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We play many math games in First Grade to practice key skills. Below are directions for some of our favorites so that you can play at home!

Link to Nine Men's Morris Game

You will need: a paper with a grid of dots on it (you can make your own or print one off), two pencils, two players

To Play:

• Players take turns connecting two dots with a line.
• When a player's line completes a square, that player gets to write his or her initials in the square and then take another turn.
• When all the lines have been connected, the player with the most squares has won!

You will need: one deck of cars with the jokers, jacks, queens, and kings taken out, two players

To Play:

• This game is very similar to the card game known as "war," but we call it "Top-It."  To begin play, divide the cards equally between two players.
• Each player turns over two cards.  Each player then adds the two cards together and tells their opponent the sum, checking each other for accuracy.
• The player with the highest sum gets all four cards!
• REPEAT!
• If the sums are equal, then each player lays three cards face down on the pile.  Then they turn over two new cards, add the numbers, and announce the sum.  The player with the highest sum wins all the cards in that pile.  That's a lot of cards!

To modify this game:

• Play subtraction Top-It.  Instead of adding the numbers, subtract the smaller number from the larger one to figure out the difference.  The player with the larger difference gets the cards.
• Turn over 3 or 4 cards for each player on each turn to increase the addition challenge.

You will need: three dice, paper, and pencil.

To Play:

• Roll three dice to get three digits.  (example:  3,6,1)
• On your paper, write the greatest (biggest) number you can using those two digits.  Next to that number, write the least (smallest) number you can write with those two digits.  (example:  631 , 136)
• Check your partner's paper to see if you got the same answer.  If you didn't, explain why you made the numbers you did.  See if what you did made sense.  Fix the numbers if they don't make sense.
• REPEAT!

To modify this game:

• If this game is too hard at first, play with just two dice.
• If this game is too easy, play with four dice.  For first graders, just reading four digit numbers can be a challenge.  Make sure to talk about the "thousands" place as you check each other's answers.

You will need dice, paper, pencils. (or a white board and marker, or a chalk board and chalk)

To Play:

• Set up your game board.  Draw two boxes connected to each other, one for the tens place and one for the single ones place.  Under the boxes, draw a box that will be your trash can.  Make sure your boxes are big enough to write a single number inside.  Your children can show you what it should look like.
• Roll one die.  Write the corresponding number in one of the boxes.  You get to decide where the number goes.
• Repeat two times until you have rolled a number for each box.  Once all the boxes are filled, the person who has the greatest number in the top boxes has won!  
• Clear or redraw your boxes, and play again!

To modify this game, you could:

• Add digits by adding more boxes at the top of your game board.  At school, we play both two-digit and three-digit Cast Off.
• Play a golf version, in which the winner is the person who builds the least number.

You will need dice, paper, pencils.

To Play:

• Divide your paper into two columns, one for each person.  Write each player's name at the top of a column.
• Each person rolls one die to find out what number they get to write in the ten's place.  Write the number in the ten's place of the column.
• Roll again to get a number for the single one's place and record it next to the ten's place in your column.
• Now, compare the two numbers, putting a >, <, or = sign in-between the two numbers.

To modify this game, you could:

• in addition to writing the numbers down, build the numbers using ten yen and one yen coins as manipulatives. If children are unsure of which number is biggest, this can help them see and feel the difference.
• keep score.  Each time a player rolls the biggest number, she gets to put a tally mark at the bottom of her column.  If your numbers are equal, you both get a tally mark.  Whoever gets the most, wins!
• play a "Golf" version of the above variation, in which the person with the "least" number gets the point, or the person with the least points wins.  Make sure you agree on the rules at the start of the game ... don't let those first graders snooker you out of a win!

You will need: several one and ten yen coins, one 100 yen coin, two or more dice.

To Play:

• Players take turns rolling the dice and counting up the dots.  Then each player takes that much money from the money pile in turns.  For example, if he rolls a 3 and a 4, he would take 7 yen from the pile.
• As each player adds money to his money pile, he should try to exchange 10 one yen coins for 1 ten yen coin.  When an exchange is made, he should return the one yen coins to the general pile.
• When a player has 10 ten yen coins, he can exchange them for a 100 yen coin and he wins!

To modify this game, you could:

• include five and fifty yen coins to the money pile to allow for more complicated trades.
• include a thousand yen bill for the goal and play to 1000 yen.
• use 3 or more dice to make the game go faster and challenge your child's addition skills.
• use US coins or other currency from your home country to give your child experience in different money systems.  If playing with US coins, make sure your child practices counting quarters, as this is a difficult but important money counting skill for that money system.  With Australian money, counting by twenties is a skill students will have to master.

You will need: two dice, lined paper, a pencil.

To Play:

• Designate one die for the one's place and one die for the ten's place. Roll the dice to get a starting number.  If the "ten's die" rolls a 6 and the "one's die" rolls a 3, then your starting number would be 63.
• All players write the starting number at the beginning of a line on their paper. Then, they each write the next nine numbers, separating them with commas.  For example, if you start with "63," on your paper you would have "63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72."
• The players then check to see if they got the same thing.  If they did, they roll again!

To modify this game, you could:

• add a die for the hundred's place and practice with numbers above 99.
• instead of counting on by ones, you could count on by tens.  If you have an even number in the one's place, you could count on by two's.  If you have a five in the one's place, you could count on by fives.
• for any of the above variations, you can count backwards for an extra challenge.

You will need:  two dice, paper, pencil.

To Play:

• Designate one die for the one's place and one die for the ten's place. Roll the dice to get a starting number.  If the "ten's die" rolls a 6 and the "one's die" rolls a 3, then your starting number would be 63.
• Once you have a number, each player makes that many tally marks on their paper.  Encourage your child to make them neatly and of an appropriate size (some first graders either like giant tally marks or itty-bitty-teensy-weensy ones.)
• Trade papers.  Each player counts another player's tally marks to make sure they were accurate.  Then, roll again!

You will need: a collection of one, five, and ten yen coins, two or more dice.

To Play (directions are for Japanese yen):

• Each player rolls one or two dice and add the dots together to get a number.  Each player should take that many one yen coins.  In the same way, all players roll to figure out how many five yen and ten yen you will get.
• Each player organizes her coins  in a line with the ten yen first, the five yen next, and the one yen last.
• Each player counts her money and checks the other players' counting.  Whoever got the most wins (but if everyone counts accurately, everyone wins learning!).

To modify this game:

• add larger denominations, such as 50 or 100 yen coins.
• play with coins from different currencies (but please don't mix currencies!).  If playing with US coins, remember, counting quarters is a big challenge for first graders!
• For an extra challenge, figure out the difference between two players' amounts.  For example, if Lucy had 34 yen and Ms. Foster had 22 yen, then Lucy would have 12 yen more than Ms. Foster.