Book Review: Super Fun Math Games for Kids

Most of us probably don’t think of math as being playful. It feels like a set of rules that need to be followed every time. But math can also be about exploration, experimentation, and drawing huge shapes on the driveway.

Taking a playful approach to teaching math concepts is the philosophy behind Super Fun Math Games for Kids by Rebecca Rapoport and J.A. Yoder. The 32 projects in this book will have kids ages 6-10 drawing, coloring, building and sewing, all the while learning about things like mobius strips, tanagrams, Koch snowflakes, Eulerian circuits and more.

And don’t worry if you don’t know what any of those things are. The book does a good job explaining enough about concepts to make them understandable without overwhelming young learners (or their parents who haven’t taken a math class in a decade or more).

The book covers geometry, topology, coloring maps like a mathematician, stitching curves, fractals, tanagrams, toothpick puzzles and graph theory. Each chapter opens with a “think about it” question that deals with a concept related to the chapter, and then includes a few “lab” activities, which are meant to be worked through in order within the chapter as the skills and concepts build on each other.

The idea is that kids can do the experiments with the help of an older child or adult, and some include variations for older people to play along with. The book is meant to be worked in, with activities you can color on directly in the book or pull out to use or make copies of for classroom use (materials are also available online for teacher and parent use).

The book includes a wide range of activities, from building with toothpicks and gumdrops to coloring maps without having the same color touch, drawing shapes without picking up your pencil, building puzzles out of tanagrams and solving a classic map puzzle to name a few.

Kids should enjoy these activities and learning about different math concepts in a fun way that doesn’t involve equations on the whiteboard. Adults playing along might just learn something, too!

About the book: 128 pages, paperback. Published 2025 by New Shoe Press. Suggested retail price $16.99.

All About Me Math Themed Sheets

Candy Corn Math Activities [Lesson Plans]

Christmas Themed Math Activities [Lesson Plans]

It’s the time of the year to start bringing a little Halloween fun into every lesson plan you can, so here are some ideas for witch themed math activities your kids are sure to love.

Practice symmetry skills with this witch hat counting game from Friends Art Lab. Kids can stick stickers of the same type on each side of the hat, then count how many total, how many of each type, etc. And you end up with a cute piece of art to boot.

Frugal Mom Eh has a number of witch themed worksheets including a connect the dots, label the witch and Halloween themed scattergories. But the one that caught my eye was the witch’s leg coloring page, which is a color by the answer to the math problem.

Nurtured Neurons has a cute witch counting came where you match the witch to the number of bubbles coming out of her cauldron. This one requires membership in their community but you might be able to get a free preview.

The witches brew on a ten frame activity from Miniature Masterminds is a cute one to work on one to one correspondence. Use little erasers or buttons if you want to reuse the cards, or add stickers to match the number on the card, which adds a fine motor skill component.

The Teacher Bag has a cute Halloween counting game kids can use to make their own potion in a little cauldron. You could make your own version with all the little Halloween themed bits you have handy, and either make a spinner like theirs or just write out some recipes and have kids go through the bigger cauldron to find all the ingredients they need. Then count them up! This post from Pocket of Preschool has a similar idea you can use with their printable or make your own with whatever items you have on hand.

Have you read?

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