I will be the first to admit, math is not my strongest suit. When I was young, numbers scared me. I have always been a language girl. Probably that’s why I make an effort to make math fun for my kids. I hope they don’t grow up with number fears! And that’s how I came up with this DIY 3-in-a-row Number Game for Kids.
If you come to think of it, Math is not just about numbers & formulas, and games is one way we can experience the beauty of math all around us.
So here’s a fun game to play with numbers along with one of the biggest attractions for kids… S.T.I.C.K.E.R.S ! Yay!
How to Play DIY 3-in-a-row Number Game
Number of Players required- 2
Things required-
- Dot Dominos
- Dice (2)
- Stickers (preferably of two different colours or designs to give to each player)
- A tray or any plain base
And of course Happy and charged up kids 🙂
How to play-
- To begin with, place the dominos randomly on a plain base (I used a small chalkboard) as a 5×5 matrix.
- Give 2 separate set of stickers to the players. I gave smileys to one and stars to another. So basically you can call it 2 separate team codes.
- The child should roll the dice. They add the numbers that come and identify the number represented by the dots on the die with the laid down dominos.
- Tag that domino with respective team sticker.
Then the 2nd player’s turn & so in.
Winner is the person who gets first set of 3 stickers in a row – it can be vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
Through this Number game, a few skills that we worked on-
- Subitizing
- Addition
- Mental maths
- Logical thinking (how to place the sticker to have 3-in-a-row)
Variations-
For younger kids who haven’t been introduced to addition, you can use only 1 dice and let the child identify the corresponding number on the dominos.
Also, if you don’t have dominos or stickers, make such dots on squares on a white board and use dot markers. Then the player will dot the number with their dot marker.
Hope you liked this simple number game and your kids enjoy it too!
You may also like “DIY Board Games for Toddlers”
Go Mommy!