Let's Play A Math Game!
Dominoes are an inexpensive and fun math manipulative to help your students practice simple addition and subtraction facts. Dominic the Domino Snowman makes it even more interesting. He needs buttons for his belly!
Here's how to help him:
If you want all of your students to play as a whole group, run off a class set of snowmen. Have students play in groups of 2-4 so they can share dominoes. They sell them at The Dollar Store.
- If you don’t have dominoes, use my template and print off a class set, or some for your students so they can have a Dominic and dominoes to practice at home.
- You can color the snowmen, or have students color them and then laminate the playing boards so you can use them every year.
- Children will use dry erase markers to record their answers and then wipe them off with a wet wipe.
- Write the directions: Roll, Find, Place, Write, Solve on the board.
- Demonstrate how to play the game.
- Students obtain the dominoes by rolling 2 dice twice and finding the appropriate dominoes.
- i.e, If they roll a 1 and a 5, they find the domino with one dot and five dots and place that to the side.
- The student then rolls the second time and rolls a 2 and a 3.
- They find that domino.
Since the first domino has larger numbers, they put that domino on top so that they can subtract. They put the smaller numbered domino on the bottom.
- Students add the “buttons” of the domino to get the first number to add and and then later subtract and then add the “buttons” of the second domino to get the second number to add and later subtract.
- Students write these equations vertically on their snowman and solve the problem.
- On a sheet of paper, students write the equations horizontally and solve the problem.
- Set a timer to ring after about 10 minutes.
- The student with the most correct answers wins the game.
- Click on the link to view/print Dominic the Domino Math Game Snowman
Do you have a math game that you play with your students? I'd enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com and if you use one of my freebies I'd really enjoy a comment. Thanks in advance.
Be sure and pop back tomorrow for more creative teaching tips.
