Mega-Fun Math Games and Puzzles for the Elementary Grades: Over 125 Activities that Teach Math Facts, Concepts, and Thinking Skills

Make developing basic math skills fun and painless With this great collection of over 125 easy-to-use games, puzzles, and activities, teachers and parents can help kids comprehend fundamental math concepts, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, place value, fractions, and more. All games and puzzles use easy-to-find household items such as paper and pencil, playing cards, coins, and dice. The activities also help children develop problem-solving skills, such as testing hypotheses, creating strategies, and organizing information, as well as spatial relations skills, part-to-whole skills, and memory. Michael Schiro, EdD (Chestnut Hill, MA), is an associate professor at the School of Education at Boston College. He is the author of several books on teaching and learning math and is a frequent presenter at local and national math conferences.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 01 Mathematics Games and Puzzles: Why Use Them? 01 Mathematics Content and Process Standards 07 Practical Considerations 11 Part One: Math Skill Development Games 23 1. Paper-and-Pencil Games 25 Count 25 Capture the Fort 26 Foreheaded 27 Googol 29 Number-Tac-Toe 30 Ask and Give 33 Hangmath 34 Factors 35 Get One 38 Write It 38 Coordinate Tic-Tac-Toe 39 2. Egg Carton Games 42 Egg-O 42 Egg Race 44 More or Less 46 Egg Bump 48 Egg-a-Round 49 Place-an-Egg Value 50 Bing-Egg-O 51 Three Hundred 53 Egg Throw 56 Divide and Move 58 Egg-Cala 59 3. Cube Games 62 Nines 62 Roll It 63 Cardinal-Ordinal 64 Product Shot 67 Rectangles 69 Off the Board 72 Number Grid 74 Try It 75 Numbers 77 What’s Up? 78 Roll ’n Add 80 Roll Away 83 4. Tongue Depressor Games 86 Risk It 86 Pick 88 Right On 89 Flip 90 Slide 92 Togol 93 Guess It 94 Get Seven 95 Equato 96 Ladders 98 5. Card Games 100 Operations War 100 Bongo 101 Little Shot 103 Place-a-Bet 106 Running Sum 108 Slap It 109 Call It 110 What’s Next? 111 Two Numbers 113 Mathino 115 Mathominoes 116 Pass It 119 Measure 120 Bluff 123 Geo 20 Questions 124 6. Board Games 130 The Great Trading Game 130 0 to 99 Guess 133 In the Basket 135 Race to the Nineties 137 Checker Math 140 Down the Tubes 142 Hit 144 Drop the Die on the Donkey 46 Divi 148 Race 151 Coordinate Submarine 153 Off the Grid 154 7. Physical Education Games 156 Jump the Answer 156 Math Ball 158 Simon Says Math 159 Number Calisthenics 160 Fingers 161 Hands In 162 Twist-’em 163 Math Rover 164 Operation Hopscotch 165 Bean Bag Toss 167 Math Jacks 168 Math Marbles 169 Bounce 171 Number Race 172 Part Two: Problem-Solving Mathematics Puzzles 175 8. Number Puzzles 177 Magic Circles and Squares 177 Hundreds Chart Problems and Puzzles 178 Magic Circles 180 Magic Squares 182 Hundreds Chart Explorations 184 Discoveries 187 9. Algebra and Logic Puzzles 191 Mystery Monsters 191 Penny-in-Pocket Puzzles 192 Mathematical Magic Tricks 193 Mystery Monsters 197 Pockets Full of Pennies 200 More Pockets, More Pennies 202 Magical Math! 204 More Magical Math! 208 10. Geometry Puzzles 212 Visual Estimation 212 Line Designs and Shape Designs 213 Triangle Trouble and the Magic Tile 214 Visual Estimation 217 Line Designs: From Straight to Curved 221 Shape Designs: From Straight to Curved 225 Triangle Trouble! 231 The Magic Tile 234 11. Transformational Geometry 238 Crayon Digits and Crayon Constructions 239 Coin Challenges 240 Mirror Puzzlers 240 Crayon Digits 242 Crayon Constructions 245 Coin Challenges 248 Mirror Puzzlers 251 12. Modular Arithmetic Games 254 Mathematical Structure and Strategy 255 Instructional Considerations 258 Modular Arithmetic Games for Two Players 260 Count Up 260 Dicey Count Up 260 Fill Up 261 Pick Up 261 Run the Track 262 Calculator Countdown 262 Odds 263 13. Network Puzzles 264 History of Network Theory 264 The Isomorphism 266 Instructional Considerations 269 I’ll Cross That Bridge When I Get to It 271 More Bridge Crossing Puzzles 274 Bug Problems 276 Tracing Puzzles 280 Geometric Travels 282 Line Crossing Puzzles 284 14. Topology Puzzles 286 Puzzle Structure 286 Solutions and Issues Relate to Solving Problems 288 Puzzle Construction 292 People Puzzles 294 Scissors Puzzles 297 Household Puzzles 299 Selected Solutions 303 References 309

About the Author :
MICHAEL S. SCHIRO, Ed.D. is an associate professor at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. He's written numerous articles and many books on teaching and learning math and is a frequent presenter at regional and national math teacher conferences.