How to Help Your Child in Math
- Create routines and structure for completing homework
- Ask students about what they are learning in class - have them show you their homework, but don't fix it or do it for them
- Involve children in cooking and measuring
- Incorporate money and counting into activities
- Play games with your children or have them show you a game they are playing in school
- Practice basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts
- Make learning fun
Math Games
Tic-Tac-Toe Games:
Number Tic-Tac-Toe:
Instead of Xs and Os players use the numbers 1-9. Each number can only be used once in a game. Players take turns writing a number in a space. The idea is to be the one to get the numbers in any row, column or diagonal to add up to 15.
Last One Wins Tic-Tac-Toe:
Players take turns. Each player can mark as many spaces as he/she wants that are empty, as long as the ones you mark are all in the same row or column (not diagonal.) Whoever fills in the last space is the winner.
Your Choice Tic-Tac-Toe:
Take turns as you usually do. On your turn you may put down either an X or O, and you can change your mind from turn to turn. So can your opponent. The winner is the one who finishes any row, column or diagonal of all Xs or all Os.
Money Games:
Change From a Dollar:
Have 99 cents in change and $1 bill available, (play money is all right.) One person is the buyer; one is the seller. The buyer chooses a purchase price for an item that costs between $ 0.01 and $0.99 and pays for it with a dollar. The seller counts out the correct change to give back to the buyer. Buyer and seller trade places after a while.
Variation: Choose prices between $1.00 and $1.99 and use $2.00 to get change from.
How Can I Pay For This?:
Have a number of different coins available. One person is the buyer and one is the seller. The seller chooses a purchase price for an item. Start out with easy (small amounts), like 10 cents. The buyer has to find all the combinations of coins he/she could use to pay for the item. For example, for an item costing $0.10 you could use 10 pennies or 2 nickels or 1 dime or 1 nickel and 5 pennies.
Variation: Have the buyer buy 2 items.
Card Games:
The Thirty-One Game:
Use a regular deck of cards. Take out all 4 aces, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s and use only these for the game. Lay out all 24 cards face up. Partners take turns. The first player turns over 1 card and says the number on the card (aces are 1s.) The second player turns over a card and adds this card to the previous and says this sum aloud. Play continues with each new card flipped over being added to the previous sum. Whoever reaches the sum of exactly 31 wins. If neither player hits 31 then no one wins that round.
Variation: Change the total you’re aiming for to 30, 22 or 50.
Multiplication War:
Use a regular deck of cards. Split the deck in half evenly and each person keeps their half of the deck face down in a pile. At the same time each person flips the tops card from their pile. The person who can say the product (answer to a multiplication problem) first gets to keep the cards. Repeat until the piles are gone, shuffle your pile and continue. The winner is the first person to collect all the cards. All face cards - Js, Qs, Ks, have a value 10, aces are 1s, and all other cards are their face value. If you tie, flip the next cards and continue.
Variations: Play War as normal. The person with the higher value card keeps the pile. This game can also be played for addition.
Games Requiring No Materials:
Get to Zero:
The game starts at 25. The player to say zero wins. Partners take turns counting back by ones, in order, from 25 to 0. Each turn the partner can say 1, 2 or 3 numbers, (such as 25, 24, 23 or 25, 24 or 25.) The one who counts zero wins.
Greater Than >, Less Than <
One person is the chooser and one is the guesser. The chooser picks a number between 1 and 100. The other partner guesses until he/she gets the right number. After each guess the chooser gives a clue by saying “greater than,” (if the guess is greater than the chosen number) or “less than,” (if the guess is less than the chosen number.)
Variation: Pick numbers between 100-200.
Number Tic-Tac-Toe:
Instead of Xs and Os players use the numbers 1-9. Each number can only be used once in a game. Players take turns writing a number in a space. The idea is to be the one to get the numbers in any row, column or diagonal to add up to 15.
Last One Wins Tic-Tac-Toe:
Players take turns. Each player can mark as many spaces as he/she wants that are empty, as long as the ones you mark are all in the same row or column (not diagonal.) Whoever fills in the last space is the winner.
Your Choice Tic-Tac-Toe:
Take turns as you usually do. On your turn you may put down either an X or O, and you can change your mind from turn to turn. So can your opponent. The winner is the one who finishes any row, column or diagonal of all Xs or all Os.
Money Games:
Change From a Dollar:
Have 99 cents in change and $1 bill available, (play money is all right.) One person is the buyer; one is the seller. The buyer chooses a purchase price for an item that costs between $ 0.01 and $0.99 and pays for it with a dollar. The seller counts out the correct change to give back to the buyer. Buyer and seller trade places after a while.
Variation: Choose prices between $1.00 and $1.99 and use $2.00 to get change from.
How Can I Pay For This?:
Have a number of different coins available. One person is the buyer and one is the seller. The seller chooses a purchase price for an item. Start out with easy (small amounts), like 10 cents. The buyer has to find all the combinations of coins he/she could use to pay for the item. For example, for an item costing $0.10 you could use 10 pennies or 2 nickels or 1 dime or 1 nickel and 5 pennies.
Variation: Have the buyer buy 2 items.
Card Games:
The Thirty-One Game:
Use a regular deck of cards. Take out all 4 aces, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s and use only these for the game. Lay out all 24 cards face up. Partners take turns. The first player turns over 1 card and says the number on the card (aces are 1s.) The second player turns over a card and adds this card to the previous and says this sum aloud. Play continues with each new card flipped over being added to the previous sum. Whoever reaches the sum of exactly 31 wins. If neither player hits 31 then no one wins that round.
Variation: Change the total you’re aiming for to 30, 22 or 50.
Multiplication War:
Use a regular deck of cards. Split the deck in half evenly and each person keeps their half of the deck face down in a pile. At the same time each person flips the tops card from their pile. The person who can say the product (answer to a multiplication problem) first gets to keep the cards. Repeat until the piles are gone, shuffle your pile and continue. The winner is the first person to collect all the cards. All face cards - Js, Qs, Ks, have a value 10, aces are 1s, and all other cards are their face value. If you tie, flip the next cards and continue.
Variations: Play War as normal. The person with the higher value card keeps the pile. This game can also be played for addition.
Games Requiring No Materials:
Get to Zero:
The game starts at 25. The player to say zero wins. Partners take turns counting back by ones, in order, from 25 to 0. Each turn the partner can say 1, 2 or 3 numbers, (such as 25, 24, 23 or 25, 24 or 25.) The one who counts zero wins.
Greater Than >, Less Than <
One person is the chooser and one is the guesser. The chooser picks a number between 1 and 100. The other partner guesses until he/she gets the right number. After each guess the chooser gives a clue by saying “greater than,” (if the guess is greater than the chosen number) or “less than,” (if the guess is less than the chosen number.)
Variation: Pick numbers between 100-200.
Online Math Games (clicking link will open a new window)
- http://www.funbrain.com/math
- http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html
- http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/Gamequarium/Math/
Progress Reports
Below are progress reports for each grade level. They contain the skills students will be working on to meet proficiency. The skills may or may not be at the child's current grade level, but will assist in meeting Title 1A Math goals of:
- developing number sense
- developing fluency with math facts
- developing fluency with number operations
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Lisbon Community School
33 Mill Street
Lisbon, ME 04250
(207) 353-4132
33 Mill Street
Lisbon, ME 04250
(207) 353-4132