Math Games for Middle School
The Critical Thinking Co. offers a variety of products to reinforce math concepts. We reviewed their Middle School Math Games (Grades 6-8).
A Little About the Book
The book contains 72 pages of classroom-tested math activities. It can be purchased in both a physical or digital format. We received the physical book for our review. A digital format would be better for printing off the student activity sheets.
In addition to the Table of Contents found in the beginning of the book there is also a small section about the games and a list of helpful math terms.
The back of the book contains two sections. The first is Teachable Moments. Teachable Moments is meant for the teacher or parent. This section gives explanations and examples for questions such as, “Why is Subtracting a Negative the Same as Adding a Positive?”
The very last page contains a grid of what math concepts and skills can be found in which game.
I found the grid helpful is choosing which math games we might want to try.
The Math Games
There are sixteen games from which to choose. At the beginning of each game you will find a list of materials and the learning standards for mathematics. The materials needed are typically things on hand: paper, pencil, dice, timer, etc. The learning standards show the concept or skill being focused on.
Next, you are given an overview of the game. Following this is the instructions for the math game itself. The explanation will include examples for how it should look. Last, some of the games have variations that can be done, either to focus on a different skill or to increase the difficulty.
Of the sixteen math games in the book, ten of them are meant to be done with two or more students. At least one required a group of four or more. Go With the Flowchart is set up for teams, but the second activity could be done individually.
Overall Thoughts
I used this with my daughter in eighth grade. She really enjoyed the game It’s Logical. Unfortunately, there were only two activities for it and they cannot be reused.
She was disappointed that so many of the games required more than one person. The concepts she was hoping to practice were the algebraic expressions and geometry. Out of the nine games that included these concepts, only two could be done by one person. Of the remaining games, when asked her thoughts she replied, “I thought they were going to be fun.”
To be honest, even though this is listed as for 6th-8th grades, I think she may have been too old for it. Not so much in the content, but in the sense she felt she was “too cool” for these type of games. I could see my daughter who will be in 6th next year enjoying these more.
This book would work well in a classroom setting with multiple children. For a homeschool setting, I do not feel it works quite as well.
We have enjoyed other products we have received from The Critical Thinking Co. The Crew is reviewing a selection of their products, so be sure to check out the other reviews.
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