Adding to the Game List

Hello there!

Happy Friday! I'm sure we share the same amount of excitement! It has been a very busy week. Does anyone else feel like there is too much to do in too little time? Sheesh!

Today I'm going to share a few games I started playing with my kids today. We have been working on Addition all week long and the Math Curriculum was getting kinda boring... so I wanted to reward my kiddos for the hard work they have been putting in by having a day that was calm/fun while also making sure they practice their skills. I pulled out 3 games and we were on our way!

Game 1: Domino Addition

I used this a few years back and my students really enjoyed it, so I pulled it back out. Basically, you give them dominos and they use them to create an addition equation/sentence then they solve it. I really love this for my low babies. Having the visual of two different sets of dots and then them being part of 1 whole domino really helps them with their part-part whole understanding. You can get a free and easy template here. I print the template out on regular paper and slip it into a dry erase sleeve, give them a marker and let them go at it! Super simple for the teacher and super fun for the student!

Game 2: Addition War

It is exactly what it sounds like. I was given a ton of Uno cards a few years back, so to make them more usable in my classroom I took out all the word cards. You'd be amazed at all the different things you can use a pack of uno cards to teach. Put the kids in pairs. They each draw 2 cards and add the numbers on their cards together to find the sum. The partner with the bigger sum, wins that round and takes all the cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins. I really made sure to concentrate on having my kids "count on" while they were playing this game. I have them "grab" the bigger number (making a fist and saying the bigger number), then count up the other number to get their total. For example: If my cards were 4 and 3, I would grab 4 then count up 3 to get my sum of 7. This was a favorite for a lot of my competitive boys!!

Game 3: SMASH

This was a new one to me, but it was by far the kids favorite. I found it here and will use it again! Print off the flash cards and boards. I didn't have time to laminate it all, so I printed the flash cards on colored construction paper and stuck the boards in a dry erase sleeve (page protectors also work well). I had the "little balls" already rolled and ready to go as well as having the big ball they SMASH in its place. They take their flash card and lay it on the board. Once they figure out the bigger number, they SMASH the big ball of play dough while they say the bigger number. Then they use the small balls of play dough to count on until they find the sum.

Ultimately, we had a great time! The kids were enjoying it so much that they didn't even want to stop when it was time to go to PE... what?! That NEVER happens!! We didn't have enough time to be able to finish our rotations so every child could hit every game, but we are working on addition into next week!! Hopefully I can find some more addition practice games to add to our fun Friday review by then!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!