site that are suitable for elementary school kids.
By the way, it's on my kindergarten math games page that I list those games that are suitable for younger children.
Oh, and if you find the list below too long, check out these lists of games for specific grade levels...
And, without further ado, the list of games...!
The 1 to 9 game is a game where players have to collect three numbers that add up to 15. It will help teach arithmetic to younger kids. For older kids, it will help them with strategic and logical thinking. The game's page shows how to vary the rules to make it suitable for any elementary school grade.
This
Set Of Tiles can be used to help teach kids how to add and subtract numbers of more than one digit. Good for, say, first to third graders, or anyone who just doesn't 'get' the idea of carrying and borrowing 1's.
Do you have a group of kindy kids struggling to remember addition sums up to 10? Try this
math board game on them. You'll need to do some printing and cutting first, and find a die (dice) and some playing pieces.
Not exactly a game, but certainly a useful tool for teaching kids addition and subtraction facts - either actively through memory exercises, or passively through osmosis! These
addition and subtraction tables and charts are free, and ready for you to print and use.
One of these
addition and subtraction worksheets is especially designed as a learning tool, not just a revision exercise. The sums are ordered so that the child working through them will discover for themselves the relationship between addition and subtraction, and other important points. There are some plain vanilla revision worksheets too!
This Addition Trick seemed like magic when my uncle first showed it to me. I was 11 years old, I think. Here I explain the trick so you can amaze the 11-year-olds in your life.
An
Advent Calendar, besides being a great Christmas tradition, helps teach younger kids counting and calendars in a fun, exciting way. Download and print this free advent calendar, make up up with a trimmer and glue, and enjoy the Christmas countdown with your child.
This
Angle Geometry Quiz tests your knowledge of a few facts relating to angles. Race against the clock as you prove your skills! Topics covered include the interior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals, angles near parallel lines, lines meeting at a point and others.
This is one of two math tricks on this site that let you guess someone's birthday after a sequence of mathematical operations.
The Arithmetic Math Game is a good game for a few players, needing good arithmetic skills to compete well. It's more complex though, so if your kids are still young, save it for later.
In one famous puzzle, you must
make as many numbers as you can using only the given four digits and the basic arithmetic operations. I've worked out which sets of four digits make this puzzle the most interesting, and provided worksheets on this page. Good for grades four and up.
Mathteroids is an
Asteroid Shooting Game that will help kids with their times tables. As your rocket zips through space, you must be careful to only shoot multiples of the given number - or face dire consequences!
To win this
big numbers contest, your kids just need to think of the biggest number they possibly can - bigger than anyone else's! This contest closed on October 20, 2008, but the page shows you how you can organize a min-contest within a class or a school.
In the
Upside-Down Calculator Word Game, kid will learn how to make their calculator talk! Then they can have hours of fun as they prepare messages for their friends encoded as arithmetic sums.
Try the
Fractions Card Game if you have children who need to practice adding and subtracting fractions. There's a set of playing cards to print and cut out, and suggestions for at least three games you can play with them. In one, the aim is to find groups of cards that add up to one, so kids will pick up skills in addition and subtraction of fractions, as well as reducing fractions, as they pit their wits against one another.
In
This Challenging Math Puzzle you have to place the numbers one through eight in a grid, such that no two neighboring squares have consecutive numbers. It's possible to solve, but it can be quite tough. I've seen 4th graders baffle away for weeks at this puzzle, but its 5th grade and 6th grade kids who seem to have a more realistic chance to solve it. Enjoy!
In the
Chess Jigsaw Puzzle, a chessboard has been broken into eight pieces - can you join them back together again? Can your child?
In a
Cryptarithm puzzle, each digit of an arithmetic sum has been replaced with a letter of the alphabet. The aim of the puzzle is to restore the original sum. These puzzles are sometimes called
alphametics or
crypt-arithmetics. You can get many more such puzzles from the resources available at
www.cryptarithmania.com.
The
Dot Joining Game is not a join-the-dots puzzle, but a two-player paper-and-pencil game. I've described the game, and also described how you can help your fourth, fifth and sixth graders to unlock the hidden mathematical patterns behind the game.
