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.
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