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Old fashioned drill and practice is being replaced in the classroom with games that are often competitive in nature and help motivate children to master skills.
Why play games? Why play math games, anyway? There are a number of good reasons. The truth is that playing games in class has become a way of motivating students. Many students, especially at the elementary level, think that competition is a fun thing in its own right. Offer them the opportunity to compete as part of the learning process and their motivation to learn increases. Offer some kind of prize for winning and motivation can go through the roof for many students. Making Learning FunPlaying games makes learning fun. It may seem obvious, but elementary school kids like having fun much more than they like working. To the extent that learning is a motivational issue, playing games accomplishes more than traditional drill and practice activities, like filling in charts or writing facts out multiple times. When you encounter opposition to these types of activities in a classroom setting it is usually because some educator, administrator, or parent thinks that tradition is a valuable part of education. "Filling out times table charts over and over again worked for me!" someone will tell you. Or you'll hear, "I always worry that our test scores will go down when we start using new and untested methods." The truth is that the enjoyment of learning is something that has to be nurtured. If students do enjoy the activities that strengthen their skills, they'll learn more and remember it longer. The Skills We NurtureGames nurture a variety of essential skills in the classroom setting. The most obvious example is that we nurture the skill being targeted by the game. If the game is focused on multiplication, the game nurtures memorization of math facts. You get the idea. In addition to that targeted skill, games often provide general support for critical thinking and problem solving skills. The nature of competition encourages students to work more quickly to find an answer. The social aspects of games promote character development and communication skills (especially if the games require team work or cooperation). Compare those many functions of playing games to an exercise like copying times tables charts over and over to help memorize them and it becomes obvious that games are a marvelous classroom tool. More Time PracticingPerhaps the biggest benefit to using games as an instructional tool is the simple time factor. If children like the games, they take the ideas involved away with them and continue to practice whatever math skill is involved in the game on the own time. Since many of these types of games can either be made at home from simple materials (a deck or cards, a set of dice, a homemade bingo card, etc.) or are available on the Internet, playing them at home with friends, siblings, or parents is not difficult. The more a child plays the games, the better their math skills usually become. Want to try some math games? Start with these suggestions for bingo.
The copyright of the article Why Play Math Games? in Curricula/Lesson Plans is owned by Greg Cruey. Permission to republish Why Play Math Games? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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