Cool Math Games
"Name That Number" Game
Drill exercises aim primarily at building fact and operations skills. Practice through games shares these objectives, but, at the same time, games often reinforce other skills including calculator skills, money exchange and shopping skills, logic, geometric intuition, and intuition about probability and chance (because many games involve numbers that are generated randomly.)
Using games to practice number skills also greatly reduces the need for worksheets. Because the numbers in most games are generated randomly, the games can be played over and over without repeating the same problems. Many of the Everyday Mathematics games come with variations that allow players to progress from easy to more challenging versions. Games practice, therefore, offers an almost unlimited source of problem material.
Basic Game
Materials: 4 cards each of numbers 0-10 and 1 card each of numbers 11-20
Number of Players: 3 or 4
Number of Players: 3 or 4
A player shuffles the deck and places five cards face-up on the playing surface. This player leaves the rest of the deck facedown and then turns over and lays down the top card from the deck. The number on this card is the number to be named.
In turn, players try to (re)name the number on the set-apart top card by adding or subtracting the numbers on two of the five face-up cards.
A successful player takes both the two face-up cards and the number-named top card. A successful player also replaces those three cards by drawing from the top o
f the facedown deck. Unsuccessful players lose their turns. But they turn over and lay down the top card from the facedown deck, and the number on this card becomes the new number to be named.
f the facedown deck. Unsuccessful players lose their turns. But they turn over and lay down the top card from the facedown deck, and the number on this card becomes the new number to be named.
Play continues until all facedown cards have been turned over. The player who has taken the most cards at the end wins.
Game Variations
If children are finding the game difficult, increase the number of face-up cards.
Use any combinations of two or more numbers and all operations. For example, Mike could have named 16 as follows:
10+7-1
10+12-7+1
8+12-10+7-1
10+12-7+1
8+12-10+7-1
Children can experiment by using different numbers of face-up cards.