Money Train Board Game

For those youngsters learning to count money.

This is a gameboard that I drew. It can be made as simple or fancy as you wish. Here is what I did:

A simple board would to be to find a picture of a train (optional) and just make a path for the train to follow. You can make any theme for your game and give it a different name and have it fit your child's interests or a unit you are currently doing. On each segment write amounts. Higher amounts can be used for children with greater ability.

TO PLAY:

Players, in turn, shake a die (or spin a spinner) to find out how many spaces they will move. They collect that amount (or lose if the space indicates that). 

We use real coins from a mixture for this game.

I like using real coins as I have never found play coins I like well enough. These dollars are great as they look like real money that has been Xeroxed and shrunk.

As they play, I also encourage the children to exchange their small coins for larger coins and eventually into dollars. This helps them practice the equivalents. 

We play to see who has the most money when all players reach the end. We also celebrate each player reaching the end. I don't like putting too much emphasis on having a winner, as there then must be losers....and no one wants to be one of them.

Piggy Bank Coin Bingo

Bingo is a fun game that different ages can play together and all learn together.

March 7, 2013

All four of the children are able to play this game together. It is good review for the older boys and they just love to play. Wesley 6, is learning to count coins and Diana 4, is learning to identify the different coins and also to reading double-digit numbers.

The Playing Cards

I drew the pig on white paper and added the blank circles. Then I Xeroxed the pig on several different colors of card stock. The amounts were then written in on the cards so that every card was a little different from the others. Then I covered the cards with clear Contact paper to make them more durable. They could also be laminated or placed in plastic sleeves.

The Calling Cards

 I used coin stamps and put different combinations on these cards. Because Diana is just learning the different coins, we added real coins to our game. I would match the card so she could clearly understand what coins we were using. We helped Wesley (who needed this concept the most) count the coins after Diana had identified them.

 The Play
Plays exactly like traditional bingo. Once the amount on the calling card has been counted, all players look to their cards to find the matching amount. If they have the amount, they use a poker chip to cover the space.

 NOTE: Even young children who cannot yet read the numbers can play with a little help. They enjoy being a part of the game and covering up the spaces on their cards.

The Winner
The player who is the first to cover all the spaces on their card.

Even though Diana was the youngest and unable to count the coins yet, she is able to be the winner of the game.

 

Numerical Order - A Card Game

Deal out 3 - 10 cards to each player. 

Say "Go!"

Players place their cards in a row face-up on the table. 

Then players rearrange their cards, in order from lowest to highest (left to right). 

Because we are playing with limited numbers here, players may get duplicates or more of one number. Same numbers are placed on top of each other.

When a player has his cards in order, he shouts, "In Order!" and all players must stop. His cards are checked. If he has them correctly arranged, he scores 10 points for the round. If incorrect, he scores zero and all other players count their points.

Other player points are scored by starting at the left and giving one point for each card that is in correct order. When a misplaced card is reached, scoring ends. For example: If the player had out the numbers 1, 5, 7, 6, 9, 14, 15, 18, he would score 3 points for the first three cards are in correct order. Even though most of the rest of the cards are in correct order, scoring would end at the 6 which is incorrectly placed.

Play for 10 rounds (or any other agreed upon number of rounds) keeping a total of points scored.

VARIATIONS

1.  Deal 3 cards the first round, 4 the second, 5 the third and continue to 10 (or even 15) cards.

2. Use fractions, mixed numbers, decimals instead of whole numbers.

3. Have math facts on the cards. Arrange the cards by their correct answer.

4. Use much larger numbers, such as thousands, ten thousand, hundred thousands, or even millions.

5. Play with a scoring variation. If playing with fractions, give fractional points. (If there are six cards in play and a player completes the order, he would score one point. If he had 3 cards in order, he would score 3/6 or reduce it to 1/2. This would give the players some good practice in addition of fractions, especially if a different number of cards is dealt each time, thus giving different denominators.)  Get creative with the scoring for great math practice!

Poor Piggy - Counting Pennies

Poor Piggy plays like Old Maid. 

The Cards:

On white paper I drew out a pattern for the cards. I drew the piggy banks with numbers on 10 cards. The Poor Piggy card has no money slot, so he doesn't match up with any coins. The coin cards were stamped using penny coin stamp I purchased years ago at a teacher's store.

Years ago I did this on white paper as an original so I could xerox it on colored cardstock for myself and to be able to share the game with others. How technology has changed!

I found these card holders in a card game at a garage sale. I was so excited to get four of them for only 50 cents. They are much higher to purchase separately.

To Play:

After the cards are shuffled, they are all dealt out to the players. One player will have more cards than the other, but that is OK.

Players sort their cards making all pairs they can and setting them aside.

 It is often easier for young players to place all their cards face up on the table to help them find their pairs.

 Wesley took a little time making his pairs.

Players can either hold the remaining cards in their hands or use one of the handy card holders.

In turn, players draw one card from the other player and match it to the pair in their hand. They then set this pair aside with their other matches.

 OOOOOOOOOOOPS! Douglas drew Poor Piggy. So he just mixes it with the other cards in his holder and hopes that Wesley will draw it back.

Wesley drew a penny card. After learning how many pennies, he will match it to its piggy bank card and set them aside.

 Douglas drew and made this match.

Oh, no! Wesley, don't draw that card. 

But he did and Douglas made the last match, leaving Wesley with the Poor Piggy. Since we didn't make a big deal of this, Wesley was quite pleased to have the Poor Piggy and Douglas was happy knowing he had won.

Fun game. Easy to make. Good learning. SUCCESS!

Education Cubes - Time & Dimes

Wesley, who will be 5 in 2 months, and Jacob, who turned 5 in September, love to use the Education Cubes.

They are learning to tell time. Here we are working with time to the hour. We play with the cubes in a couple different ways.

First they took turns shaking one of the cubes and telling the time that landed on the top.

Then, I ask "Who has one o'clock?" They flipped their cube around until one of them shouted,

"I found it!"  

"I have four o'clock."

Dimes and Counting by 10

The cubes spaces are filled with cards stamped with dimes. The boys are learning to count by 10's and to recognize dimes.

Wesley counts 60 cents.

Jacob counts 30 cents.