The
Easter Date Worksheets allow a child to compute the date of Easter Sunday in any year at all, with no math more complex than long division. Alternatively, try younger kids on the simpler versions of the worksheets - fewer calculations, smaller numbers, but they only work in certain centuries.
This
free "fours" contestclosed on the 20th of October, 2009. The idea was to make as many numbers as possible using the digit '4' (as many times as you like) and the operations plus, minus, divide and times. Soon I'll upload the contest results, and ideas for how you can run a contest like this one in your own classroom.
The six different
Fractions Quizzes on this site are like an online version of
Flashcard Stepping Stones. Choose your fractions topic, then choose which of 3 characters (a pegasus, a clownfish or a rocket) you will help! Then, answer a series of fractions questions until you reach the goal. The further they progress, the more challenging the questions become!
Try
Fish Plus One for kids who need to practice their basic addition skills. This game can be played with a normal pack of cards, once the picture cards have been removed. Once your kids get good at Fish Plus One, move them on to Fish Plus Two, Fish Plus Three, and finally Fish Plus Plus!
Fizz Buzz is a well-known game. It gives practice identifying multiples of 5 and 7. It's a great math game for kids, and a hilarious ice-breaker for adults too! At the web page you'll find a "fizz-buzziness calculator" that will determine what a player should say for any given number.
Flashcard Stepping Stones is a simple game, quick to set up, and helps make flashcards more enjoyable. Be as theatrical as possible, and create an imaginary playful world for your child, as he or she recalls the math facts they need to rescue the princess, or destroy the evil robot, or arrive at adventureland!
Foldable number sheets are a tool for helping younger kids "get" three- or four-digit numbers. Write the number in the blank squares, and unfold it to see its meaning. Or write out the meaning, and fold it up to see the number.
Print out and make this set of
Fractions Dominoes. It's a fractions activity designed to help kids recognise how much of a circle each fraction represents. Unlike some other math games, winning is not just about being better at math - but the game nonetheless provides great learning opportunities.
This
Fraction Simplifying Puzzle challenges kids to simplify a collection of fractions and observe which ones can and can not be simplified. There are variants of the puzzle that make it suitable for kids just learning fractions, all the way up to lower high school.
MathGolf is played on the computer, and the high scores for each month are recorded
on the website. However, as the
tips for parents and
teachers explains, your children will do better if they spend time away from the computer with a pencil and paper, before coming back to the computer to enter their play.
"Get into Groups Of... five minus two!" This game is a great game for younger children - because it involves lots of running around! Good for kindy kids, also for 1st and 2nd graders. The page shows how to vary the rules to make it interesting for older children too.
In this puzzle, the goal is to cut a
Heart-Shaped Biscuit into three pieces, so that each piece contains only one color of
sprinkles. The cuts will be very twisty and wiggly, but that's fine for this puzzle. Because of the shape of the biscuit, this puzzle is perfect for around Valentine's Day, but it can also be used at any other time of the year.
Print these
Magic Number Cards, learn how to use them, and with a bit of practice you'll be able to amaze your friends with your number guessing skills! This page provides the traditional version of this trick, as well as a few variations of my own invention. Full instructions and a video example are available at the web page.
Looking for
Magic Square Puzzle Worksheets? Look no further! The page contains about 30 worksheets with about 40 magic square puzzles. Also, there is a link to a page explaining how the puzzle worksheets were made.
In the
Magical Calculator Birthday Trick and the
"Threes" Math Trick, one child gives a sequence of arithmetic instructions to another, then performs a few simple mental steps on the result. Almost like magic, the other's birthday (or another secret number) appears as the result of the sum! Good for fourth grade kids and up.
Mastermind is a classic game of logical deduction. The first player selects a secret code. The second player tries to guess that code. After each guess, the first player gives clues about how well the second player did - how many digits (or pegs or marbles) in the code are correct, and how many are the right color but the wrong place. In this online version of mastermind, you can pit your wits against the task of finding the computer's secret code, or select your own secret code, and challenge the computer to guess it.
