Glance through turn of the century math texts and you'll notice a common thread. You'll not find lots of cute pictures, complicated directions, or hundreds of math problems. Instead, you'll find one or two examples and enough problems to grasp the concept. You'll also find plenty of real life, practical word problems that apply the concepts to everyday living.

This same teaching technique can work wonders today. Our children don't need to solve a hundred identical problems to catch on to math, but they do need to be able to apply the concepts learned and be able to use them in their day to day living. Math needs to be real for them.

How do we do this? By making math meaningful and applicable to their lives. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through games. Playtime is learning time for children and when they play educational games, they retain the information much better than if it was presented in lecture or workbook form.

If you're ready for improvement in math, try integrating one of these exciting math activities into your math curriculum.

"Gator Gotcha". Use playing cards. Divide cards equally among players. Place cards facedown in stack in front of them. Players draw top card from their stacks simultaneously. All the players look over each others' cards. The player with the highest number yells "gator gotcha" and gets to take the others' top cards. Continue playing until one persson has all the cards.

"Best Buy." Give each student several sale papers. Call out item. Students search for best price on item.

"Which Door." On the chalkboard draw the outline of a short, wide, house. Draw three to nine doors (depending on level of student) side by side. Write a large number in the house by putting one digit in each door. Call out a digit and ask, "where does the _____live?" Students tell whether it's in the ones, tens, hundreds, etc.

* Call out numbers orally. Students:

write them on a chalkboard

use number tiles to form numbers

cut out digits from sale papers to form numbers

* Skip counting

jumprope while counting

"Dynamic Dice". Use dice to create addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems. Roll two at a time for easy problems. Roll more at a time for multiple digit problems. For variety, mix operations. Example: Roll two numbers and multiply. Write down answer. Roll two more numbers and multiply. Write down answer. Add the two products together.

"Card Creations". Use playing cards to create addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems.

"Go Fish". Each student gets 5-7 cards. Student calls out a sum, difference, or product of two of their cards. Other players must destermine if they have two cards that equal that amount. If they do, they must hand them over to the first player. If not, they say "Go fish" and the first player must draw two cards. Play same as traditional game with players trying to match up sets of four cards. Example: Player 1 has 3,5, 6, 2,5. Player 2 has 3,3,7,10,4. Player 1 calls out 30 (5x6). Player 2 must give up their 3 and 10 (3x10=30).

"Go shopping". Use sale papers. Call out shopping word problems to solve. Example: Buy a shirt and pants. How much will they cost? Or, buy one of each style of shoes on sale. How much will you spend?

"Math Baseball." Set up a baseball field inside by marking bases with pieces of construction paper. Students begin at home plate. Call out a math problem. If they get it right, they move to first base. Continue calling out problems and advaning to bases. Missed answers count as strikes and mean they have to start back over at home.

"Symmetrical Letters." Write out upper case alphabet on chalkboard. Students determine which letters are symmetrical and draw in the line of symmetry.

"Designs Woth Repeating." Choose a simple shape. Form a picture using your shape repeatedly.

"Perfect Perimeter." Go on a scavenger hunt, measuring items and searching for items with a predetermined perimeter. Example: Find something in the house with a perimeter that is 12 inches.

"Fraction of Food." Use fruit, cookies, or crackers. Make up food word problems. Example: "You can have 1/4 of the apples." "Take away 2/3 of the crackers."

"Recipe Amounts." Use simple recipes. Convert fraction amounts to other comparable fraction amounts. Example: If the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, how many teaspoons would it take