Did you know there are fun ways for children to practice math skills indoors and outdoors?

Here are some play activities that reinforce math skills – and don’t feel like homework. (You don’t have to mention the math.)

Math Fun with Arts and Crafts

• Explore Shapes with a Gorgeous Bookmaking Project
• The Fold-and-Cut Challenge
• Math Magic Tricks – Math makes the magic in these three tricks work.
• Origami for Kids – This is a starting place but there’s lots of room to expand in complexity.

Kitchen Math Fun

• Baking Math for Families and Young Children – Tips for introducing math in food preparation.
• DREME Family Math: Cooking – Sample recipes focusing on counting measuring or adding and subtracting and tips for math talk while cooking together.
• Homemade Playdough Recipe for Shape Fun
• Make Math Trail Mix – Use ratios to invent your own recipe.

Music Math Fun

Hearing music, making music and responding to music are all math experiences. Read Support Math Readiness Through Music to understand the relationship of music to math for young children.

For young children, songs and finger play rhymes often contain counting and a visual representation of numbers. For some tips read Math at Your Fingertips: Songs and Fingerplays for Preschoolers.

Math Fun with Games

• 7 Board Games to Help Younger Kids Build Math Skills – Practice counting, sequencing and strategy.
• Attribute Train – Turn Your Junk Drawer into a Math Game – Math is about more than numbers.
• Board Games for Kids That Teach Important Math Skills – Games to consider if you have family games night.
• A Family Math Night Scavenger Hunt – While these ideas are designed for classroom use, you can use them at home.
• Simon Says – Listen, move (or not!) and practice early math skills.
• UNO Movement Game for Kids – Turn a classic card game into a movement game.

Math Fun Outdoors

• Do the Math: Calculator Hopscotch – For older children on dry days.
• Math Art: Learning about Circles with Bubble Prints – You can do this indoors, too, but it’s a bit messy.
• Sidewalk Chalk Designs

• We’re Going on a Math Walk, Going to Find Some Math Talk – Lots of numbers, shapes and sizes to notice on a walk in your own neighbourhood. This can be an opportunity to play ‘I Spy’. It’s time to stop when it stops being fun.

Math Picture Books

There are so many picture books that embed math concepts in a story. Public libraries can be a great source of these books. For some title suggestions, browse:

• 40 Children’s Books That Foster a Love of Math
• Math with Living Books
• Math Stories: Teaching Elementary Math through Picture Books

A Couple of Math Myths

There is a myth that using fingers for counting stands in the way of learning. To see why finger counting can be helpful, read Math at Your Fingertips! Easy Counting Activities Using Number Gestures.

The Mozart Effect is the belief that listening to music can make you smarter. This isn’t supported by the evidence.  There are still many other benefits to music education.

More Math Fun Resources

Did you know that you can borrow math games and books of math game from the Decoda Library? There are also books on playful learning of math in the early years.

All adults in BC are welcome to borrow from the library. Email Lea Edgar, Decoda’s librarian, if you have any questions.