Strategy Games

In this section we will be adding maths games from time to time. The games that you will find here are ones that include strategy alongside practice of mathematical skills. There are many different types of games. Snakes and Ladders for instance is a game of chance. Although it allows students to practice strategies, such as subitization. counting on and number recognition it does not develop adaptive reasoning because it is not a strategy game. Noughts and Crosses however is a strategy game. The player who plans well is likely to win.

Put strategy and mathematical skill together into a game such as Counter Totals and the potential for developing adaptive reasoning and mathematical skills come together in powerful ways that can help students become mathematical and think mathematically. To increase outcomes in mathematics we need to be working on fun learning of skills and strategies as well as on raising adaptive reasoning. Please feel free to use any of the games presented here as starting points for others. If they work well, send them to us for inclusion on the site.

Forms of Game

Games can be competitive, cooperative or inclusive. In a competitive game, there is a winner and losers.  Because competition is so much part of our culture, the competitive form of a game is often the one that students will understand most readily. But once the rules are understood, the cooperative form of the game holds just as much interest and often leads to much more practice of the relevant mathematical language as well as making adaptive reasoning strategies more explicit. The inclusive form of a game is often an adaptation of the rules to ensure that all players can participate to the full extent of their understanding, and other players need to be aware of the needs of others in planning how play will progress. We are used to this type of game in skipping, where the level of the player can often dictate the complexity of the skipping routine that they follow. The inclusive form emphasises the social aspects of maths and is good practice for social constructivism.

You can decide for yourselves how best to utilise the games in your own classrooms. Because of the resourcing required for making a game available, it is a good idea to use the different types of each game as these will give varied experiences and the students are not likely to lose interest so quickly as they might if only one form is played.