Yard Games or Math Practice?

Last Friday was definitely a FriYAY type of day! It all started the weekend prior when after a moment of weakness when I went to Target. I just can’t resist the dollar section! Besides picking up blow up yard dice I’d seen on several Instagram posts, I also found the most amazing wooden yard dominoes. It was just the thing I needed to create a global math game lesson.

I already own Molkky (a yard game from Finland), but I bought another copy of the game from Amazon. This proved much easier than finding space in a suitcase and lugging it across the Atlantic. Another set of Mölkky rounded out my math global games. In addition to Mölkky I had a dice game, Spechil-Spiel from Germany, and dominoes from Cuba.

The three games had to be modified for younger students, but it wasn’t too hard. I put together directions/scoring sheets that you can grab as a freebie on my TpT store.
By the time Friday rolled around I was practically bursting with excitement to get into the gym to have students try out each of the games. Honestly, I think I was more excited than they were.

I set the games up so when we came in everything was ready to go. Mölkky was a semi-familiar game for students since I had demonstrated it earlier in the fall. Earlier in the week I also introduced how to play a version of dominoes that would help students practice addition. This made it much easier walking through directions for each station so students would know how to play the games.

Let’s just say the games were a HUGE success. Once broken up into partners or groups of three, students were off and running. They were engaged, working together, taking turns and most importantly working on adding. It was the best math lesson I have taught all year, and one we will definitely do again before the year is over. My hope is for better weather so we can take all these games outside!