Math Tic Tac Toe
The setup
Use a Tic-Tac-Toe board and tokens with the numbers from 1 to 9 on them. One player has the odd numbers and the other the even ones.
How to play
Players take turns placing a token, with the Odd player going first. The first player to complete 3 in a row whose sum is 15 wins. One variation is to keep going, fill all the squares, and see which player made the most 15’s.
A related game is to have an attacker and a defender. The attacker goes first (the first move cannot be a 5 in the center) and tries to get 15, and the defender tries to stop the attacker.
Helping your child
First and foremost, playing math games should be fun, like any other game your family plays together!
Please let your child make poor plays (mistakes) without correction, and resist the urge to tell them the best ways to play. Bit by bit, your child will get better at the game, and they will learn so much more if you let them figure things out. There is no hurry.
If you see your child make a mistake, ask them to describe why they decided to do what they did. If your child is stuck and doesn’t know which play to make, ask them to describe the pros and cons of their choices, or ask them about how they solved a similar situation in the past. If your child doesn’t remember how to do a calculation, discuss with them the methods they know for figuring it out. These conversations are important for helping your child to develop mathematically.
Through math game play and math conversations, you are helping your child learn to enjoy math and develop important problem solving skills!