3 Creative Math Games for 6th Graders

Family game night is a great way to bond with your child, but why not incorporate some math practice into your game night at the same time? Here are some creative math games for 6th grade that you can add to your family’s routine. When you start to incorporate these into your home, you just might find that you end up learning something at the same time.

1. Make Your Decimal

Many creative math games for 6th grade use something you already have – playing cards! To play this game, you need some playing cards with the face cards and 10s removed. Have your child turn over three cards, turning it into a decimal. The rule is that even numbers are the whole numbers and odd numbers are the decimals. The numbers can be arranged however the player wants. So, if the player draws 5, 8 and 7, then that player could make 8.75 or 8.57. On the first turn, the player draws an additional three cards to make a second decimal, then adds the two together.

The second player repeats these steps. On subsequent turns the players only make one decimal, adding it to their total. Play continues until the player wishes to stop. The one who gets closest to 500 without exceeding it is declared the winner.

2. Pentomino Boards

Pentaminos are figures made from five equal squares joined at their edges, similar to the classic Tetris video game shapes. A Pentamino board is simply a grid or grid paper. Pentamino boards help your child develop spatial reasoning and geometry skills. You can challenge your child to a pentomino game by taking turns adding a pentomino to the grid. The last person who is able to fit a pentomino is the winner. The board game Blokus takes this idea to another level, although the game pieces are not pentomino, but they are geometric shapes and you will increase spatial reasoning skills by playing this game with your child.

3. Egg-O

Take an egg carton and write numbers in each of the cups. Place two buttons inside the egg carton, shake it up, and see where the buttons land. Multiply the two numbers together, and multiply the number by itself if they land in the same cup. Keep a running tally of the sum of your score and the sum of your child’s score. The first one to reach 500 wins. You can change up this game to increase the challenge of the math facts if you wish. Simply increase the target number of points as well. Also, making one of the cups “0” adds an element of challenge to the game.