Friday, May 10, 2019

The Critical Thinking Co. Middle School Math Games Review


I'm a huge fan of The Critical Thinking Co. so I was thrilled to receive Middle School Math Games (Grades 6-8) to use with B and C.  Their products are fun, easy to use and help improve grades.  Their goal is not to teach through drill and memorization but to empower the mind in critical thinking.  Yes!

Our Middle School Math Games Book

B and C with our book

This book is a compilation of 16 fun middle school math games.  Most of these games require a pencil, paper, and a pair of dice or a spinner.  The materials needed for each game are listed at the beginning of each game description for your convenience.  Student Activity pages are available for copying as PDFs online as needed (the link is in the front of the book).

Removing sheets is easy peasy

The book contains all perforated sheets that make them easy to remove!  I love the Helpful Math Terms page found near the beginning of the book right before Game 1 (see above).  This is just a great math reference sheet.  I laminated ours for B and C to keep.

Each of the 16 games are presented in the same format.  You will have a materials list, followed by the learning standards for mathematics concepts, followed by an overview of the game, game instructions, variations for the game, questions for further discovery and activity sheets needed for that game.  I like that there are variations to play the game simply or variations to make them more challenging!

Example of materials list and learning standards followed by an overview

Game Instructions

Variations

Further Discovery Questions

Activity Sheets for the game

I hope the above photos give you a feel for the book.  You do not have to play the games in order.  In fact, we didn't.  We actually started with Game 14, It's Logical!  We really enjoy logic puzzles so we had fun completing these together.

Playing Game 2 Can You Make...?

The second game we tackled was Game 2, Can You Make...?  This was a game we really enjoyed playing.  The concept is simple.  Players randomly pick five numbers from -25 to 25 and write them down.  A target number is chosen from -50 to 50 (we used an online random number generator).  Each player has a minute to use the numbers they picked and any operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring the number...you get the idea) to compute the target number.  We had a lot of fun with this game.

Here is one example of C's work.  

C's numbers were 15, -7, 10, -20 and 3.  When the target number was -25 he simply took -7-15-3 to get -25.  You can see two more examples above.

Making Reproducible Card Holders for Jack's Order Me!

Game 8, Jack's Order Me! Decimals and Fractions was another hit.  Each player receives ten cards and puts them in order as they are received.  The remaining cards become the draw pile.  On their turn, a player takes a card from the draw pile and may exchange it with one of their current cards or discard it.  The next player can choose the discarded card or draw a new one.  The first player to have their cards in order from smallest to largest is the winner.  You can play with just decimal cards, just fraction cards, or a combination of both for more difficulty.

We tried using the card holders but the kids preferred the floor.

Strategizing

The first round

My goal is not to share with you all 16 games in the book but show you that the games are fun and that they use numerous math concepts and skills.  Some of the concepts covered in this book are fractions/decimals/percents, positive and negative numbers, coordinate geometry, area and perimeter, algebraic expressions, math vocabulary and symbols and more!  Students learn and refresh skills by playing fun games as math comes alive in new ways.  It is a great tool for parents and teachers to see where their students are thriving and where they may need help.

Want to know more?  Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of a variety of products made by The Critical Thinking Co.

Critical Thinking, Math, Vocabulary & Writing Skills {The Critical Thinking Co. Reviews}

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The back of our books shows some of the other products available from The Critical Thinking Co.

A has been using Building Thinking Skills, Word Roots and Editor in Chief all by The Critical Thinking Co. this year and it has been great.  It's challenging but she is learning so much.  I look forward to checking out even more of their products.  I love their desire to help teach students to think critically and use in-depth analysis to make decisions and improve their communication.

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