Mathematical Gift Ideas

GAMES

• Yahtzee®--teaches probability and number sense
• Clue®--teaches deductive reasoning
• Checkers and chess--are classic board games requiring logic
• A deck of cards!--(a great stocking stuffer or party favor) opens up possibilities for many games involving logic, probability, and number sense. We use decks of cards in our lessons!
• Mastermind®--a game of logic using pegs for clues.
• SET--a card matching game involving shapes, colors and numbers. This game exercises pure logic sense.

TOYS

• K'nex®, Tinker Toys®, Legos®, Lincoln Logs®, Erector® sets, develops 3-D spatial sense
• Dominoes®--develops number sense
• Rubik's cube® --a geometrical, three dimensional puzzle
• Jigsaw puzzles--are great to develop spatial sense, pattern matching, and shape matching
• Sudoku-- a number placement puzzle game
• MathDoku-- Simpler than Sodoku, involving basic arithmetic operations

CRAFTS

• Origami--the art of paper folding develops spatial sense and the sense of symmetry
• Beading looms--develop symmetry, spatial sense, the need to perform simple calculations. Give your child some graph paper as well to make her own designs
• Drafting tools--compass, protractor, triangles, curves, straightedges, and even a T-square for geometrical constructions