Above is a picture I took of some of our current math activities in my room. Many of the items are playful in nature from our counters to using Lego to build arrays as well as more traditional manipulatives including Cuisenaire rods and decks of cards. For me math is a game and a puzzle to be solved. I also chose the chess game below because it is a game of strategy and part of the playfulness of math involves trying different strategies to accomplish a goal. Math is often a game of strategy understanding which strategy to use and when to use it to solve a problem much like playing Chess, Risk, Settlers or Carcassonne. My goal is to expose students to as many strategies as possible, so that they can choose how they play the game.
