Learning centres can be easily extended to games and this will help even more with
memorizing number facts. Some of these examples can easily be repeated at home to help
the students.
● Dice games – roll 2 dice and add the numbers
together.
● Domino parking lot – choose a domino, count
how many spots there are and put them in the
right space.
● Playing cards – add the numbers together and
whoever has the larger number gets the cards.
● Practicing number facts to a specific number such
as 9. From a pack of cards, take out only Aces to
8. Spread them out face down as you would if you were playing a game of memory.
Turn over 2 cards - do they add to 9? If so, the player gets to keep them. If not, they
are turned back over again.
As the students get older, these types of “hands-on” activities can be adapted for
multiplication or other number operations.
In the older grades, learning through play is often introduced to the students as a challenge
or an experiment. An example of this would be in a unit on Measurement. The teacher may
pose the challenge of needing to know how much material would be needed to resurface the
pitch. Students could then be found measuring the length and width of the pitch in order to
calculate the area. Not only do many of the students think of this type of activity as “fun”,
they are also being shown how Mathematical concepts are used in the real world.
In this article, I have focused on Mathematics, but games and
play can be used to reinforce learning in all subject areas.
One example of this is a game you may recall, “Scrabble”,
where the children must use their vocabulary and spelling
skills, math facts to add up their totals and strategies to
decide where to place their word tiles.
Many specialists tell us that children learn best when they are
actively engaged through exploring or experimenting, their
interest is aroused and they can understand why they should
learn what is being taught. This is why throughout
Elementary, we try to continue using play, experiments or
hands-on activities to help develop the students’ learning.