The Big List of Fun Math Games
- Amy Wung Tsao
- Jun 16
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 16
for preschool & elementary age kids
It’s flip flop and sunscreen weather!
It’s also a great time to play games with math! Because...
You need a new game for family game night anyway! 🎲
You're staying indoors out of the heat for awhile. 😅
You need a game that works without wifi for a flight or road trip. ✈️🚗
You don't want your kid to lose the math skills they worked so hard on all year! 🏫
You might be looking for new games to add to family game nights. You might need something to do on long afternoons staying indoors out of the heat. You might be worrying a little about taking wiggly kids on a road trip or flight. Or maybe you’re just wanting to make sure your kid doesn’t forget all the math skills they learned during the school year.
I’ve got a 6, 8, and 11 year old myself, and we’ve definitely tried our fair share of educational board games, card games, and apps. This month I’m sharing the math games that my kids ask to play again and again, because they’re really fun!
(Just a reminder - I am never paid to mention any of these resources; there are no affiliate links.)
Screen-free games for preschool, kindergarten & 1st grade math
This sweet simple card game is fast to play for 2-5 players. My kids love the magical characters like the “Pancake Queen” or the “Hat King”!
Players take turns drawing cards, hoping for a spell card or king card that will help you wake the sleeping queens. Here’s where the math sneaks in - if you have a bunch of number cards, you can trade them in for new cards by making a simple equation out of your numbers. (For example, if you have a 1, 2, and 3 in your hand, you can make the equation 1+2 = 3, and then trade your 1,2,3 cards for 3 new cards.) A fun way to practice addition up to 10!
The box says it’s for ages 8 and up, but I think it’s perfect to introduce this game once your kid can add small numbers like 2+3 = 5.
Take simple card games like War, and level it up with opportunities to practice counting and number sense! That’s Tiny Polka Dots for you.
Each card has between 1-10 dots. Some cards arrange the dots in a ten-frame, reinforcing kindergarten concepts about number pairs that add to ten. Some cards arrange the dots haphazardly for a counting challenge.
I especially love these cards for the preschool set who are learning to count, and the kindergarteners learning to add. There are a few higher level puzzles and logic activities that an 8 year old can do with these cards as well.
Race to 10
I recognize this doesn’t look very colorful or flashy, but my kids love it anyway! Players take turns to roll a die, then add that many markers to their ten frame. First player to ten wins. It’s the perfect combination of random surprise, low stakes competition, and math!
Kids only need to know how to count numbers 1-6, but they will be doing lots of addition just by playing. And using the ten frame format helps them build a strong sense of how 10 breaks down into smaller numbers.
The blog Math Equals Love has a free printable ten frame, or you could honestly just draw a ten frame yourself on a blank piece of paper.
Math game apps for preschool, kindergarten & 1st grade math
Dragonbox Numbers available on Apple and Google Play stores
Every single one of my kids has logged significant hours with this colorful app. The games are simple and easy to interact with, even as a first app for kids who don’t have much experience with technology.
Drag and drop Nooms (who represent numbers 1-10) to combine them or stack them into bigger numbers. Use your finger to slice a Noom into two smaller numbers.
By solving puzzles, experimenting in the sandbox, or playing the mini arcade game, kids start building an intuitive number sense that will serve as a fantastic foundation for elementary school math skills!
It’s rated for kids 4-8 years old, but we have definitely used it with our kids around age 3.
✅ You can play this app without an internet connection (great for flights & road trips!)
Available on Apple, Google Play, and Amazon app stores
My kids have played this game so much that I could sing you the theme song in my sleep! This app is more cartoon-y and bright than the Dragonbox Numbers app, but it’s still simple enough to not be overwhelming.
There are five mini games that teach shapes, colors, counting, and adding and subtracting small numbers. It’s recommended for kindergarten and first grade kids. I’d say preschoolers who recognize the number symbols 1, 2, 3, etc. and can count small numbers can play the early levels.
✅ You can play this app without an internet connection (great for flights & road trips!)
Available on Apple, Google Play, and Amazon app stores
I adore the Numberblocks. I spent the last five years telling all my parent friends to stop stressing about screen time and let their kids watch Numberblocks! The episodes are short, and created in collaboration with math educators. It’s fun, it’s musical, and the way they slowly build up the foundational math skills is truly a marvel.
Back when Numberblocks was on Netflix, it was super easy to watch all the episodes in the order. Each new episode built on the math skill from the previous episode. Unfortunately it’s harder to watch in order on YouTube (although you can search for playlists on YouTube.)
The Numberblocks World app solves this problem by not only organizing the episodes in order, but inserting fun mini games along the way to practice each new math skill!
This app does require an internet connection, so it may not be ideal for a long flight or road trip.
Screen-free games for the kids learning to add double digits
Another fast card game, with a bit of math on pretty much every turn. 2-5 players can play in just 15 minutes. And it's extra fun for kids into Greek mythology!
Players take turns adding cards to the center stack, and as a group you keep track of the total sum in the stack. If your card brings the total to a multiple of 10, you get to steal the Zeus figurine. Whoever has Zeus when the total gets to 100, wins!
