The 1 to 9 game, being a two player game, is just perfect for the home environment. The game's page shows how to vary the rules to make it suitable for any age group.

 

This Addition Trick seemed like magic when my uncle first showed it to me. I was 11 years old, I think. Here I explain the trick so you can amaze the 11-year-olds in your life.

 

This is one of two math tricks on this site that let you guess someone's birthday after a sequence of mathematical operations.

 

The Arithmetic Math Game is a game where players roll special dice and do arithmetic based on the results, hoping to reach a specific number goal. It is most suitable for grades four or five, but you can modify the rules to make it easier or harder.

 

Another game where a calculator might help and not hinder is the Make Numbers Arithmetic Game, where the child must generate as many numbers as possible using only the four given digits, and the basic operations of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.

 

Feel like something different? A break from the normal pen-and-paper routine? Try Mathteroids, the math asteroid game or the other interactive games on this site.

 

To win this big numbers contest, your kids just need to think of the biggest number they possibly can - bigger than anyone else's! This contest closed on October 20, 2008, but the page shows you how you can organize a min-contest within a class or a school.

 

Try the Fractions Card Game if you have children who need to practice adding and subtracting fractions. There's a set of playing cards to print and cut out, and suggestions for at least three games you can play with them. In one, the aim is to find groups of cards that add up to one, so kids will pick up skills in addition and subtraction of fractions, as well as reducing fractions, as they pit their wits against one another.

 

In This Challenging Math Puzzle you have to place the numbers one through eight in a grid, such that no two neighboring squares have consecutive numbers. It's possible to solve, but it can be quite tough. I've seen 4th graders baffle away for weeks at this puzzle, but its 5th grade and 6th grade kids who seem to have a more realistic chance to solve it. Enjoy!

 

This Checkerboard (or Chessboard) Jigsaw Puzzle will be a great challenge for your primary school kids. Watch them try and try to arrange the pieces until they succeed!

 

In a Cryptarithm puzzle, each digit of an arithmetic sum has been replaced with a letter of the alphabet. The aim of the puzzle is to restore the original sum. These puzzles are sometimes called alphametics or crypt-arithmetics. You can get many more such puzzles from the resources available at www.cryptarithmania.com.

 

You can use the Dot Joining Game just as a fun game for the kids while camping, or as a classroom exercise to help children realise that math often forms hidden patterns behind ordinary things.

 

The Easter Date Worksheets allow a child to compute the date of Easter Sunday in any year at all, with no math more complex than long division. Alternatively, try younger kids on the simpler versions of the worksheets - fewer calculations, smaller numbers, but they only work in certain centuries.

 

This free "fours" contestclosed on the 20th of October, 2009. The idea was to make as many numbers as possible using the digit '4' (as many times as you like) and the operations plus, minus, divide and times. Soon I'll upload the contest results, and ideas for how you can run a contest like this one in your own classroom.

 

The six different Fractions Quizzes on this site are like an online version of Flashcard Stepping Stones. Choose your fractions topic, then choose which of 3 characters (a pegasus, a clownfish or a rocket) you will help! Then, answer a series of fractions questions until you reach the goal. The further they progress, the more challenging the questions become!

 

Fizz Buzz is a well-known game. It gives practice identifying multiples of 5 and 7. It's a great math game for kids, and a hilarious ice-breaker for adults too! At the web page you'll find a "fizz-buzziness calculator" that will determine what a player should say for any given number.

 

This Fraction Simplifying Puzzle challenges kids to simplify a collection of fractions and observe which ones can and can not be simplified. There are variants of the puzzle that make it suitable for kids just learning fractions, all the way up to lower high school.

 

If you need free printable worksheets to give fractions practice to kids, you need to check out my page on Fractions Worksheets. There are over 4000 fractions questions in 350 worksheets on 7 different fractions topics - fraction addition, fraction subtraction, fraction division, fraction multiplication, simplifying fractions, equivalent fractions and common denominators

 

MathGolf is a simple game to play, and a very hard game to master. The high scores for each month are recorded on the website. The tips for parents and teachers explains how to help your kids get the most out of the game.

