By Tech Powered Dad | February 18, 2011
I’ve been looking for a set of printable math games for a while, and I recently purchased the ebook, Making Math More Fun Games Collection, and I wanted to get a review up. This is actually not one ebook but a collection of several.
Advantages of Printable Math Games for Kids
It’s a common scenario: You’re a parent trying to find quick math activities to encourage your child. Or maybe you’re an elementary school teacher that needs to find a way to practice math skills, reasoning or logic in a fun way. Whether you’re a 2nd grade teacher, a home school parent, or just trying to find a positive way to keep your little one learning, printable math games are the way to go.
Math workbooks for kids are great, but the reality is that there are some parts they’re going to love and some parts they won’t care for. A 3rd grader doesn’t know how to ration out those favorite parts, so in short order, you will find their favorite pages have been used up. With printable math games, you can print copy after copy of the games they love most (or the math skills they need the most practice on), without wasting a lot of paper on the parts they care less about.
Making Math More Fun Games Collection Review
So what about the Making Math More Fun Games Collection specifically? A couple of days ago, I headed on over to the Making Math More Fun (MMMF) website to purchase Teresa Evan’s ebook. Frankly, I was a little skeptical because the site felt a little like a scam. However, having downloaded the product, I’m sorry I doubted her.
The printable games series is actually not one ebook but a series of seven books of games, each with a huge amount of content. The ebooks are:
- Making Math More Fun Board Games
- Making Math More Fun Math Games Ideas
- Making Math More Fun Card Games
- Robot Reader
- Make Your Own Board Games
- Print and Play Games Masters
- Wiggle Wiggle Wink Wink
Together, the books total over 450 pages. All of the ebooks are in .pdf format, so they’re easy to use on any PC or Mac. But what kind of content do they have?
Printing the Math Games
My biggest question before purchasing the MMMF ebooks was what level they would be appropriate for. Were these kindergarten math games, 6th grade math games, or something meant for many different level of math student? It turns out that Ms. Evans prepared a really wide variety of games. Some would be better for students as young as kindergarten or 1st grade, while others are more appropriate to 4th and 5th grade or even older. Fortunately, the games are well categorized by suggested age and number of players, making it easy to find appropriate activities. Most of them seem best designed for 2-4 players, so if you’re a teacher, you’ll probably want to break your class into small groups.
In terms of the types of games, you’ll find just about any math skill or reasoning skill you’d want to work on and have fun with for elementary aged kids. Some of the games practice arithmetic facts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Other strategy games practice geometry and logical thinking skills, where you are trying to complete the most efficient route, make the most boxes, create the shape that covers the biggest numbers, etc. Most can just be played with a pencil, although some require colored markers, dice, or a paper pad to keep score. Some of the games are board games, some are card games, and others (my favorite) are “print and play” games, meaning you do the “work” of playing right on the page–perfect for a printable game since you can print copies over and over from your computer as needed.
Of course, as you might expect from the names, a couple of the ebooks are not math related. Robot Reader is a set of reading and phonics games while Wiggle Wiggle Wink Wink is a set of general games that help kids practice everything from cooperation to concentration. Since I’m a math teacher, I’m probably not as qualified to register an opinion on those games, but they seemed as well constructed as the math games.
If you are a teacher looking for classroom activities, a parent looking to encourage your child, or a home school parent looking for creative ways to teach, I recommend the Making Math More Fun printable math games ebook series. The price is extremely reasonable.