Stealing Zeus from another player is really fun for kids. But they’ll be doing plenty of adding along the way, plus exercising their working memory and strategic thinking skills.
The box says the game is for ages 8+, but I think it’s best for kids who can add numbers like 26+8.
Race to 100
Like the Race to 20 game, this one is a super simple DIY game, but deceptively fun. Again, players take turns rolling the dice, then adding that number to their total. First player to get to 100 wins!
The added skill here is they can trade ten 1’s for a single 10. This is such a visual, tactile way to understand place value (what we used to call “carry the one”) when you’re adding big numbers!
And of course, you can play Race to Zero, where you start off with a hundred block and roll the dice to subtract your total down to zero. Instead of trading 1’s for a 10, now you’re breaking a 10 into 1’s to subtract.
We play this game with a place value mat and base 10 blocks. You can draw your own place value mat, or print a free one here. My kids really like the tactile feeling of these plastic place value blocks. (They like building with them too!) But if you want a free option, you can print free base 10 paper strips here or use this free website with virtual base 10 blocks.
Apps for the kids learning to add double digits
available on Google Play and Apple app stores
Can you tell we adore the Dragonbox apps? My kids have collected so many apples in this game. They loved to play this game even before they were really ready for double digit addition and subtraction. And they kept playing it even after they’d clearly nailed the math skills!
The app starts very simple. Collect a few apples from the apple trees. Wait a few seconds for more apples to grow, then collect a few more. Now add up how many apples you have total.
Soon, you have enough apples to plant a new tree. Now you’re starting to add two digit numbers.
Eventually you’re adding and subtracting 4 digit numbers as you collect bees, rocks, fish and diamonds to trade for gold coins and gems that unlock new worlds. The variety of things to collect and the magic of unlocking a new area really kept my kids locked in!
I also love that the app has kids practicing different methods of addition and subtraction. Sometimes they’re using the “carry the one” method that we all grew up with. Sometimes they’re gathering up bags of apples ten at a time, and then counting the loose apples leftover. This builds their flexibility in thinking, and their number sense.
Dragonbox recommends this game for 6-9 year olds. Typically double-digit subtraction is a second grade skill, but younger kids can get pretty far since the app does start off with single digit addition and builds up in complexity slowly and intuitively.
On my kid’s tablet, it looks like I need an internet connection to start the app, but then can continue playing without an internet connection.
Screen-free games for the kids learning multiplication
From Games 4 Gains
This game is perfect for memorizing times tables up to 6x6. It’s based on the classic Dot and Boxes game. You roll two dice, multiply them together, and draw a line next to that number. If your line closes a square, you fill in the square with your color. The winner is whoever has captured the most squares!
My two big kids loved playing this with each other. At first, only my oldest could multiply. But she would help her younger brother with the multiplication part and he would do the rest. (This is also the story of how my middle kid accidentally learned his times tables before he started kindergarten. Oops!)
Apps for the kids learning multiplication and division
This colorful app is a puzzle game that gives kids an intuitive grasp of multiplication and division, even if they’ve never seen a times table in their life. After my middle kid accidentally learned his times tables, he loved these puzzles.
Each puzzle starts off with a bunch of numbered rectangles. The bigger numbers are longer rectangles. With the click of a button, you can stick rectangles that are the same size together. (Hello, multiplication!) Another button splits a rectangle into equal parts. (Hello, division!) Each puzzle has its own goal (in the top right corner of the screen.) In the example video above, the goal is to stick and split until all the rectangles are 12’s.
Kids may need some help at first to understand the rules (for example, they can’t stick together rectangles of different sizes, since that’s not multiplication), but after that it’s pretty intuitive! If you’ve got a kid that loves logic puzzles, this one will definitely appeal to them.
✅ You can play this app without an internet connection (great for flights & road trips!)
For kids at any elementary math level…
available on Google Play and Apple app stores, or play in your browser
My kids were introduced to this math game at school, but they play it at home all the time now! They’ll have a season of playing a ton of Prodigy, making a lot of progress, and then forget about it for awhile. Then after months they’ll pick it up again, play it all the time, and the cycle begins again!
This game has vibes like Final Fantasy or other classic fantasy RPG’s, but here you answer math questions to recharge your magic and win battles. Don’t know the answer? The game has quick video lessons to help you learn the math skill you’re missing.
You can play by yourself, but my kids do like to play on a server where they can play with each other. As parents we were at first concerned about privacy, but there’s no way to chat with strangers. You can only choose from a short list of prewritten phrases like “I like this place.”
You can play for free, but paying for membership gets players bigger rewards and access to more areas in the virtual world. There are group membership discounts for schools and homeschool groups, and discounts for families with multiple kids.
This game does require an internet connection, even if you choose “offline world”, so it may not be a good option for a long road trip or flight.
That’s it for my family’s favorite math games. Feel free to share this with any other parent friends who are looking things to do this summer!
And if you’re looking for even more STEM toys and games, including science fun and logic puzzles - check out my STEM gift list here!
Whatever you end up doing this summer, I hope it is full of fun and curiosity!
Amy Wung Tsao
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