Fun Math Activities for Kids

The amazing thing about math is that you can use it everywhere, anytime and in a wide variety of ways. Math follows us through out normal routine of life (calculating costs of items, calculating discounts, etc...); and that is exactly what makes it so useful.

You can use a variety of fun math activities for kids to teach your child math and develop his mathematical thought.

I imagine that you already practice math with your child. Every parent teaches their child to count from a very early age and to solve mathematical sums etc.

This page was designed to supply you with ideas for fun math activities for kids. I imagine you wouldn't be against having some extra ideas for math activities, would you?

Where is the submarine?

• Draw an 11 x 11 squares table or print out from here. (For the game you will need a table for each player.)
• On the first row write the numbers from 1 to 10.
• In the left column write the letters from A to J.

• Each player draws 4 submarines in different places on the table.
• The players must discover in which squares the other player's submarines are.
• Take turns in a clockwise fashion.
• For example: the first player asks the player who comes after him if his submarine is at C3. If the answer is negative, the player whose turn it is to ask marks that square with an X, so that he doesn't ask the same question twice. If the answer is positive, the player who is being asked must cross off his submarine and is left with just three. The game ends when a player has found all of his opponent's submarines.

Guess the number

• Ask your child to choose a number between 1 and 100. (If your child is in preschool the range should be between 1 and 10.)
• Try to guess your child's number using mathematical questions such as: Is your number bigger than ...?, Is your number smaller than...?, Is your number between... and ....?, Is your number an even number?, Is your number an odd number?, etc.
• Once you have guessed your child's number, switch roles. Now you choose a number and ask your child to guess the number using mathematical questions.

Bull's Eye

• Draw a bull's eye with three circles on a piece of paper or print out here.
• On the center circle write the number 5, on the middle circle write the number 3, and on the outer circle write the number 1.
• Your child and you should toss a coin at the bull's eye to accumulate points. The numbers on the bull's eye represent the points. If the coin lands outside of the bull's eye, 0 points are awarded.
• Take turns tossing the coin and write your points on a scoreboard.
• At the end of the game your child must calculate his total.

Going Shopping

• Collect empty grocery boxes and write prices on each item, in whole numbers.
• Arrange the boxes as in a store.

• Prepare notes of paper money (not real money of course).
• And now it's time to go shopping. The object of the game is to buy items according to the allocated amount of money in your possession.
• To start off you should be the shopkeeper and your child should be the customer. If the total cost of your child's purchases amount to below his budget, explain to him that he will receive change. If the total cost of your child's purchases exceeds the allocated amount of money, then explain to your child that he will have to forego one or more of the items that he has chosen.
• Now switch roles. You be the customer and your child the shopkeeper.

Who has the highest?

• Extract from a pack of cards all the numbers between 1 and 10 (a total of 40 cards).
• Divide the cards into two groups (all the red cards in one group and all the black cards in the other).

• Each player receives one group of cards.
• Shuffle the cards and in turn each player places one card on the table.
• The player with the highest card wins both cards and places them on the side.
• If both player's cards are the same number, each player must place three extra cards on top of their first card. The player whose third card is the highest wins all of the cards and places them on the side.
• When a player runs out of cards he takes the cards that he has placed on the side, shuffles them and continues to play the game with them.
• The game is over when one of the players is left with no cards. The winner of the game being the player with all of the cards.