Math games and puzzles give students meaningful, enjoyable contexts for doing math. While playing, students deepen understandings, develop new strategies, and increase computational fluency. When choosing a math game, our teachers keep in mind the following considerations:
- What mathematical ideas or strategies is the game developing?
- Would the game be best played competitively or cooperatively?
- Does the game emphasize thinking rather than speed
Practice is more than reviewing to memorize – it is about increasing fluency and identifying relationships and mathematical ideas. Purposeful practice is valuable when students understand what they are doing, make connections to what they know, and find it meaningful.
Purposeful practice:
- develops skills, problem solving and thinking
- should include a variety of forms (orally, written, using online tools and games, through problems, etc.)
Here are some pictures from one of our grade 6 classes showing students engaging in math games and purposeful practice
When used properly, math games support student's understanding of mathematical concepts and provides them an opportunity to experiment with different strategies.
