Maths: Practising Fractions: Pizza Pursuit Game

Fractions game for 2 or more players from Family Fun, all ready to print in the form of a pdf.  Players take it in turns to roll the dice and take the slice indicated. The first person to complete their pizza is the winner.

I have to confess I did have to re-draw the segments though as the dotted lines didn't print out.  After laminating the pieces so they would last longer I also wrote the fraction on each piece to help A who has not really "done" fractions before;we had lots of "threeth's" and "fourth's" as a result.  Both A and R particularly enjoyed stealing a slice from each other :)

Spelling Game: Roll-Write-Keep

This game is an adaptation of the spelling activity used by most schools (at least all the ones we have attended in the UK and elsewhere) called "Look,Say,Cover,Write,Check"  The student is given a book with columns in; in the first column is the word they are learning to spell; they look at it, spell it out loud, cover it up again, spell it from memory, uncover the original and compare (usually this is done several times for each word).  As a method for teaching spelling this is quite effective.  As a method for teaching spelling to A this is just another thing that does not engage him for more than 30 seconds if you are lucky.
Whilst pondering how we could get him to engage with spelling I came across this game to teach younger children to read sight words.  It's called Roll Say Keep.  The players roll a dice , pick the corresponding word from a gameboard, say it, if they say it correctly they get to keep the card, player with the most cards at the end is the winner.  I thought it could be adapted to solve our problem.
So here is our blend of the two things to teach spelling; and best of all you can endlessly adapt it to the words YOU want to learn.

Number of players: 2 or more

You will need:
1 die
1 gameboard
Words for spelling written on pieces of cardstock
Pencil and paper for each player

How to play:
All players roll the die, highest number goes first, play continues clockwise round the table.
Place one word card face down on each space on the gameboard.  Place the remainder of the word cards face down to one side.
The player rolls the die and turns over the corresponding card. They then have to read the word and spell it out loud.  The card is then turned face down again and the player tries to spell it on their paper.  The card is turned back to check the spelling.  If it is right they keep the card; otherwise the card is turned face down again and remains on the board.
Fill any gap on the board with the next word card, face down of course.
Next players go.
Continue until all the words are used up.
Highest number of cards is the winner.

VARIATION: for children in different years (like me!) have a gameboard and a set of words each, take turns as before but they will each be learning words chosen for their ability.

BTW if you are puzzling over which words to include and your child is following the National Curriculum either at home or at school (i.e. the UK curriculum) this leaflet by the National Literacy Strategy outlines what kind of words will be encountered year by year based on the Programmes of Study up to Year 6.

hairy maclary game

Using the images from here I made up this simple card game.  I would make a .pdf for download but I have a feeling that this would be a serious breach of copyright.  But here is how I made ours for our own personal use.

The object is for the players to attempt to collect all six dogs featured in the Hairy Maclary story.
Each player has one long card with the pictures of the six dogs.
The remainder of the cards are shuffled and placed face down between the players.
Players take it in turns to take a card from a pile.  If it is a dog they still have to collect then they can add it to their collection.
If not they put it back in the middle.
If it is Scarface Claw then they have to remove one of their cards.
Winner is the first player to collect all six dogs
We made six of each dog for the single picture cards and only three of Scarface.
Let the game begin!

traditional board games: three mens merels

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Three Mens Merels is a traditional European game that dates back to the Middle Ages.  It is a simpler version of the better known Nine Mens Morris.

The game is for two players and is played on a 3 x 3 grid (see above).

Each player starts with three counters. The players take it in turns to place a counter on one of the circles.  Once all the pieces are on the board players can move one space to an empty adjacent space.  The game is won if you get three in a row (horizontally or vertically but not diagonally) or the other player is unable to move.

To download your own blank board for colouring in click here.