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.

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Tips for Teaching Kids to Sew

With summer coming on in the Northern Hemisphere, I feel like we all need some fun activities we can do with one kid at home or a bunch in a classroom when it’s too hot to go outside (I guess you can say the same for if it’s too cold to go out in the Southern Hemisphere, too).

This disaster island Lego challenge from Lego Librarian was designed to be done with a Lego club, but you can do it in a classroom if you have bricks handy, or at home with one or two kids.

The idea is that first the kids each design their own island, with a given amount of time where that is the only prompt.

Then each person draws a disaster card. You can use the ones from Lego Librarian or make up your own. These are things like there’s a storm coming so you need to build a strong shelter, or there’s a rescue plane so you need to build something so they will see you.

There’s a whole bunch of ideas, which should get kids thinking creatively about ways to alter their islands for whatever situations you throw at them.

If you’re doing this with just one or two kids, the idea is the same, or you could have them draw several cards over a session if they want to keep the fun going.

This is a great low prep STEM activity for kids that should get them thinking creatively about how to solve problems. It’s a great idea to have the kids explain what they did to solve their particular problem, too, and why they think that will help.

Even though it won’t be a surprise what’s going to happen after the first time you play it, this is one you can do again and again because the kids will probably draw different cards.

Get all the details and a printable list of challenge prompts at Lego Librarian.

[Photo: Lego Librarian]

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