Math Dice in the Classroom
At ThinkFun, we’re committed to the idea that children learn valuable life and educational skills most effectively through play. That’s what drives us to make all of our games, and it’s why we’re so proud of the track record that our Math Dice line has – for over a dozen years Math Dice games have been used as learning tools in schools around the USA.
Math Dice in Arlington
Teachers from all over the country use Math Dice in K-5 classrooms, but none more so than the teachers in Arlington County, Virginia. For over 15 years, Arlington teachers have hosted an annual tournament in the Spring, where teams from 23 schools come together to compete.
“From the moment we introduce Math Dice, that’s all they want to do. I have students who come during lunch and recess who would rather do Math Dice than go outside.” – Stephanie McIntyre
Does Math Dice Really Help Kids Learn?
“Their math fluency has definitely increased. Their knowledge of exponents, and order of operations, is much stronger in 5th grade than I would say in times where we don’t use Math Dice as the instructional tool.” – Stephanie McIntyre
“A lot of our standards are around fact fluency, the kids learning their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts really quickly, but this is a really fun way to do that outside of things like worksheets or flash cards. It gives the kids the opportunity and the incentive to learn their facts really well in a game environment, so they don’t even realize sometimes how much they’re learning when they’re playing, which is awesome.” – Christine Hufnagel
How Do You Play?
So how do you play Math Dice? Each set comes with five dice; three six-sided and two twelve-sided. Two students play each other head to head, first rolling the twelve sided dice and multiplying them together to get the ‘target number’. Next they roll the six-sided dice and, using any mathematical operation, try to solve for the target number, or get as close as they can. Whoever solves it first, or gets the closest answer, wins!
Want to Use Math Dice in Your Classroom?
A special community of teachers is integrating Math Dice into their lessons by running simple ‘Math Dice Tournaments.’ Whether you want to run a tournament with 12 or 200 students, our program is built to give you all the materials you need. Click here to learn more about how easy it is to download the guide, the station cards, and the score cards so you can get your students rolling Math Dice today!
