Math “Board” Games

When I taught Kindergarten, one of the girls on my team made these one-to-one correspondence math games for the kids.  We kept them in our math tubs pretty much all year long because they were great for the kids to play when they were finished with their work, plus they were great for reinforcing rote counting and one-to-one correspondence.  To kick it up a notch and make it “First Grade friendly”, I made a little addition/subtraction game out of similar game “boards”.  The kids LOVE these games!!

 

I have the kids play with a partner and both players get a matching game board, a set of {seasonal} counters, a stack of plus/minus & number cards, and a placemat for the cards.  To start the game, each player rolls the die and moves ahead that many spaces.  After both players have rolled the die once, the players choose a card from the plus/minus stack & another card from the # stack.  Looking at the symbol, players determine whether to move ahead {add} or go back {minus} the number of spaces that was drawn.  If a bigger number is drawn than the number of spaces they can move back, I tell them to place the cards at the bottom of the pile and draw again.  I also included a “Back to Start” & a “Lose a Turn” card just to mix it up a bit ;)  The player who gets to “finish” first is the winner!

I have a few little friends who are still working on one-to-one correspondence, so I’ll have those babies take a game board, roll a die, and cover up that many spaces on the board.  Works for everyone!