Collection of Math Resources for Elementary School Kids (age 6-12)
Cick to go back to the Main Resource PagePresent math to your kids as a candy: through fun stories and engaging family puzzles. We have over 200 unique puzzles and post three new puzzles every Friday.
Books
| Anno's Magic Seeds (Picture Book, grades K-3) The reader is asked to perform a series of mathematical operations integrated into the story of a lazy man who plants magic seeds and reaps an increasingly abundant harvest. |
| Go Figure!: A Totally Cool Book About Numbers (Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (grades 4-7)) A collection of math activities that include brainteasers, magic tricks, and mind-reading games. |
| Mathamusements, by Raymond Blum. An alphabetically arranged introduction to a variety of math tricks and activities, including "Finger Math," "Geometric Masterpieces," and "Numerology." |
| One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale (grades 1-4) A reward of one grain of rice doubles day by day into millions of grains of rice when a selfish raja is outwitted by a clever village girl. |
| Mathematickles! (grades 2-5) A collection of poems written in the form of mathematical problems and grouped according to seasonal themes. |
| Arithme-Tickle: An Even Number of Odd Riddle-Rhymes (grade 3-4) These 18 zany rhyming riddles involve addition, subtraction, and simple multiplication to calculate everything from poodle weights to travel time. And for anyone who's stumped, the answers are included in mirror -writing below each riddle. |
| Cool Math: Math Tricks, Amazing Math Activities, Cool Calculations, Awesome Math Factoids, and More, by Christy Maganzini. Describes mathematics from zero to infinity with stops along the way for ancient puzzles, awesome math tricks, tantalizing math trivia, incredible shortcuts, and mysterious number magic. |
| Ten Times Better (grades 3-6) Humorous poems about different animals highlight the numbers from one to ten and their multiples of ten, such as a sloth having three toes while a centipede has thirty feet. |
| Dinosaur Deals (grade 2-4) The math concept of equivalency -- understanding when values are equal -- is introduced in this fast-paced story as two brothers try to beat the clock and make the ultimate trade. |
| Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (A Math Adventure by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan for grade 3-5) Assisted by his knight, Sir Cumference, and using ideas offered by his wife and son, King Arthur finds the perfect shape for his table. |
| Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone: (A Math Adventure by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan for grade 3-5) Sir Cumference, Radius, and Sir Vertex search for Edgecalibur, the sword that King Arthur has hidden in a geometric solid. |
| Grapes Of Math (Mind-Stretching Math Riddles, by Greg Tang, for grade 2-5) Illustrated riddles introduce strategies for solving a variety of math problems in using visual clues. |
| The Real Princess (A Mathemagical Tale, by Brenda Williams, for grade K-2) In this retelling of the Andersen tale, which also introduces the numbers one to ten and basic addition and subtraction, a queen uses nine golden peas to tell whether each of the girls her three sons hope to marry is a true princess. |
| The adventures of Penrose the Mathematical cat, by Theoni Pappas. Great math enrichment for elementary school level. Recommended for ages 9-12. |
| You can count on monsters, by Richard Evans Schwartz. Delightful explanation of multiplication and factorization basics. Recommended for ages 8-10. |
Games
| Mastermind This reasoning game triumphed through generations, continents and cultures. Your grandparents may have played it with a pencil and paper. Now your kids can enjoy the colorful plastic version. |
| Sleeping Queens by Gamewright (age 8 and up) This one is my daughter's favorite. The Pancake Queen, The Ladybug Queen and ten of their closest friends have fallen under under a sleeping spell and your job is to wake them up. There are also dragons, knights, magical potions and wands. Simple number addition can help you here. |
| Three Of A Crime by Gamewright (age 8 and up) This is my favorite: solve crime mystery by using logic and deductive reasoning. |
| Rush Hour by ThinkFun (age 8 and up) This is my son's favorite. This game received a national award from Mensa and is used in elementary school math classes. |
| SET Game Another great award-winning game for a family game night. Everyone plays simultaneously, no turns! |
| SuperMind by Leisure Learning Products (age 5-9) Use multicolored plastic tiles of various geometric shapes to build pictures. |
| Blokus Classic (ages 5-12) Europe's 2003 Game of the Year, also winner of Mensa award |
iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Apps
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PopMath, PopMath Lite, PopMath Plus by Pop Soft This is a great app for kids at elementary school age. Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by popping corresponding bubbles on the screen. There is a free version and two $0.99 versions. |
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MathGirl Number Garden and Math Girls Addition by Icanology LLC. While numerous studies have shown that there is no difference between boys and girls in math capabilities, girls are still occasionally being stirred away from math in our culture. Presenting math (and sciences in general) in a relaxing girl-themed context has been shown to improve girls' math attitude. Preschoolers and young elementary school ladies will be charmed by these Apps' names and pink flowery graphics. They will practice grouping and counting objects in the Number Garden and adding them in the Addition app. The game follows a popular among kids pattern of solving puzzles, earning points and then spending them to buy something. In Number Garden kids populate their virtual garden by buying flowers, animals and even lakes. Each app is $1.99 |
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Bubbling Math for iPad and Mac by Tappy Taps. Nice practice app for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Parents or kids can select level of complexity for each kind of the operation. As child progresses new lands and places are unlocked. Parents can review the day-to-day progress and wrong answers. iPad app is $1.99, Mac version is $3.99 |
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Tangrams Little kids will enjoy this centuries-old game while practicing some basic geometry skills. Free. A pro version is $0.99 |
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Set by Pockent, LLC Great card matching game for all ages. Develops logical thinking. Set Lite is free. A full app is available for $2.99. |
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Rush Hour by ThinkFun, Inc. Start with the Free app, which offers 10 puzzles on each complexity level. This is a fun early introduction to programming. |
CD-ROM Games
My family are big funs of the JumpStart series from Knowledge Adventure. We own most of the CD-ROMs listed below and kids frequently choose to play them. It is a great mix of safe engaging entertainment and intellectual stimulation on various topics (math, reading, science). Great activity for the summer idling.
Brain Play PK-1st Grade Cd Compilation
Scholastic Software Math Missions: they are as captivating as their names sound:
| Race To Spectacle City ( grade K-2 ) |
The Amazing Arcade Adventure ( grade 3-5 ) |
Online Fun
Donald in Mathemagic land: entertaining and simple 7min video about use of math in music, art and nature.
Interactive age-sorted puzzles in Numbers & Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement and Data Analysis. This great national library of virtual manipulatives is created by Utah State University
TV programs
Cyberchase by PBS
I would like to thank Anna Kijas-Masterson, Children's Librarian of the Needham Free Public Library for suggesting most of the above books.
Please contact TheMathMom with suggestions for any additional resources.