Whenever I meet with any group of teachers and the word “game” is mentioned every single teacher has their favourite math games. We often end up exchanging the names and rules and sometimes even playing those games. A year ago or so I came across a series of books called Well Played. They were set up in grade bands so you knew the games would be appropriate for your students. What I liked the most about the books was the teaching that went with each game. Not only would you get the games, their rules and the game-boards, you would also know what it might would look like in a classroom, along with tips from the classroom, what to look for mathematically variations of the game, and you would be given ideas about exit tickets for the game as well as extensions for the game. These turned the games into more than a time filling device but into valid math learning for your class. I wholeheartedly recommend these books to you.
Psst – if you look into the MAP templates folder you will find samples of games from the books. They are games from around Grade 3 to Grade 10 but they don’t include the rest of the ‘gold’ from the books.