In the
Math Architect Online Game the goal is to design an apartment with the given area. The catch? Each room is a square, and you must have as few rooms as possible! This makes the game challenging enough to keep kids occupied, and deep enough to keep them learning as they play. There is also a high scores table showing the best players each month, year and for all time.
There's a
Math Board Game that will teach kids arithmetic skills as they aim for a goal.
This
Math Card Game will make your kids actually
like practicing their sums!
Math Frozen Bubble is an online interactive bubble buster game that also helps kids practice their arithmetic. Good for grade 4 and up.
Or play a game of
Math Hangman? "Three strikes and you're out" is the rule as kids try to guess the hidden math word or sum! Good for almost any grade level!
These
Math Mazes are good for puzzle-loving kids as they learn their 7 and 8 times tables. They may look like ordinary mazes, but knowing your times table will help you reach your goal!
Math Lines is like 'Zuma' with a math twist. A twisty row of colorful numbered marbles winds its way across the screen. If they get too far, that's the end of the game. Blast away with marbles of your own, and if you join two marbles that add to 10, they'll explode and give you more time to win. Can you make it to the next level?
In
Math Pathways you do a sequence of arithmetic sums, over and over on different numbers, and this shows you the way across a grid of numbered balls. In the hardest level, you aren't even told what sums you need to do, but have to figure this out from the numbers in the grid!
Mathino is a game that can be played with an ordinary pack of cards. It's based on a common card game, Cassino, that already is good for kids learning arithmetic. Good for grades 1 to 3, maybe even 4!
This
money counting memory game allows kids from the United States, UK, Australia, the EU and Singapore to practice counting money in a familiar game
In the
Pizza Cutting Puzzle kids try to cut up a square pizza to make it fit in a round tray. Try to cut as few pieces as possible!
Want to
play sudoku online? You can at this page. The page also has links to some printable sudoku for kids, and a sudoku solver. If you're a sudoku fan, make sure you visit this page and try out the puzzles it provides. Puzzles can be symmetric, and there are five difficulty levels.
Try this
Powers puzzle, an exercise where kids explore numbers with their calculator, and try to spot patterns in the numbers they explore.
By working though the
Rice and Chessboard Worksheets, kids can get a feel for how fast numbers grow when they are repeatedly doubled. The worksheets are based on a modern version of an old story, where a man was awarded a quantity of grains of rice for each square on a chessboard, with each square having twice as many grains as the one before.
The
Sight Numbers exercise is designed to help kids memorise their addition, subtraction and multiplication facts in an efficient way. This exercise, even if introduced through a school classroom, would depend mostly on parental involvement - about 5 minutes a day with your child - so it's particularly ideal for the homeschooler!
Get your kids to try out these
Sliding Blocks Puzzles just for the challenge of solving them, or get them thinking about the deeper questions of what makes a sliding block puzzle solvable.
This
Spirograph Applet is sure to be a hit with the artistically inclined. You can use it to make pretty patterns, and if you choose to "trust" the applet, you can even save them to disk or print them out. I've also made a page
explaining the math that kids will pick up while using it.
Squink is a Brain Puzzle where players have to find the squares in a pattern on a grid, and count how many squares surround each location. There are two ways to play - you can count the squares in the pattern shown, or you can find a pattern to produce the counts shown. You can also design patterns of squares and share them with your friends!
Times Tables Memory is a memory game that will help transfer times table facts from short-term to long-term memory. It can be played solo, or with a friend.
If your kids like more action, and they are at the same level with their times tables, try
Times Tables Snap!
Looking for a
Times Table Board Game? Print out the playing board and the question cards, and start rolling the dice! Good for small or medium groups of kids, from grades 2 to 4.
These
timetable worksheets will give your child practice reading timetables, schedules, itineraries and the like.
Why not try the
Traffic Jam Game (or the
Online Version)? It's a collection of logic puzzles, ranging from simple to challenging. The brightly-colored playing pieces and simple rules will capture your kid's hearts.
Well, that's all for now. But visit back often, so that you'll always be the first to see any new elementary math games that I put on this site!
Yours, Dr Mike....
Games