Roll, Solve, and Move: Math Board Games
Doing twenty sums on a worksheet is a chore. Doing twenty sums to get your counter round a board before your sister gets hers round is not, even though it is the same twenty sums. The math has not changed — the reason for doing it has.
So build the board.
- A large sheet of paper or a piece of cardboard
- Markers or colored pens
- A ruler
- One dice
- A small counter for each player — buttons, coins, or bits of pasta
Build It
- Draw the path. A line of squares winding from Start to Finish — about thirty is a good length. Curve it around the paper so it fills the space.
- Decorate it. A race track, a jungle, the surface of a planet. This part is not decoration for its own sake: a board somebody wants to look at is a board that gets played.
- Write a sum on about half the squares. Leave the rest blank as resting places.
- Add a few special squares. Move forward 2. Go back 1. Miss a turn. Swap places with another player.
- Write the rules down in a corner of the board — how many can play, what happens if you get a sum wrong, and how you win.
- Play it. Roll, move, and solve whatever you land on.
Choosing the Sums
Mix them up, so the board stays interesting all the way round.
- Easy: 2 + 3
- Medium: 5 × 4
- Harder: 12 ÷ 3
- A word problem: you have 7 apples and give away 2 — how many are left?
Put the harder ones near the end. A board that gets tougher as you approach the finish keeps the game close, because whoever is winning hits the difficult squares first.
What Happens If You Get It Wrong
This is the rule worth thinking hardest about, and it is your choice:
- Stay where you are and try again next turn. Gentle, and nobody gets left far behind.
- Go back one square. Sharper, and it makes the game swing about more.
- Ask another player to answer it. If they can, they move forward. This one keeps everybody paying attention on somebody else's turn, which is the hardest thing to get right in any board game.
Make a Second Version
Once it works, make another board for a different kind of math — times tables only, or fractions, or telling the time. The board takes twenty minutes and you can play it for years.