This game is perfect for students who need to practice decimal operations. Simple and quick to put together, plus it’s free!
Recently my 4th grade son was asked by his teacher to come up with a game to practice the skill of multiplying numbers with decimals. He made some cards and then shared with me his ideas on how to play a game that he made up. (If it has already been “made up”…my apologies! He certainly thinks that it was original!) 🙂
It is a very simple game that only involves a set of cards (containing numbers with decimals), two dry erase boards with markers, a piece of paper (to keep score) and a calculator (or two) for checking answers.
We have provided 176 different decimal number cards. Student directions have been provided on the last slide if you choose to use the cards for this particular game, but there are many ways you can use the cards.
Directions:
- The game is best played with two or three students. (For subtraction…two students is the maximum.)
- Print, cut and laminate the cards. Students place them in a stack or pile in the middle.
- Each student chooses a card and at the count of three all are placed face up for everyone to see.
- Students then immediately get to work adding, subtracting or multiplying all the numbers on their own dry erase boards. You choose the operation depending on the skill you want those students to focus on.
- All students need to complete the problem, but they will need keep track of who completes it first. (Perhaps instruct them put the caps on their markers and lay their boards flat when they are done with the problems.)
- Once all students have an answer to the problem, it is checked on the calculator. You might choose to have more than one calculator and have more than one student check the operation.
- Scoring: First student finished with a correct answer gets two points. Anyone else with a correct answer gets 1 point. Score is recorded on the paper. You can have them play for a specific time period or until one student reaches a specified number of points.
If you need more decimal practice with operations for your students, we also have a Decimal Draw Game with a game board. There are also several decimals & fractions resources if you simply