Things You'll Need:
- Cardboard
- Colored markers
- Yardstick
- Note cards
- Dice
- Playing pieces
-
Step 1
Zero in on what your child needs to practice. The best way to do this is to meet with your child's math teacher. Find out what areas your child finds especially challenging so that you can be sure that the math board game focuses on the areas that will be most helpful to your child. Ask the math teacher for recommended resources such as books and websites that might be of special interest to you as you develop the game.
-
Step 2
Make a long list of practice math problems and answers. Come up with as many math problems as you possibly can for this list. Every problem you include represents valuable practice for your child.
-
Step 3
Dig all of your board games out from their storage spot in the basement. You need dice and game pieces for your math board game and other infrequently used board games are a great source for such items.
-
Step 4
Locate some cardboard that can be used to form the playing board for your math board game. You can use whatever you have on hand, as long as one side contains no writing. Use a black marker and a yard stick to mark evenly spaced squares around the perimeter.
-
Step 5
Use colored markers to assign a point value to each square on your math game board. For example, use red to denote spaces that are worth ten points. Use yellow to denote spaces that are worth five points. Continue assigning points until all but three spaces have a point value. Use these three spaces to add a little fun to the board.. You can use them for a lose a turn space, a roll again space and a ten free points space.
-
Step 6
Equally divide the math problems on your list into categories that match the colored point values you have placed on your math game board. Make sure that the most challenging math problems are placed into the category with the most points assigned to it and that all others are grouped accordingly as well.
-
Step 7
Write the math problems onto note cards. If you can find colored note cards to match the various point categories, use them. If you can't, just color the edges of the note cards with a marker for identification. Group the note cards into piles.
-
Step 8
Roll the dice--the player who rolls the highest goes first. Take turns rolling the dice and moving game pieces around the board. Each time you land, your opponent will read a math problem from a card that matches the space you have landed on. If you answer correctly, you get the points assigned to that color. If you answer incorrectly, you don't get any points. The first player to reach 100 points wins!
