Find the Number game

Hi! Future Ticia 2024 here, I’m updating this post and refining this so it’s a bit more useful from what I wrote back in 2010. It’s a useful post, but I can guarantee no one has read this in years, so I’m updating it and making it pretty, and hopefully now people will find this find the number game and think of ways they can use it in their own lessons as a fun math lesson or extension or just a way to keep your kids busy during kindergarten or maybe Homeschooling Preschool. I now return you to Past Ticia 2010, though I will pop in from time to time to add in a few things.

Pathfinder Mom had showcased a game her son loves and then commented this would be easy to do with sidewalk chalk and music (sorry no exact link to the post).  Well, I took that and ran with it.

(Future Ticia is adding in affiliate links)

  So, here’s our game:

Find the Numbers game supplies

sidewalk chalk, hyper kids that need to burn energy, and a sunny day (that last one is key)

Optional: pocket dice (you can put numbers in them and then roll the number as a different option)

Prep work: Write numbers all over your sidewalk.

How to play the Find the Numbers Game 

Call out a kid’s name and call out how they should get to the number.  Ex: Superman hop to 17.  Princess run to 5.  Batman tiptoe to 12.

Happily play the game and trick your kids into learning.

Ways the kids could move:

• walk
• run
• skip
• tiptoe
• jump
• hop
• crawl
• you’re pretty much only limited by what you can think of

Different ways to play this game

Okay, let’s talk some more skills you could do with the numbers you’ve written out:

• addition
• subtraction
• multiplication/division
• greater than/less than (find a number bigger than 4)
• even/odd

Some more homemade games or active learning

Over the years I’ve shared some great ideas for homemade learning and active learning.

• Homemade memory game
• DIY fine motors skill game
• Learning stations
• homemade clock

Other skills you can do with this idea that aren’t math games

There are so many skills you can do with this, I’m just going to brainstorm four or so, and hopefully, this will get your own ideas going and then you can make your own version of the game.

• sight words
• vocabulary words
• timeline (write dates and have kids go to the year it happened)
• Multiple choice quiz (give each kid a set of letters to walk to)

Play as long as the weather or your kids’ attention span lasts.

Game called on account of rain!  Apparently our rain dance from the other day was successful, if a little late.