4 Fun Math Games for Grade 4 Students
As a grade 4 student, you are expected to know your multiplication tables up to 10×10, understand place value up to 1,000,000, and have a firm grasp of fractions, decimals, and percents. While some students find math easy and natural, others may struggle with understanding these concepts. The good news is that there are plenty of fun math games out there that can help make learning math more enjoyable for everyone! Here are four of our favorites:
Multiplication War: This game is played with a regular deck of 52 cards. All of the cards are placed face down in the middle of the players. Each player flips over the top card of their pile at the same time. The player with the highest number card gets to keep both cards and put them at the bottom of their pile. If there is a tie, then each player flips over another card from their pile until there is a winner. The first player to get rid of all their cards is the winner! This game helps students practice their multiplication skills while also teaching them how to quickly compare numbers.
Fraction Pizza: This game can be played with 2-4 players. each player starts with 10 pizza slices (you can use paper or actual pizza). The goal is to be the first player to get rid of all your pizza slices by trading them with other players or “eating” them yourself. To start, each player rolls one dice and whatever number they get corresponds to a fraction (e.g., if you roll a 3 you would have 1/3 slices). After everyone has rolled, players look around to see if anyone has a slice that they need (e.g., if you rolled a 5 but don’t have any 5/6 slices, you would need to trade with someone who does). If no one has the slice you need, then you can “eat” one of your own slices by converting it into a fraction that someone else might need (e.g., if you rolled a 5 but don’t have any 5/6 slices and don’t want to trade any of your other slices, you could eat one of your 3/4 slices and become 5/12). The first player to get rid of all their pizza slices wins! This game is great for practicing fractions because it forces students to think about how different fractions can be equivalent (e.g., 3/4 is equivalent to 6/8 which is equivalent to 9/12).
Learning math doesn’t have to be boring!
Decimal Bingo: This game is played with a bingo card (which you can make yourself or find online) that has decimal numbers in each square instead of traditional bingo numbers. To play, one person calls out decimal numbers and players mark off the corresponding square on their bingo card if they have it. The first person to get five squares in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally yells “BINGO!” and wins! Not only does this game help students learn their decimal place values, but it also reinforces greater than/less than concepts as well as addition and subtraction strategies for decimals.
Percent Scavenger Hunt: For this game, you will need a list of items that can be found around the house or classroom (e.g., 100 paper clips, 50 pennies, etc.) as well as a recording sheet for each student or team of students playing. The goal is for students to go around and find as many items on the list as possible within a certain time limit (e.g., 5 minutes). Once they have found an item on the list, they must determine what percent that item is of the whole list (e.g., if there are 100 items on the list and they found 50 pennies then 50% of the list is complete). This game helps students practice finding percentages as well as estimating percentages for items they were not able to find within the time limit.
Learning math doesn’t have to be boring! There are plenty of fun games out there that can help make math more enjoyable for everyone. These four games are great for practicing multiplication, fractions, decimals, and percents—skills that are essential for success in grade 4 math!