5 activities for practising basic math operations

For this activity, you’ll need a paved area or sidewalk and some chalk. On a sunny day, find a dry patch of ground and draw a big hopscotch grid with your child. Let them decorate the grid however they like—it’ll help them get into the game! Write a number inside each square representing the answers to the mathematical operations you’ll be asking your child to solve. When you ask a question, they have to jump to the box with the correct answer. This game is a great way to combine learning with a little exercise!

For this game, ask your child to gather 24 small, everyday objects. Here are some examples of appropriate items:

• Pencils
• Clothespins
• Spoons
• Buttons
• Toy dinosaurs
• Marbles
• Etc.

Take turns choosing any number of objects and spreading them out on the table in front of you. Ask the other person to count them, and then to close their eyes. Hide a few of the objects. When the other player opens their eyes, they have to guess how many items were removed from the table by subtracting the number of items remaining from the initial total.

This is a fun take on the classic card game kids love. In this version, multiplication skills, not chance, will determine who wins. Here’s how to play:

1. Shuffle the cards and divide them into two equal stacks, face down.
2. Each player turns over the card at the top of their stack at the same time.
3. The first player to successfully multiply the numbers on the cards wins both cards and adds them face down to the bottom of their deck.
4. Just like in the original game, the game ends when one player has won all the cards.

Of course, this can take a while! To shorten the game time, try reducing the total number of cards. You could also declare a winner after a set number of rounds (e.g., the player with the largest stack after 20 rounds wins the game).

This game is played in a circle and with a single die. Each player takes a turn rolling the die and scores as many points as the total shown on the die. The first player to reach 25 points wins. At each turn, players can decide whether to add or subtract the number on the die from their total.

Here are a few variations to spice the game up a bit:

• Make a rule where if you roll a 1, you automatically lose 10 points
• Play with multiple dice so you can practise more complex operations
• Play with a deck of cards to increase the difficulty level
• Allow players to subtract points from each other’s totals
• Etc.

The planet is in peril! Only you can save the Earth from asteroids—by solving mathematical operations! Météormath is a French-language educational game that you can play on a tablet or computer. It’s a perfect example of learning math through play!