 

In this puzzle, the goal is to cut a Heart-Shaped Biscuit into three pieces, so that each piece contains only one color of sprinkles. The cuts will be very twisty and wiggly, but that's fine for this puzzle. Because of the shape of the biscuit, this puzzle is perfect for around Valentine's Day, but it can also be used at any other time of the year.

 

Try the Magic Square Puzzle Worksheets on this site. Almost 40 magic square puzzles to try, as well as ideas for how to use it in a classroom. Good for grade 3 and up.

 

In the Magical Calculator Birthday Math Trick and the "Threes" Math Trick, a kid can appear as a math whiz to his or her friends, by discerning their birthday from the result of a sequence of mathematical operations.

 

Mastermind is a classic game of logical deduction. The first player selects a secret code. The second player tries to guess that code. After each guess, the first player gives clues about how well the second player did - how many digits (or pegs or marbles) in the code are correct, and how many are the right color but the wrong place. In this online version of mastermind, you can pit your wits against the task of finding the computer's secret code, or select your own secret code, and challenge the computer to guess it.

 

In the Math Architect Online Game the goal is to design an apartment with the given area. The catch? Each room is a square, and you must have as few rooms as possible! This makes the game challenging enough to keep kids occupied, and deep enough to keep them learning as they play. There is also a high scores table showing the best players each month, year and for all time.

 

This Math Board Game will ensure kids get a lot of mental arithmetic practice! Good for grade 4 and up. This site also has a Times Table Board Game... see below!

 

Traveling with kids aged 10 to 99? Take along this Math Card Game and keep them up to speed on their arithmetic! Good for grade 4 and up.

 

And don't miss my Bubble Breaker Game, Math Frozen Bubble, which needs quick-thinking arithmetic to win!

 

Or play a game of Math Hangman? "Three strikes and you're out" is the rule as kids try to guess the hidden math word or sum! Good for almost any grade level!

 

In the Pizza Cutting Puzzle kids try to cut up a square pizza to make it fit in a round tray. Try to cut as few pieces as possible!

 

Want to play sudoku online? You can at this page. The page also has links to some printable sudoku for kids, and a sudoku solver. If you're a sudoku fan, make sure you visit this page and try out the puzzles it provides. Puzzles can be symmetric, and there are five difficulty levels.

 

Try this Powers puzzle, an exercise where kids explore numbers with their calculator, and try to spot patterns in the numbers they explore.

 

If you want sudokus to print, you can get as many as you need (I really mean that!) from my printable sudoku page. Sure, there's a few sudoku worksheets to download, with about 240 puzzles, but the page also has a printable sudoku generator that will let you print up to 1500 sudokus at a time - as many times as you like! Bookmark the page, and you'll never run out of sudoku puzzles again...

 

This Weekly Puzzle Google Gadget will show you a new math puzzle every week. If you don't want to visit the web page each week, you can put the gadget on your own web page, or on your personalized google start page.

 

By working though the Rice and Chessboard Worksheets, kids can get a feel for how fast numbers grow when they are repeatedly doubled. The worksheets are based on a modern version of an old story, where a man was awarded a quantity of grains of rice for each square on a chessboard, with each square having twice as many grains as the one before.

 

Sliding Block Puzzles are a very broad group of puzzles. This pages explores some simple ones, with questions about what makes a certain puzzle solvable. There's also a java applet allowing people to play with the puzzles mentione don the page.

 

This Spirograph Applet is sure to be a hit with the artistically inclined. You can use it to make pretty patterns, and if you choose to "trust" the applet, you can even save them to disk or print them out. I've also made a page explaining the math that kids will pick up while using it.

 

Squink is a Brain Puzzle where players have to find the squares in a pattern on a grid, and count how many squares surround each location. There are two ways to play - you can count the squares in the pattern shown, or you can find a pattern to produce the counts shown. You can also design patterns of squares and share them with your friends!

 

Why not try the Traffic Jam Game (or the Online Version)? It's a collection of logic puzzles, ranging from simple to challenging. The brightly-colored playing pieces and simple rules will capture your kid's hearts.