On another little table sat one of my favorite games for preschoolers.  The Snail’s Pace Race moves at the perfect speed for young children and is noncompetitive.  The children take turns tossing the 6-colored dice and moving the matching snail one space at a time.  Together, they move the snails across the board, inch-by-inch.

If you have never played a noncompetitive game with your children, I think you will find it quite delightful.  You might find the children banding together in the hopes that one snail finishes before another, but they mostly just take their turns and watch the movement unfold.

This is a great game for one-to-one correspondence. For the children that have achieved it, they will not need any support, but for those who have not, an adult or another child might be needed to help them move one square at a time.

I think that Checkers is a great game for young children.  There is really only one move (diagonal) and there is really only one goal (to capture your opponent’s pieces).  The complexity is in seeing the upcoming moves and staying one step ahead of your opponent.

A traditional board (also called “Draughts”) is made up of 10 X 10 squares.  One player has light checkers and the other has dark checkers.  Players take turns moving their checkers around the board trying to find an opponent’s checker that can be captured.  If you are so lucky that you move one of your checkers to the other side of the board, you get to yell, “King Me!” and your opponent has to give one of your checkers back by piling it on top of that checker (Get it?  It is like a crown on top of a king.)

I don’t really think that very young children can play a full game of checkers.  It is long and tedious.  I have no doubt, however, that if you introduce checkers and boards into your math center, the children will create their own games with the pieces.  They may even be more interesting than this ancient game that has been played for hundreds of years around the globe.

Candyland is one of our all-time family favorites. Did you know that it was designed by a woman and it is in the Toy Hall of Fame?

Here are some of the reasons I love Candyland….

1. This is one of the first games that American children play and it simply teaches how to love to play.
2. It is pretty and colorful and altogether visually appealing.
3. You don’t have to read at all to play.
4. It is super inexpensive.  Anyone can get a box for next-to-nothing.
5. It is anyone’s game at any time.
6. There is matching, counting, jumping, following rules, and  getting stuck in molasses.
7. Everyone is excited to find themselves in the Cupcake Commons or the Chunky Chocolate Mountains.

This month we are going to look at some of my favorites, but before I let you in on my “go-to” classroom games, I would love to know which board games you love to play?  Is there a classroom favorite or a family favorite?  How do those games integrate mathematical concepts into their designs?

Let us know and we can explore those as well.