By Michael Hartley
There's only one reason for this page, and it's very simple. To my mind,
- "online" means "interactive",
- "interactive" means "fun", and
- "fun" means "learning".
No matter what game a kid plays, if it's fun, they'll learn. They'll practice the skills the game requires. They'll commit to memory the information needed to win.
This being the case, surely it's best for a loving parent or teacher (such as yourself) to guide the games a student plays?
The whole purpose of this site is to make it easy for you to find "math games" for kids. Games where the skills and information needed are mathematical in nature.
This page collects together some of the best online math games I've discovered. Math games that combine graphics, sound and the power of the web to provide an interactive learning experience that your kids will call "plain old fun".
First, though, let me mention the interactive online math games found on this site itself. Please bear with me for a short while...
Sugar Sugar is a cool geometry game. Sugar pours out from a place near the top of the screen, and your goal is to make the sugar fall into the correct cups. You do this by drawing on the screen with the mouse, and watching as sprinkles of sugar trickle down the lines you draw. Challenging and fun!
Design and make your own
Paper Polyhedra right in your web browser with this java applet. You can design beautiful symmetric shapes with an interactiove 3D view, then print out a plan to help you make a model of the shape out of cardboard or paper. Finally, you can share your net with your friends by email, facebook, or whatever, so they, too, can enjoy your masterpiece.
In
Roman Attack, you defend the world against an onslaught of numbers! The game helps you practise converting numbers between Roman form and the more usual "Arabic" form. The game has three subgames - converting Roman to Arabic, or Arabic to Roman, or a mixed attack of both conversions. The game tracks your high scores, so you can challenge yourself to improve every day.
Try it now!The
Daily Hex Flood Puzzle gives you a new strategy puzzle every day for you to warm up those brain cells. Transform the grid of hexagons so that the whole grid is a single color. Challenge yourself to beat your best score (he game keeps track of all your stats), and challenge your friends to see how well they do! You can
read more here, or here's a
direct link to the game!Do you like
Logic Puzzles? On this page, you can get a never-ending feast of brain-busting logic puzzles to train your logical thinking skills. In each puzzle, the police have rounded up some suspects in a crime. The evidence has given you some clues of the form
If A is guilty, then B is innocent and so forth. There's only one conclusion - but what is it? Who goes free, and who will be detained? Only your logical brain can solve the mystery! Hop over to the
Simple Logic Puzzle Generator and start cracking cases! Or cut and paste the puzzles to share them, with your friends!
In the
Find The Cat Puzzle, a cat is hidden behind one of seven doors. You can open one door at a time, in order to try to find the cat. Unfortunately, every time you open a door, the cat moves - one step to the left or right. In what order should you open the doors, to guarantee you'll eventually catch the cat?
My Find The Cat Puzzle Page hosts an interactive version of this puzzle you can play online, showing, at every step, your chances of having caught the cat so far.
The
Knight's Tour is a classic chess puzzle. You start by tapping or clicking the board to place a knight. Then you must move the knight around, visiting as many squares as possible, exactly once each. The squares on the board change color to show you where you've been, where you are, and where you can go next. There's also an Android version available;
Drop by my Knight's Tour page and scroll down to find the play store links and QR code.
Arith Attack is a game to train up your mental arithmetic skills. Arithmetic problems descend from the top of the screen, as you solve them you score points. The longer you play, the harder the problems get and the more points they're worth.
There are seven sub-games; each individual operation can be practiced separately, or you can practice addition and subtraction together, or multiplication and division together, or all four operations at once. Have fun!
Hex Hopper offers a challenging solitaire puzzle that will stretch your strategic thinking. Inspired by the classic puzzle Conway's Soldiers, you aim to move pieces across a hexagonal grid, hopping over adjacent pieces to reach as far as possible! Each move requires careful planning, as you can only jump over pieces into empty spaces beyond, with the goal of advancing higher on the grid. Challenge yourself to reach new heights and see how far you can go! You can
read more here, or
here's a direct link to the game. See how you go, and share your score to challenge your friends!
Can you
Guess My Number? I've thought of a number. You have to guess it. I'll tell you if your guess is too big or two small. Sounds easy? What if I tell you that, in the medium, hard and insane versions of this game, my answers are sometimes wrong? That I might say your guess is too small, when it's actually too big? Or that it's too big, when it's actually 100% correct? You'll be amazed at how challenging the
Number Guessing Game becomes with just a little bit of uncertainty about my answers!
Hex Flood is a simple game you can play right in your web browser! The goal is to fill the entire grid with a single color. There are 1893 different puzzles for you to try, with fifteen different grid shapes. The web page will (using cookies) keep track of your best score for each and every puzzle, so you can challenge yourself to improve. What are you waiting for? Click or tap through to
Hex Flood now, and test your puzzle cracking skills!
You've met a group of people. Some always lie, some always tell the truth.
Can you figure out who does what from the statements they make? This pages can provide you with an unlimited number of logic puzzles for your use and entertainment. Start with some easy ones, and when you've become more confident, ramp up the difficulty level. For each puzzle, the computer is able to check your answers. So,
grab some logic puzzles now and start exercising your logical mind!
Why not
Find Your Name In Pi? When we write pi=3.14159.., we use our normal ten different digits, which we call 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. I converted pi to base 27, and called the digits <space>, A, B, C, ..., Z. That way, the digits of pi become a long list of letters. I've got 31 million base 27 digits, I've put them on my webserver, and I've made a search box for you to use!
How soon does your name appear?This is the
Online Traffic Jam Game. Traffic Jam Game is the famous game where you have to move the red car out of the traffic jammed parking lot. This free online version has hundreds of puzzles, as well as links to PC, Mac and Android versions you can buy.
This is the
Online Traffic Jam Game. Traffic Jam Game is the famous game where you have to move the red car out of the traffic jammed parking lot. This free online version has hundreds of puzzles, as well as links to PC, Mac and Android versions you can buy.
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, and some ideas for
playing math architect as a paper and pencil game.
Wishing that there were educational arcade games? Well,
Mathteroids, the math asteroid game is the next best thing! This is an action-packed asteroid shooter game where you must sharpen your math skills to know which asteroids to shoot! Good for grades four and up.
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.
This
Angle Geometry Quiz tests your knowledge of a few facts relating to angles. Race against the clock as you prove your skills! Topics covered include the interior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals, angles near parallel lines, lines meeting at a point and others.
The
Volume Measuring Puzzle is a classic puzzle. The goal is to measure out the a certain volume of water. You have two cups you can use, unfortunately, neither cup is the correct size for the job! So you need to pour water from one cup to the other, and back to the water source repeatedly until finally one of the cups contains the correct amount. This web page contains two playable versions (one with two cups, one with three) and some tips for offline play.
Well, that's all for now. I hope I can expand this list of interactive online math games soon!
Yours, Dr Mike...