Are you looking for a FREE math game resource that makes math fun and exciting? How about math games that focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills. If you want to help facilitate and nurture a math-rich education, then Beast Academy Playground is a fantastic option for getting your kids thinking outside the box.
*Disclosure: I was asked for an honest review of Beast Academy Playground. I was compensated for my time. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only choose to share resources that I would use with my own family and those that I believe other families will enjoy and benefit from.
Free Offline Math Games Perfect for Building Problem-Solving Skills
For years I have strewn math-related games, books, and activities around our home as part of our child-led learning. If the kids were interested in money, I’d strew games like Money Bags, Clumsy Theif, and Pay Day. We’d count coins, or I’d help them set up Spend, Save, Share jars and help them plan out how to earn extra money with chores. Sometimes we’d play store, or my daughter would bake treats and sell them to family members.
Strewing provided opportunities to play math in meaningful ways that a dry textbook did not.
That’s not to say that math programs did not have their place in our home. We’ve used and enjoyed several math curriculums over the years. Beast Academy being our favorite during elementary and middle school.
Beast Academy is an advanced comic-based math program for students ages 8–13. This is a unique and fun math curriculum that has worked for both my son and daughter. My son used the Beast Academy comic books years ago during elementary and middle school, and my daughter has been enjoying their newer online program for two years now! It has been an excellent program for building my kiddo’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
But games have always been our favorite way to learn math.
Recently, I discovered that Beast Academy had created FREE offline math games called Beast Academy Playground!
Beast Academy Playground
Beast Academy Playground offers math games for kids ages 4-10. These are tabletop math games and activities the whole family can play. The games require a minimal amount of materials to set up and there are easy step-by-step instructions along with video instructions on how to accomplish each game.
There are loads of topics to choose from including, number games, abstract games, spatial games, and arts and crafts with a mathematical twist. Some of the games are quick and take less than 5 minutes, while others can be more involved.
Beast Academy Playground is a fantastic way to introduce young minds to big math concepts.
The first game my daughter chose was the Sierpinski Fold-Out because she loves arts and crafts! This is an awesome fractal pop-up card created by folding and cutting in a repeating pattern.
Sierpinski Fold-Out
It took us a couple of tries, but the results were excellent!
With this math activity, we looked at patterns from our fold-out:
- Number of rectangles at each step: 1, 2, 4
- The number of layers cut through at each step: 2, 6, 18
- Number of new pieces to “pop out” at each step: 1, 3, 9
- Total number of “popped-out” pieces at each step: 1, 4, 13
- Length of cut at each step: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8
There were options to keep going or doing additional variations, but my daughter was happy with her Sierpinski Fold-Out as it was.
Free Offline Math Games
Our next problem-solving game was called Cartographer. Cartographer is a classic math coloring activity with only four colors needed.
My daughter wanted to color in a map of the United States. This game aims to want the different states to stand out from each other, so you avoid using the same color on states that border.
We learned you could color any map using only four colors! This fact is known as the Four Color Map Theorem.
Cartographer Math Game
Beast Academy Playground provided additional learning opportunities involving cartographer history, counterexamples, and challenges! You can work as a team collaboratively or against each other to make it more challenging.
Did you know that in the 1970s, mathematicians Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken used a computer to prove that every map could be colored with four colors? This was the first time a computer was used to confirm a mathematical theorem!
Thank you, Beast Academy Playground, for teaching me something new!
Mobius Madness Math Games for Kids
Every week Beast Academy Playground releases a new math activity! You can subscribe for FREE and get a notification when they release each math game.
Last week we enjoyed Mobius Madness! This curious game only requires a strip of paper and a piece of tape to get the questions flowing. Our first couple of Mobius Madness circles were mind-bending. Then we doubled them up, and things got twisted! We ended with my daughter’s favorite, a winding set of hearts.
The extra learning notes explained that the central mathematical concept behind Mobius Madness is topology. Topology is the study of geometric properties and spatial relations.
Folks, this is math the whole family can learn, and I love it!
The Benefits of Beast Academy Playground
There are many benefits to using Beast Academy Playground:
- I love that Beast Academy Playground encourages children to change the rules to the games, make variations, be silly, make mistakes, and try again.
- Beast Academy Playground offers additional variations and learning notes if children want to dive deeper into a topic.
- They stress that the most important thing is to have fun, and I feel that’s key in building a love of math.
- Beast Academy Playground helps develop my child’s love for math and build her problem-solving confidence.
- These games are designed by the global leaders in K-12 advanced math education!
- There are easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions along with video instructions for each game.
- We are learning big math concepts in fun ways!
- Beast Academy Playground is entirely FREE!
Free Offline Math Games Perfect for Building Problem-Solving Skills
With Beast Academy Playground, you can make math time, playtime! My daughter is honing her critical thinking and problem-solving skills while having fun. These games can be enjoyed as part of everyday math lessons or whenever your kids need a break from their regular schedule. Big math concepts are introduced in fun and engaging ways that create wonder and excitement. Be sure to check Beast Academy Playground out for yourself. You and your kids have nothing to lose and only new mathematical insights and problem-solving skills to gain!
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