Dominoes are great for practicing math and they should be in every primary class as they are an excellent tool for primary students to use. They are also a useful tool for practicing math at home. There are many activities you can do using dominoes to model decomposition of numbers and help build student knowledge of addition facts and more.
Today’s game is called “Build a train”
Build a train
My boys used to love this game when they were younger. We build so many trains together. It was a popular one with my grade 1s as well. A great game to play at home to practice counting, decomposition of numbers, and addition facts.
Start with a baseline of dominoes and build a train adding the wagons. Start from the second part of the first tile. (to give the shape of the train.) Place a tile on top vertically. The sum or the difference of the numbers on the vertical tile needs to match the number it is standing on. Practice addition or subtraction.
You can build longer or shorter wagons and connect the wagons with a horizontal tile. Challenge your students to find more shapes they can make by matching the sum, or difference.
Check out some more activities with dominoes.
