The idea for the  Games and Activities grew out of my 30 years’ experience with math students of all ages who still counted on their fingers. While this is possibly appropriate for a first or second grader, it is embarrassing for a fifth grader—or at least it should be!

Neither rewards nor threats could persuade some students to commit their basic facts to memory. Many of my students would freeze at flashcards, so I tried to think of another way to help them learn. Because games motivate through competition and have a natural pace of their own, I thought I’d try some card games I learned at a math teachers’ convention.

These card games worked well with the students who just needed to build speed, but didn’t help the students who were really struggling to commit the basic facts to memory. Working with young students also required going in stages, as they built up their knowledge. I switched from cards to dice with the younger ones because dice only go up to six. I found, however, that even this was too challenging for some. In addition, the older students often needed to work on facts greater than six.

So, I experimented with blank dice and labels with the numbers the students needed to practice. I found that not only did the students ask to play the games again and again; they began to automatically remember facts they used to have to count on their fingers. Sometimes parents asked how they could play the same games at home. That is when I got the idea of providing instructions and appropriately labeled dice for use at home, and thus  was born.

games, activities, and workbooks provide a fun and easy way for students to acquire automatic recall of the basic math facts and other basic computational skills. The secret is in the sequencing of the games and activities that build up gradually so that learning is stress-free.

I hope to expand the  line to include many more games and activities using simple but effective models for learning mathematics.

I hope you and your students enjoy these games and activities.

Virginia W. Strawderman, Ph.D. - resume