You don’t have to go out and buy special learning elements to make interactive math games, You can totally use things you have at home. If you don’t have these elements and have to buy some of them, I know you will used them over and over again. ( We used this same set of buttons to play Ladybug Roll and Cover , patterning and so much more over and over again.)
How to Make Interactive Math Games
You really just need three key components for your math games. Two of the elements are totally needed and one can be changed or not even used.
The first thing your are going to need is a container to hold and display what children will be working on while playing the game. I used baking cups. They are cheap, easy to label, and flexible.
Here are some other things you could use instead:
- plastic bowls
- margarine containers
- egg cartons or egg carton cups
- small jewel boxes
- lids
- ice cube trays.
- place mat with labeled areas
- print out of a math work space
The second thing you need are objects to count. We have use buttons a lot, but we have also used the following:
Here are some other great math objects
- lids
- bread tags
- straws
- plastic animals
- linking cubes
- plastic discs
The final element you will need to something to contain, hold or keep all the elements together. I love using muffin tins to hold and display interactive math games. We happen to have a lot them. ( I used to make my son muffin tin lunches a lot when we was little. ) In this case we used the muffin tin as part of the game. It helped the baking cups from flopping around! Its shaped helped give the game a themed and a little whimsy.
We could have put the muffin cups with number written on them on the table and just put the buttons in them. I have found that have a solid container to put small objects in has been easier for my son. That is another reason we used a muffin tin.
The last thing I think you need to think about is what kind of counting you want your kids to do. Do you want them to count in number order, identify each number and place that number in it or skip count? Each of these is a unique counting skill.
You can use the same interactive game set up to work on all of the skills share above. The directions you give your children to complete each task is what will change.
If you try creating your own interactive math games, please leave me a comment below telling me about how them or share a picture of your game on my Facebook page.
