Games With Dominoes for Teaching Math

Practicing Counting

• Students can play a counting game by laying the dominoes face-up on the table, with a student starting the game by placing a domino in the center. The next child must then find another domino that has an end with the same dot-count as one of the ends of the domino previously laid, and place it end-to-end. Each child takes a turn forming a ̶0;domino train̶1; until all tiles have been exhausted.

Teaching the Concept of Quantity

• A game for teaching the concept of quantity involves laying the dominoes face-down on the table and asking each child to pick up one domino. The child with the higher dot-count gets the dominoes. The winner of the game is the child who has accumulated the most dominoes when all the pieces are gone. A variation of this game can be played in which the student with the lower dot-count gets the dominoes.

Practicing Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division

• In the same vein as the "domino train" game, students can practice addition by playing the "math operations snake" game. The play starts with one child placing a domino face-up on the table. The next student must place his domino end next to the one already laid down so that the sum of the tiles going in one direction equals 12 (or any target number the teacher chooses). Each student takes a turn laying down a tile to form a snake segment that equals 12. If a student does not have a domino to place for a sum of 12, he or she loses a turn. The winner of the game is the first person to use up all of his tiles or who has the fewest tiles at the end of the game. This game can also be played using subtraction, multiplication or division to arrive at the target number.

  Another way students can practice their basic math operation skills is by using dominoes like flash cards. A child can practice addition by picking up a domino and adding the dot-count on one end of the domino to the dot-count on the other end. Alternatively, the student can practice multiplying, dividing or subtracting one end of the domino from the other end.

Mastering Fractions

• In fraction domino games, the domino is oriented in a vertical position, with the top dot-count representing the numerator and the bottom dot-count representing the denominator. One game students can play involves dividing up the dominoes and matching one domino with another domino that has an equivalent fraction value.

  Another game involves placing the dominoes face-down, with each student drawing a domino to compare which of the drawn dominoes has the greater fraction value. The student who has the domino with the greater fraction value gets the dominoes, and the winner is the student with the most dominoes at the end of the game. A variation of this game can be played in which the student with the lesser faction value gets the dominoes.