Math Games for that Active Child To put it inside a nice way, my son is quite squirmy. He doesn't like to sit still for very long unless he's playing a relevant video game, then it's just amazing. So instead of constantly telling him to take a seat and do his math, we go outside or up the stairs, literally. I'd like to share some of ways we like to "do math" when doing nothing is simply too much. Try these games with your child and i believe you'll agree that math and use will go hand in hand.
Stair Math
Math flash cards are usually pretty boring. You skill for your active child is put a card on each step going up your stairs after which across the hall and into another room. Place these every foot or two. Some kids enjoy being timed, consider getting your stopwatch and yell "go!" My son will race in the stairs as soon as he can while shouting out the answers. He makes it to his room and jumps on his bed in triumph. This can be done game many times.
Flash Card Toss
This math game works particularly well at our house because there's an open area at the top of the steps that looks recorded on the household room. Actually, anywhere in your house or outside is going to do, and it is ideal for a young child that has a lot of pent up energy! Take a flash card and fling it as far as possible. Have your child pursue it, get it, solve it, and race back. This can be done until either the little one has no steam or you injure your throwing arm.
maths games ks1Shoot 10 Baskets
There are lots of variations for this game and you will adjust it to suit your child. You are able to have fun with a real basketball hoop or wadded up pieces of paper shooting in the trash.
1. Have your child shoot 10 baskets and keep tabs on how many they make. Do that in series of 10s, as often as you want. Next, show the scores to your child and also have them determine his average per 10 baskets he/she makes.
2. Farmville requires quick thinking. Ask your son or daughter to shoot 10 baskets after which ask him/her to tell the ratio of missed baskets to baskets shot, or the ratio of made baskets to missed baskets. You can do this with any number of shooting attempts and have them answer quickly before they shoot again.
3. Another way to play would be to ask them to shoot 10 baskets and figure out the fraction of made shots to total shots. Next, have them reduce their fraction, after which turn their fraction into a percentage. They should do this within their head, or if they need to write it down, you can supply sidewalk chalk or pencil and paper for many quick figuring.
maths games ks1Interactive Story Problems
Just a little imagination from you, along with a stopwatch, makes this one fun! You are making in the story problem as well as your children act it out. For example:
If [your child's name] runs in the mailbox towards the back fence in [however long it requires him in seconds], and [another child's name] runs exactly the same path in [however long it requires her in seconds], how many minutes were spent running this route by each of them altogether?
If [name] threw the ball [measure in inches] and [Mom] threw the ball 9 inches less than that, how far did your amazing Mom throw?
You will time your son or daughter skipping, running, hopping, running backwards, race walking, and running on all fours. However, allow him to or her rank the order in which they believe they will do these, from fastest to slowest and estimate their times. Then time them and match up against their estimate.
After that, you can make up all sorts of story problems:
How much faster have you skip than hop?
The number of minutes total made it happen get you to complete all of them?
That is faster - running and running backwards vs. race walking and hopping?
These games are only a begin in practicing math with your active child. I'm sure you can imagine quite a few more once you get started. One thing is for sure, after playing these math games, they're prepared to sit down and perform some passive reading!