Preschool math games:

Make-it-yourself and store-bought board games that help kids develop an intuitive "number sense"

© 2008 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Can kids improve their mathematical savvy by playing preschool math games? Research suggests that they can.

Here I provide instructions for a make-it-yourself preschool board game that has helped kids develop substantially better math skills after only 60-80 minutes of total play time. I also review the store-bought board game, Chutes and Ladders.

As I note in another article, kids who played these preschool math games have performed better in at least four areas of mathematical knowledge:

• Identifying numerals

• Counting

• Comparing number magnitudes

• Understanding a number line

This is an impressive list. Other teaching tools—like video games or counting games—have been associated with improvement in only one area (Ramani and Siegler 2008; Malofeeva et al 2004).

The Great Race

How to make it

This is really easy, so why not let the kids help and make it an arts and crafts project?

First, create your game board:

• Draw a horizontal row of 10 squares.

• Write the word “start” before the first square and “end” after the last square.

• Number the remaining squares sequentially from 1 to 10.

Next, make your own game tokens or choose some small plastic toys to serve the same purpose. Jazz things up if you like. I created a game with a jungle theme by pasting magazine pictures on the board and using plastic rain forest animals for tokens.

Finally, you’ll need a spinner with two possible outcomes: 1 or 2. You can make a spinner by cutting an arrow out of heavy card stock and attaching it to a cardboard circle with a metal brad. For best results, put a metal washer between the brad and the circle.

Alternatively, buy a spinner at a teacher supply store or borrow one from another board game. You can convert it to your purpose by re-covering any extraneous numerals with 1s and 2s. I’ve done this with reusable stickers that I could peel back off again. If you go this route, make sure the stickers won’t interfere with the movement of the arrow.

How to play

Each player takes a turn at the spinner. He calls out the number he has spun. Then he moves his token accordingly. The first player to get his token to the finishing line wins.

But here’s the most important part:

When a player moves his token, he doesn’t count the number of spaces he is moving. Instead, he names the numbers on the spaces through which he moves.

Example: Let’s say that my token is resting on the “3” space and I spin a 2. As I move my token along the game board, I say “4, 5.” If I spin a 2 on my next turn, I move my token and say “6, 7.”

This is a bit counter-intuitive, and kids will sometimes forget the rule. If a child makes a mistake or forgets the name of a number, give him a reminder and help him repeat the move correctly.

What about a longer, more complex game?

If your child is ready to tackle higher numbers, try extending the number line to 20 spaces. When I did this, I also added two more numerals to the spinner—-a “3” and a “-1.” The negative one means that players must go back one space.

Why I like this game

You might think this game is too simple to hold a child’s interest. But kids like it, and the game is fast-—fast-moving and quick to yield results. Each game lasts only a couple of minutes. To replicate what the researchers did, play four or five games in a row every few days. By the time your kids lose interest in the game, they’ll probably have reaped all the educational benefits.

I also like the idea of a game that parents and kids can create together. The experience inspires all sorts of spin-off activities, including the invention of new games.

Chutes and Ladders

That’s because these preschool math games feature consecutively-numbered game squares.

In Chutes and Ladders, the squares are numbered from 1 to 100. The game board is a grid, and players begin the game with their game tokens at the bottom. Players take turns at a spinner to find out how many squares they can travel. The spinner permits players to move up to 6 spaces at a time.

Most movement is horizontal (along rows). But when a player gets to the end of a row, he ascends to the next row above.

The goal is to be the first player to reach square #100, which is in the upper left corner of the grid. Along the way, players may land on “ladder” squares which permit them to take a shortcut to one of the upper rows. Other “chute” squares force players to descend.

Does it really work?

The path is not well-marked.

Players have to navigate a grid, and the squares are barely big enough to accommodate one game token. Do we move up, down, left, right, or diagonally? The numbers inside the squares are the main clue about direction—i.e., you follow the ascending numbers. But this presupposes a familiarity with higher-magnitude numbers, which many preschoolers lack.

The consecutively-numbered squares are not being used the way researchers used them in The Great Race.

Players aren’t required to speak them aloud as they move their game tokens from space to space. As I note below, that’s understandable because it would make the game much more difficult. But it suggests that Chutes provides players with fewer opportunities to learn about the numbers. It can also leave young players confused about the purpose of the numbers on the grid. If you spin a “3,” are you supposed to land on a space with a “3?”

Another source of trouble is the number of spaces that players can move. The spinner permits players to move up to 6 squares at time, not just 1 or 2. That’s why the recitation rule used in the Great Race, “Name the numbers on the squares as you pass through them” would be unworkable here.

To see what I mean, imagine this scenario: Your game token is on square #67 and you spin a 6. You need to move your game token 6 squares forward.

Can you count to 6 (in your head) while you read the numbers “68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73” out loud? It’s difficult, and I doubt that many preschoolers could pull it off.

Quite sensibly, the rules of Chutes and Ladders don’t require players to do this. Players are free to count out loud while they ignore the numbers written in the squares.

But how easy is it for young children to ignore those written numbers? There is a famous phenomenon in psychology called the Stroop effect. The idea is that it is harder for the brain to process the word “BLACK” when it is written in red letters. The visual information (red) interferes with the semantic information (black).

In the same way, it’s harder for the brain to keep track of one set of numbers (“1,2,3,4,5,6”) while it is looking at another, irrelevant set of numbers (“68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73”).

So that’s yet another problem. Young children have more trouble overcoming the Stroop effect than do older kids and adults.

Are these just theoretical concerns? Not in my experience. Although Chutes and Ladders boils down to a simple game of chance, there is actually a lot for preschoolers to keep straight.

This doesn’t mean that kids can’t have fun playing Chutes and Ladders. But it seems to me that kids need to be pretty sophisticated about numbers before they tackle this game.

So when are kids ready for Chutes and Ladders?

• They can count up to 6 easily and without making mistakes

• They have at least some familiarity with two digit numbers

• They are familiar with the layout of a grid, and the idea of shifting from row to row along a grid

• They are ready and motivated to learn how to count up to one hundred

• They aren’t distracted by the grid numbers as they count

References: Preschool math games

Ramani GB and Siegler RS. 2008. Promoting broad and stable improvements in low-income children’s numerical knowledge through playing with number board games. Child Development 79(2):375-394.