Purpose:
- To develop quick recall of basic addition facts or multiplication.
You need:
- Nothing
How to play:
- Two players stand facing each other with their hands behind their backs.
- They leave one hand behind their backs and bring the other hand forward in a fist.
- Each player shakes their fist three times as they chant “I like maths”.
- They then extend fingers from their fists.
- The players look at the two sets of fingers and add them together. For example, player one may have extended five fingers and player two two so the answer is seven.
- They then repeat the action changing the number of fingers they are extending after the chant.
Variations:
- Once the children are confident and quick using one hand you could play the game using two hands each.
- Practice using tens and hundreds. Their fingers could represent more than 1. For example when the child shows three fingers they are counting them as tens so they are adding thirty to the tens their partner is showing.
- Play this game using multiplication.