Cool Math Games For Elementary Teachers

Imagine a classroom where children are not only engaged, but so eager to learn that you hear groans of disappointment when class time runs out. This is not a dream but a reality for a 3rd grade math classroom in my district.

As a 3-5 elementary instructional math coach, I am always looking for new ways to approach teaching math skills in a guided math classroom. In our district, teachers are expected to teach with a learning station rotation model in order to differentiate math ability groups.

While there are many different approaches to guided math, most models include whole group instruction with small teacher-led ability groups and independent math games. Using this model, I used a December/January Scholastic DynaMath article to create guided learning stations with math games. The article covers holiday celebrations from around the world, including Lunar New Year, a Hindi celebration called Makar Sankranti, and Three Kings Day.

The result? Engaged students doing math activities that aren’t worksheets with computations or extra grading for the teacher! Here’s my teaching strategy for incorporating Scholastic DynaMath with math games that work for any grade level you teach.

Using the CCSS and the lesson objective as my guide, I created 3 different learning stations that focused on 3rd grade math—specifically multiplication and the relationship to division.  I wanted to make sure that each activity was easy for students to understand so that we could spend less time explaining directions and more time doing math practice.

I used fun and engaging math games that required students to use their knowledge of 3rd grade multiplication and division.

One was a multiplication card game where students had to find a missing factor in an equation, using their understanding of division. For example, to solve 6 x __ = 48, students would divide 48 by 6 to find the missing factor of 8. Students were dealt cards by me and had to collect 4 cards that were all missing the same factor in order to win the game.

Another game also included cards but was more like bingo. In it, a teacher dealt cards with division equations and unknown values. Students would identify the unknown value and match it to a value on their board, which had various numbers on it. They would add a disk to their board until they reached bingo.

I also included an independent station where students completed the math questions from the Scholastic DynaMath article.