Math Centers

During my junior year of college, I won't share the year, we made these amazing math centers that I am still using today!! All you need is posters, markers, and maybe a ruler! My students LOVE playing these and they make for a quick and easy center to set-up or an awesome basket for 'early finishers'.  Whenever I give these games as an option, my students literally cheer!

To make 'One More' just use a half sized poster board. Make a grid, as big as you want, with numbers two through seven. At this center you will need manipulatives and one die. If you look in the image below, there are 4 different color manipulatives being used, that is because I had 4 children playing at once.  Make sure each child has their own type of manipulative so you can add them up at the end! 

Standards addressed: K.CC.A.2, K.CC.B.4, K.OA.A.1

 To play: Students take turns rolling the die. They read the number rolled and then add 'one more'. That is the number that they will cover with one manipulative.  If they roll and add 'one more' and there are no more of that number on the board, they skip a turn! Continue playing until all of the spaces are covered.  Then, each student will count their manipulatives that are on the board and whoever has the most, wins!

*You can make and play this same game as 'one less'. Just make numbers zero to five on your board.

To make 'Cover Up' (seen in the images above and below) just use a half sized poster board. I used a sentence strip in the image above and just wrote my numbers two through twelve.  You can also just draw a long rectangle and add the numbers into the box as well. At this center you will need manipulatives and two dice. In this game, only two students will play at a time.  

Standards addressed: K.CC.B.4.a, K.CC.B.4.b, K.OA.A.1, K.OA.A.2

To play: Students take turns rolling the dice. They add up the dice to find what number they rolled. That is the number that they will cover with one manipulative.  If they roll and add the dice and there are no more of that number on the board, they skip a turn! Continue playing until all of the spaces are covered.  The first one to cover all of their spaces, wins! 

To make 'Hop to It' (seen in the image above) I used a full sized poster board. I made a windy 'road' all across the game board. The students each have a frog manipulative and they have to 'hop' back to the pond.  You can make this game with ANY theme, for instance, use cars to race to the finish line or even unicorns to race to the rainbow. Anything you want!

Standards addressed: K.CC.A.1, K.CC.B.4.a, K.CC.B.4.b

To play: You can play with as many students as you want. Each student needs their own manipulative. You will also need one die to share. Students take turns rolling the die. They read the number that they rolled and move that may spaces on the game board. The first person to make it all the way to the end is the winner. 

*You can add your own rules to this. I make my students roll the EXACT number that they need to make it into the pond. For instance, if they are two away from the pond and they roll a four, they will skip their turn.  You can also add other challenges onto your board like 'roll again' or 'go back to start'. 

Another game my students play is 'Sneaky Snake'. This game is VERY similar to 'Cover Up'; but, you will use numbers one to twelve.  To make this game use a half sized poster board.  Make two snakes on the board, one for each player. 

Standards addressed: K.CC.B.4.a, K.CC.B.4.b, K.OA.A.1, K.OA.A.2

To play: Students will have two dice; however, they can choose to roll one or both. They will roll their die (dice) and read the number that they rolled.  They will cover that number on their snake with a manipulative.  If they roll and add the dice and there are no more of that number on the board, they skip a turn! Continue playing until all of the spaces are covered.  The first one to cover all of their spaces, wins!

Your students will LOVE these games and they are SO easy to make! You can even ask a parent volunteer to help you create them! 

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

You can find my other math centers by clicking on the image below