Counting Games - Chutes & Ladders

Our board games are getting a lot more action these days! And I am able to work in a lot of math practice without my 5 year old noticing!

Chutes & Ladders ~ This is a great game for learning numbers to 100.  To get some addition and subtraction practice we used a homemade spinner that had four sections labeled: one more, one less, two more, two less. Each player would roll the dice and then use the spinner. I modeled for my son how to say an addition or subtraction sentence, "Four and one more is five. I'll move 5 spaces." (One obstacle that came up was when he rolled a one and then the spinner said two less. I showed him that he would need to move back a space but my explanation of negative numbers sounded more like I was cheating to his ears. So we decided that not moving anywhere and losing a turn would be a better solution!)
Other ways to play Chutes & Ladders:

• use two dice and add the numbers together
• use homemade dice so you can move using bigger numbers. I took a wooden cube and wrote 10, 20, 30. I am going to keep a hundreds chart nearby to reference and talk about number patterns.
• use addition or subtraction flash cards instead of dice - whatever the answer is to the flash card is the number of spaces you move
• play normally with one dice but find each number on a hundreds chart or number line as you play
• each time we move to a new space, use bean sticks to represent the number. So far my son loves this type of place value work!
• play normally but keep an abacus next to the board, move the beads after each turn and talk about what number you are each on

With all these ideas we will be able to play the same game all summer long but work on different math skills!