My son has been home for Spring Break this week, so Bagels and Blogs is on vacation today (sorry, Amy…).  I do, however, have a freebie for you!  This is a fun, fast-paced card game based on an activity I saw in a workshop last week.  Students race to put either the next or previous multiple of a number on the face-up card.  I called it Multiples Mambo, because in a mambo you step up and then back.  The freebie is for practicing multiples of 2, or you can buy the full set for all the multiples from 2s through 12s.

While games are great fun, we also want them to produce great math!  Here are some tips for getting the most out of your math games:

• Be organized!  Develop a system for storing and displaying your games so students can easily get to them and put them away.  Model the correct way to handle and store materials.  Don’t just assume that students know how to clean up after themselves!
• Practice the game in whole and small group instruction several times before moving it to a center.  Students can’t use their time productively if they don’t know how to play the game.
• Promote mathematical conversations by including Math Talk cards with your games.  For example, with the Multiples Mambo game a Math Talk card might include vocabulary to use (for example, multiples), or a conversation starter (Something I notice about all the multiples of 2 is…).