Denise Gaskins - Multiplication & Fractions: Math You Can Play, #3

Math You Can Play Series

Book Three

Multiplication & Fractions

Math Games for Tough Topics

Second to Sixth Grade

Denise Gaskins

Copyright 2016 Denise Gaskins

All rights reserved.

Ebook Version 1.11

Tabletop Academy Press

tabletopacademy.net

Readers Love Denises Playful Math Books

These games are great for using and practicing maths skills in a context in which there is some real motivation to do so. I love how they provide opportunities to explore a wide variety of approaches, including number bonds and logical thinking.

My children are always pleased, even excited, when I suggest one of these games. Sometimes they even ask to play them unprompted!

Miranda Jubb, online reader review

It revolutionized our homeschool this year.

Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley, My-Little-Poppies.com

I have played several of these games with my son, and each one was met with delight on his part and the sharing of delightful conversation about numbers and thinking between us.

I love what Gaskins has to say about working with your children as opposed to simply assigning them work to do. This sums up the philosophy that I try to keep forefront in our home.

Highly, highly recommended.

Amy, Hope Is the Word blog

Wonderful games for elementary students. The author includes a link for printable game boards, ensuring that I don't spend more time making games than playing them. Variations for each game = SO many ways to explore numbers. You will love this book.

Marisa, online reader review

Free Playful Math Newsletter

Want to help your kids learn math? Join my free newsletter for monthly (well, most months) activity ideas. And youll be among the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

tabletopacademy.net/mathnews

Contents

Sample Game: Times-Tac-Toe

Math Concepts: multiplication facts, times tables.

Players: best with two.

Equipment: printed blank times-table chart, deck of math cards, colored markers or a set of matching tokens for each player.

[Picture below] The Multiplication & Fraction Printables file includes blank times tables for practicing math facts up to 10 10 or 12 12. Since the edges are also blank, players can scramble the rows and columns for added challenge.

tabletopacademy.net/free-printables

How to Play

Label the top row and left column of your blank times-table chart with the numbers 110, in numerical order or mixed around.

On your turn, flip two cards. Multiply them and find the corresponding square on the times table. If that square is blank, write in the product with your colored marker. Or say the product aloud while you cover that square with one of your tokens. If a player writes or says the wrong answer, the other player may challenge, give the correct product, and then take that square.

Sometimes you will have a choice of two squares, but you may mark only one of them. On the other hand, if there are no remaining spaces for your product, then you lose that turn. The first player to mark four squares touching (with no gaps) in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins the game.

Variations

For a longer game, play until someone marks five squares in a row.

If you prefer teaching the multiplication facts up to 12 12, you can include face cards in your deck: jack = 11, queen = 12, and king = wild card. A player who turns up a king may use any number in its place.

Times Table Gomoku: No math cards. Players may choose any unclaimed square and write in the product of the row and column numbers. For a tougher challenge, one player fills the top row with any numbers greater than five, and the other player chooses similar numbers for the left-column squares. As in traditional Gomoku, it takes five in a row to win.

Hundred-Tac-Toe: Instead of a times-table chart, use a printed 100 chart. On your turn, flip one card, and you may mark any multiple of that number which has not already been taken. Say the factors of your multiple: if you draw a two, and you want to mark forty-six, say, Two times twenty-three. Whenever you get four (or more) squares in a row, mark them with a solid line. Go through the whole deck, and the player who marks the most lines wins.

History

People all around the world have played make-a-row games since ancient times, with a wide assortment of rules. Claudia Zaslavsky surveys the history of such games in Tic Tac Toe and Other Three-in-a-Row Games from Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer.

Preface to the Math You Can Play Series

The playful, puzzle-solving side of math has always attracted me. In elementary school, calculations were a tedious chore, but word problems provided the opportunity to try out my deductive powers. High school algebra and geometry were exercises in logical reasoning, and college physics was one story problem after another great fun!

As my children grew, I wanted to share this sort of mathematical play with them, but the mundane busyness of everyday life kept pushing aside my good intentions. Determined to make it happen, I found a way to defeat procrastination: invite friends to bring their kids over for a math playdate. We grappled with problems, solved puzzles, and shared games. Skeptical at first, the kids soon looked forward to math club. When that gang grew up and moved on, their younger siblings came to play, and others after them. Sometimes we met weekly, sometimes monthly or just off and on. At our house, at the library, in the park more than twenty years of playing math with kids.

Now Ive gathered our favorite math club games into these Math You Can Play books. They are simple to learn, easy to set up, and quick to play, so even the busiest parents can build their childrens mental math skills and promote logical thinking.

I hope you enjoy these games as much as we have. If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.

Denise Gaskins

LetsPlayMath@gmail.com

P.S.: If youve read the Math You Can Play books in order, you will notice that I repeat myself in Sections I and III. Im including the setup information and math teaching tips in each book to make sure they can all stand on their own.

Section I

A Strategy for Learning

Prof. Trianglemans Abbreviated List of Standards for Mathematical Practice

PTALSMP 1: Ask questions.

Ask why. Ask how. Ask whether your answer is right. Ask whether it makes sense. Ask what assumptions you have made, and whether an alternate set of assumptions might be warranted. Ask what if. Ask what if not.

PTALSMP 2: Play.

See what happens if you carry out the computation you have in mind, even if you are not sure its the right one. See what happens if you do it the other way around. Try to think like someone else would think. Tweak and see what happens.

PTALSMP 3: Argue.

Say why you think you are right. Say why you might be wrong. Try to understand how someone else sees things, and say why you think their perspective may be valid. Do not accept what others say is so, but listen carefully to it so that you can decide whether it is.