Building Math Fact Fluency with Dominoes, Dice and Decks of Cards

Some of the traditional methods of building math skills are simply not interesting to children. Why not have fun while building skills and fluency?

Dominoes, Dice and Decks of Cards are inexpensive, easy to obtain and add fun to the job of practicing math facts. These games provide motivation, variety and repetition while building number sense, problem solving, attention and social skills. The game rules can be adapted to match your child’s learning goals and can provide a real-world context for meaningful learning.

Dig around in your closets and junk drawers, go to a neighborhood garage sale, craft your own games with cardstock and household materials, or make a quick trip to Walmart or Walgreens and be prepared to share laughter and fun while building skills.

Dominoes
The visual sets of numbers on dominoes help children to begin building a sense of multiplication while practicing addition. I like to use the dominoes with up to 12 dots with children when they are ready!

Draw
Follow the traditional rules to the game of dominoes, set a number goal, and if appropriate, let your child keep score.

Adapt the traditional “draw” game so that children score points only when their sum is a multiple of 5.

Younger children will enjoy matching toys to number dots on dominoes and counting the total number of toys.

Dice
Rolling Dice

Using two dice, you roll one, your child rolls the other.

Your child can add, subtract or multiply the two numbers orally and/or record the problem and answer on paper. Can your child think of another problem that would have the same answer?

Target Game
Write the numbers 1 – 18 (or higher) on two pieces of paper. Take turns rolling dice until you each mark out each number. Players have to skip their turn if they cannot mark off a number. Make up your own variations of the game using more numbers, including 0, more dice, and/or dice with higher numbers. An extra challenge for advanced students is give the option of using any operation they want to cross off a number.

Yahtzee
With help, this dice game is appropriate (and fun) for all ages. Skills range from counting numbers, adding, subtracting (single and double digits), multiplying and dividing. pre-algebra, statistics and probability are also skills that can be incorporated into this game. If you do not own this game, it is easy (and fun) to make up your own with 5 dice, a cup, rules, and free score sheets found on Internet.

Decks of Cards

Gather together several decks of cards and depending on the age of the child, craft a deck with numbers that match his/her age/ability level.

War
Shuffle the cards and divide up the deck so that each player has an equal number.
Each player flips over two cards. The person with the larger amount after adding, subtracting or multiplying the numbers gets all the cards. Adapt the rules so that the lowest number wins the cards if you want.

Using dominoes, dice and/or decks of cards with your child is a great substitute for doing hundreds of problems on worksheets and is less stressful than timed math drills. Your child will benefit from the time you spend together in more ways than you can measure!

For other math tutoring help and creative learning ideas for math, you can find a tutor who can help your child excel.