Eigen Maths: Maths Games in the Classroom

These 22 A5 booklets from Eigen Publications contain a large number of games which almost exclusively focus on developing understanding of number and practicing number skills. In most cases the title gives a clear indication of the mathematical focus area and those that don’t cut across several aspects of number.

There are some common elements within the booklets. Most games depend on the use of dice, number cards or similar to generate digits or numbers. Many of the games are what might be called ‘box games’ – this is indicated in the title of some booklets but actually applies to most of them. These tend to involve students putting individual one or two digit numbers into ‘boxes’ to achieve some objective (e.g. creating the smallest 3-digit number, you might choose to put a ‘2’ in the hundreds box). The booklets contain score sheets which can be copied. The games are mainly designed for 2 to 4 students. Some definitely work better with 3 or 4 students.

Overall there are 5 booklets focusing on addition, 2 each on subtraction, multiplication, multiples & factors, place value and co-ordinates. There are single booklets for division, sorting number into sets, fractions and estimation. The remaining three booklets, Hat Games, Grid Games and Nasty Games cover several aspect of number work. The intriguingly entitled “Nasty Games” (Book 17), mainly for small groups of 3 or 4 students, covers place value, addition and subtraction and are ‘nasty’ because a student can enter numbers in their own or an opponent’s board.