Make Math Fun! Techniques for the Traffic Jam
Yipeee!!! School time again and the kiddies are off to school!! Unlike many people I absolutely love Mathematics. I think a lot of that had to do with my grandmother who was a Mathematics teacher for many years.
Since I love Mathematics and we were stuck in traffic every September I figured out number games to play with my girls to help pass the time. I thought I would share two types with the My Trini Chile family!!!
License Plate Games
When they were young they started off simple and they had to tell me each number in the license plate before the car drove off. I would purposefully use a car in the lane next to us.
As they got older we started using the license plate next to us to add all of the numbers together or multiply the numbers. We would see who could do it faster as they got better.
I would ask what is the place value of a number in license plate e.g. PBZ 6547 the place value of 5 is hundreds 500 and 4 is tens, 40 then they would have to give the difference 500-40 is 460.
We did other variations but those should start you off!
Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
This one sounds so simple but for some reason they enjoyed it. It helped quite a bit with learning their times tables. When they were young it would just be in ones but as they got older we used different multiples and go up to the 12th number. Who ever got the twelfth number is “it”
Person 1: Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
Person 1: Number 2 stole the cookie from the cookie jar
Person 2: Who me?
Person 1: Yes you!
Person 2: Couldn’t be!
Person 1: Then who?
Person 2: Number 4 stole the cookie from the cookie jar!
Person 3: Who me?
Person 2: Yes you!
Person 3: Couldn’t be!
Person 2: Then who?
Person 3: Number 6 stole the cookie from the cookie jar!
Returns to Person 1: Who me?
Person 3: Yes you!
Person 1: Couldn’t be!
Person 3: Then Who?
Person 1: Number 8 stole…. and so on
This can continue until someone makes a mistake or 24 which is 2×12.
The games I described above I started doing with my children from the time they could talk right up to SEA class, Standard five. We spent an hour each morning in traffic and they balked doing times tables by rote but most of the time they played the number games with me. It helped them learn some basic mathematics skills while having some fun.
Sometimes they still sometimes play the cookie jar game with me for old times sake. 😜
Ground Rules
It is only fun if you remember the following ground rules.
1. Keep it lighthearted. If they get it wrong it is no big deal.
2. You have to play too and take turns, it’s no fun if only the children do it!
3. Get a few wrong, no matter how simple. Let them correct you they will love correcting you and telling you the right answer!
4. Have fun and make sure the game level is age appropriate.
Welcome back to school!!!
Picture courtesy Yeurupa Raghoo
