Domino Addition, a Collecting Game

This maths game gives young children the opportunity to practice and refine their addition skills, using totals up to 12. 

The game will suit two to four children and works particularly well with mixed ability groupings. The children playing the game have a standard set of dominoes.

Remove the double blank, then spread the dominoes out face-down and mix them. Shuffle a set of Domino Bingo Cards (details below), and deal them out to the players. If four children are playing they will need six cards each; less than four players could use nine cards each. Ask the children to arrange their cards into a grid (or array) as in the picture above.

The remaining cards are placed aside.

Each Bingo Card has a number printed on it, and rectangular space for a domino. Some of the cards also have mathstick people on them. Let the children look at their cards for a moment, reading the numbers and looking for the mathstick people. Encourage them to talk about the numbers they have, using appropriate mathematical vocabulary.

The mathsticks people are there to help determine which player should go first. The child who has the card featuring a figure on the highest number, goes first. Let's call this first player Lucy, she now chooses a domino at random from the pile, turns it face up to show everyone and calculates the total.

Lucy then looks at her array of Bingo Cards, if she has one with the same total she has just named she places the domino on it. If she doesn't have a matching number then the domino is replaced on the table and the set of dominoes a lightly mixed again. Play now passes to the next child.

Play continues in this way, with each child in turn showing a domino, talking about the number of spots and calculating the total.

The winner is the first player to fill his or her set of Bingo Cards.

Notes
There are 27 downloadable* Domino Bingo Cards (each 9cm by 6cm). Print them out, and cut them into separate cards.

Further ideas:
To help with assessment:

• Play with the dominoes face-up and let the children plan which one they are going to take
• Ask the children to arrange the array of Bingo Cards in order before play starts
• Arrange for four players to work in two teams, each pair has 12 Bingo Cards arranged between them and they should work together to see if they can fill all of their Cards first
• At the beginning of a game instead of handing out the Bingo Cards at random, place them face up in a line and let the children take it in turns to choose their cards
• Children can also use the cards as labels and sort the dominoes into sets that make particular totals, like this ->

For fun:

• Let the children keep score of their games with counters, one counter for being the first to complete a row, four counters for being the first to fill all of the cards
• Leave the double-blank in with the dominoes, if children pick it they:
  • can use it as a 'wild domino' to cover any card they choose
  • have another go
  • take a domino from one of the other player's cards
  • immediately win!
  • immediately lose!

If you found this useful, or have any further thoughts about this game, please add a comment.

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