How to Fit Math Games into Your Classroom Schedule

Math games provide so many benefits to student learning! They are engaging and motivating to even the most reluctant learner. You want to incorporate math games into your classroom schedule, but your day is already so packed, where do you fit another thing in? Today I am sharing some different ways you might be able to incorporate math games into your plans, even if your day is already packed full!

Math Centers or Stations

One way many people incorporate math games into their classrooms is through the use of math centers or math stations. Math centers can be a great way to provide a variety of learning activities, including games, to your students and also have the opportunity to work with small groups while students are working in their centers. Math games can be used as a partner activity or small group activity (I recommend keeping groups at 2-3 students to keep everyone engaged). You might use math centers daily as a part of your math block, or maybe you have one day a week that you use your math block to just do math centers.

Math Game Days

Taking one day to use your math time to just play math games can be something exciting for students to look forward to. There are some times that aren’t ideal to start a new unit or move on to a new skill. I don’t like to start new concepts on Fridays, or the day right before a break. These are perfect times to pull out a variety of math games and use your math block time to have kids choose games, or rotate through games, to practice and review specific math skills.

Small Group Teaching

If you work with small groups in a guided math format, or when students are working in math centers, this is a great time to incorporate math games into your schedule. You can pull games with skills specific to the small group you are working with and help guide students through the gameplay and the practice of the math skills involved. You can use math games with small groups to review skills previously taught or as an engaging way to practice skills students might be struggling with.

Morning Work or Dismissal Time

I have had years where students arrived at school over a 25-minute time block. Some kids arrived right away and they needed to have something to do while we waited for everyone else to arrive. 25 minutes for kids to entertain themselves while waiting for everyone to arrive can lead to chaos pretty quickly. This is a great time to pull in math games!

Set up the expectation that once 2-4 kids have arrived and finished their morning routines, they pull out a math game and spend time playing a game together. This is a great way for kids to still be able to socialize with their peers but in a structured setting. This also works well at dismissal time if you have a staggered dismissal where kids may be waiting in your classroom for an extended period of time waiting for their dismissal to be called.

Choice Time

Upper elementary classrooms don’t often have scheduled choice time or open playtime, but if you find yourself finishing an activity quicker than expected, or have an odd chunk of time to fill before specials, lunch, or recess, it is a great time to give students choice time. This may be a free choice time where they can choose any activity to do, or it may be more of a guided choice time where you give students 4-6 activities to choose from to participate in during that time. Math games are a great activity to use as one of the choices students can choose from during that time.

Homework- Family Math Activity

Extend classroom learning beyond the school day, and incorporate families in student learning by sending math games home as a form of homework to use as a family math activity. Select a day of the week that every kid brings a game home to play with their family that evening or have families sign up for a day of the week that works best for their schedules to have family math game time at home.

Always send home games that the kids are familiar with and have played before. Kids can take leadership in the activity because they will be familiar with the game format, set up and rules. They can build math communication skills by explaining the game to family members.

This is a great opportunity to involve families in learning, give families a glimpse into what their student is working on in math class, and extend learning beyond the classroom walls.

Indoor Recess

Indoor recess……everyone’s favorite right?? You want kids to have some downtime and time to socialize, but you also want your classroom to remain in control and not have kids bouncing off the walls. Providing math games as a choice during indoor recess is a great way for students to play, socialize, and practice social skills.

I do not recommend using math games as the only option during indoor recess, that could lead to students losing interest in them. However, having learning games as one activity on a list of possible activities would be great!

Early Finisher Activities

Most teachers regularly have students who finish activities faster than others in the class. Those students need something to do while the rest of their classmates are completing their work. Math games are a great option for early finishers to participate in during that time. Playing a math game is a great activity that doesn’t require an extra assignment or make the student feel like they are being punished or given another assignment just because they were able to complete their work quicker than others.

I hope I gave you some new ideas to think about when considering how you can fit math games into your classroom schedule. Thinking outside the box and outside the regular math block is sometimes key to “fitting it all in”.

You can grab one of my printable math games for FREE by clicking here or on the image below.

Click HERE or on the image below to see all of the printable math games for 4th grade and 5th grade math skills that I have available in my Hello Learning Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Read more about the benefits of playing math games HERE

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