Printable math board games for two dice, a pencil and two players

Wet Saturday, two cousins aged seven and nine, and one adult who wanted to finish a coffee. I printed a four in a row board, found two dice and a handful of dried beans, and got twenty minutes of quiet broken only by someone yelling “eleven”. They were adding the whole time. They did not notice.

What the sheet looks like

The math board games page prints a complete game with the rules on the sheet, so a child who can read can set it up alone. Four in a row comes in an add and a multiply version: roll two dice, combine them, cover the total. The grid holds more copies of the common totals because it is built to match how often each one is rolled. Cover two gives a strip of target tiles to cut out; draw one and cover two grid numbers that add or multiply to it. Then there are race to the finish, tic-tac-toe, Busy beach (cover the board with towel cards, last to play wins), Corners (a two-player domino strategy game on a 10×10 grid) and dots and boxes. Grid sizes run 6×6 to 8×8.

Why it works

• A dice game makes the child do the same sum a dozen times without it being a drill. Nobody counts how many problems they did.
• Four in a row adds strategy: cover the 7 that blocks you, or the 10 that helps me? That means holding two totals in mind at once.
• Cover two runs backwards from the answer. Given 12, find two numbers that multiply to it. That is factoring, and it is much harder than 3 × 4.

Who it suits

Four in a row (add) works from first grade. The multiply version needs the tables to 6 to be at least half known, so second grade onward. Dots and boxes and Corners have no arithmetic at all and are there for mixed-age afternoons. For more of the same idea with only dice and a pencil, the dice games sheet is the companion.

Print two boards at once. The loser always wants a rematch.