Interactive Math Games: Engaging Ways To Boost Children'S Numeracy Skills

Teaching abstract sciences to kids is tough. Whenever you try to explain something new, you face the need to fight for their attention so they hear and understand you first. If that’s your problem, interactive math games can help. They let you offer new knowledge to kids in an engaging and fun manner.

Children feel more comfortable when you introduce games into the studying process. And in the case of math, interactive format enables several improvements, including reduced anxiety and prevented frustration in your classroom. This is especially effective when you combine gamification with personalized approach, just like 1-1 mentor sessions work within Brighterly math help for kids.

Let’s see which exact benefits interactive mathematics activities bring and which games you can try to change the perception of math class.

4 Ways How School Math Games Improve Studying Process

Depending on the math game chosen, you can explain certain concepts and address a certain challenge in the classroom. However, there are four common benefits for all interactive math game types. We’ll share them here.

1. Engagement

When you explain a concept in a traditional way, it’s hard to engage everyone in the class. The very format of teaching doesn’t let this – even if you ask a question to kids, only some of them can answer.

But in a game, you can include everyone and let children feel their contribution to the studying process.

2. Understanding

Abstract concepts require extra effort to understand them. But with math games, you make them connected to real-world situations. This way, you provide kids with a real-word analogy and let them strengthen their understanding with practice.

Remember how Prez, a character in the HBO series The Wire, taught probability theory in a middle school with the sidewalk dice games? That’s an excellent example of how to connect math concepts with everyday reality for kids and spark their interest and understanding.

3. Confidence

Math games are a great way to boost confidence in your classroom. Classic teaching creates pressure because it’s based on searching for the right answers and an intolerant attitude towards mistakes. Math games reduce such pressure to a minimum, introducing experiments and a collaborative approach to learning instead.

With each encouragement to keep trying without fear of failure, you let kids build confidence in their math abilities.

4. Support

With the growth of distance learning, it’s hard to provide teacher support at the right moment. Helping your child with a remote professional mentor after school is one of the ways to provide support. But you can also introduce math games as one of the tools to explain math instructions.

Math online games are easier to follow than dry instructions. Even more, their collaborative nature strengthens the connection between children and their peers, letting them explain complex mathematical terms to each other.

5 Best Math Games Online

In this section, we’ll overview top online math game platforms where kids can practice math concepts for better engagement, deeper understanding, and confidence boost.

1. Prodigy

Specializing in math and English games, Prodigy aims to turn studying into an exciting adventure. By introducing engaging gameplay and personalized learning, the platform is a great start for exploring simple math concepts that prepare kids to learn more complex subjects, like functions and derivatives.

Tools for teachers:

Assessments relevant to standardized tests
Reports with real-time insights
Placement test (a snapshot of student progress, twice a year)
Focus mode to adjust Prodigy to the teaching style

Tools for parents:

Parent dashboard to see child’s activity
Monthly reports sent to the inbox
Curriculum progress
Membership features (optional) for better learning and motivation

2. Formula

Previously an offline game, Formula is one of the best online math games for middle school today. This card activity is designed for up to 5 players who are 6+ years old, and its main goal is to get rid of your cards with an answer to a formula.

You can introduce Formula to your school both online and offline. In each case, the game allows teachers to entertain kids (they won’t feel they are practicing math while playing) and track their progress in solving equations.

3. DreamBox

DreamBox platform focuses on personalized learning while providing reading and math games for elementary students online. The platform is paid yet provides a 14-day free trial to prove its value for money. Indeed, it’s worth it: DreamBox Learning has several tools to track the pace and progress, collects actionable data to find insights, and provides easy-to-use daily reports.

Tools for teachers:

Dashboards with progress and gaps identified
Automatically differentiated lessons for each class or each student
Tech support to assist in getting started with the platform
Professional development materials

Tools for parents:

Child progress tracking
Hands-off learning
FUNctional screen time
Family Support Hub

4. Kahoot

Kahoot is a platform that offers solutions for work, home, and school. As a learning game, it offers interactive math quizzes that can be edited collaboratively, hosted live, assigned to kids, and shared in class upon completion to discuss and collect feedback. It’s a great tool to consolidate knowledge and introduce a fun, collaborative game at the end of a class.

Tools for teachers:

Creator mode with pre-designed templates, ability to import questions, and place to insert YouTube videos
Gameplay mode to host kahoot in class or via video conferencing
Report and assessment dashboard
Sharing options to Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, and other platforms

5. Variant: Limits

Variant:Limits is a mathematics game for high school that helps with learning complex calculus concepts like limits, limit laws, asymptotes, and concepts of infinity. It's a highly practical interactive tool that helps to link abstract terms to 3D environment rules and practice their knowledge regularly.

Math areas practiced:

The nature of points
Functions and their relationships to limits
Limit laws
Relating continuity to limits
Asymptotes

Teachers have access to the instructor portal to track student progress and offer timely support in areas that cause student frustration. The game is paid but you can request a demo to try before the purchase.

Conclusion

As you can see, interactive activities make math more accessible, enjoyable, and easier to follow than traditional teaching methods. This is especially true in the remote studying environment. That’s why it’s worth choosing one of the online math games provided in this list to reduce pressure and make mathematics more fun for kids.