Math Made Fun for Primary Students: Tips for Tutors

You have $50 to spend on snacks for a party. How many items can you buy within budget?

You’re going on a road trip. Calculate the total cost of gas, food, and lodging based on the distance, fuel efficiency of the car, and prices.

Redesign your bedroom within a specific budget. Calculate the cost of furniture, paint, and decorations. Create a scale drawing of the room layout.

You’re building a fence for a garden. Calculate how much wood you’ll need, the cost of materials, and the total area of the enclosed space.

You’re planning a trip to another country and need to exchange money. Calculate how much local currency you’ll receive based on the exchange rate and your budget.

Find an object with a circumference of approximately 20 cm.

Locate objects with right, acute, or obtuse angles.

Find two numbers in the learning area and calculate the product, sum, difference etc.

An alternative approach is to create a series of questions related to the current unit the students are studying. Hide these questions around the learning environment, with each answer corresponding to a specific letter. Once all the questions are solved, the collected letters will spell out a secret code or reveal the answer to a riddle.

Same, Same:

Give each student a full deck of cards. Have them arrange the cards in sets to show two ways to make the same amount as many times as they can using as many of the cards as they can. For example, they could show 10 by putting out a king in one set and two 5’s in the matching set. You could make 7 with a 3 card and a 4 card in one set and a 5 card and a 2 card in another set. This is a creative thinking challenge 

More Than/Less Than:

Comparing numbers is a good math skill to practice in early grades. Here’s a fun way to do it incorporating a math card game. Deal out cards so each player has half the deck. Players take turns being the leader and calling out either “More than” or “Less than.” They then take the card from the top of their pile and turn it over. Whatever the rule was for that round is applied to the two cards. Whoever has the card that meets that rule wins both cards. The player with the most cards at the end of the deck is the winner.

“Sum” Are Odd and “Sum” Are Even:

You can practice addition and odd and even numbers with this simple math card game. Shuffle the deck and place it between two partners. The lead player declares “Odd” or “Even.” Let’s say she says, “Even.” Players then each draw a card. The cards are added together. If the sum is even, the lead player keeps the cards. If the sum is odd, the other player takes the cards. Now the other player gets to declare odd or even. Play continues until the deck is finished, and then the cards are counted to see who has the most.

Guess My Pattern:

Patterns are the basis of a lot of mathematics. Recognizing patterns depends on understanding what is repeating in a pattern, also known as the rule. Each player takes a deck of cards and on their desks creates a pattern of at least eight cards. It could be a number pattern, a color pattern, a suit pattern, or any combination of those elements. Students then write their rule down on a piece of paper and turn it over. When ready, players walk around the room looking at each other’s patterns and trying to guess the rule.

Multiplier:

Shuffle the deck and deal out two piles. Players each flip over two cards. They multiply these together and get a product. Players compare products and whoever has the highest product wins that round. Cards go into the discard pile, and players play until the two stacks are gone. If a player incorrectly multiplies their cards and the partner does it correctly, the point goes to the partner.

Beat the Dealer:

Put three players together. The first player is the dealer. The dealer picks three cards from the deck and creates the largest number possible by arranging the digits. The other two players try to “beat the dealer” by also picking three cards and arranging them to try to create an even bigger number. Whoever beats the dealer gets a point. Keep track of points and play until the deck is used up. Most points wins. Then take turns being the dealer.

Don’t Be Too Negative:

In this game, all red cards are negative numbers and all black cards are positive numbers. Players draw two cards from the top and use any operation to try to create the smallest possible answer. To make the game even more challenging, have players draw three or four cards in a hand and use various operations, again to create the smallest possible answer.

Magic Squares:

Fill grids with numbers to make rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same sum.

Math Mazes:

Solve equations to navigate through a maze.