Math Games Lab for Kids

Math Games Lab for Kids is a fun activity and games book for young readers. Released in 2017 by Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 144 pages and available in flexibound and ebook formats. It's book 6 of (currently) 24 books in the Labs for Kids series. Aimed at middle grade readers (grades 3-7) and their adults (parents, guardians, school resource personnel/teachers etc), it includes 25 short lab units for diverse math related fun (really!) activities.

The book includes a surprisingly diverse selection of fun puzzles which introduce basic concepts in topology, graph theory (including a really cool intro to the bridges of Königsberg), geometry, map theory, and fractals. The real genius of this book is that many of the labs are fun learning... the Sierpinski triangle in the fractals section will have learners of all ages reaching for drawing supplies.

STEAM learning is vitally important to our future and training our problem solvers now, and showing our young people how fascinating and -fun- mathematics is, is key to the process.

This is a worthwhile book. It would make a great classroom library book, resource book, homeschool resource book, or support text for kids 8-12(+). There's also a wide range of activities and the labs use easily sourced inexpensive materials. The photography is appealing and easy to follow.

Five stars. This is a great book and part of a solid series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I feel very strongly that making STE(A)M subjects fun for young readers is vitally important to inculcating a real love of science, critical thinking, exploration, and development. The authors' enthusiasm shines through in the text.

Brilliant! This book is full of creative ways to explore maths. The book also explains the theory behind the activities in an easy to understand way, but without oversimplifying it. The activities also allow for progression of skills, starting easily and allowing you to develop a greater understanding of the maths involved. I will be sharing this with our Maths Lead once we go back to school.

I really like this book of math activities for kids and was surprised to get to the end and see that it's by the same author of a math game book that I really disliked last year. While some of the activities are the same, she (and a co-author, from the looks of it) really created a successful math activity book with this one. Each project gives a fair bit of math information in small, understandable ways and also features honestly fun activities. Gumdrop geometry is nothing new, but here the kids learn all kinds of terms and history of the various shapes, for instance, and then have trickier versions to reproduce. They also learn how to make curves with embroidery stitches to learn about parabolas and so on. Lots of fun activities here that will actually help kids conceptualize math, and colorful photos and drawings make it all easy to visualize. I may actually pick up a copy of this one for our home, which is saying a lot since I am on a strict book diet because our house is overflowing with books as it is. :)

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

I really enjoyed this book. I am a middle school math coach and a mom. This book was very easy to follow and it made mathematical concepts fun and relevant to younger kids. This is perfect for kids all the way through high school. They are great, Easy activities that honestly do not require much prep or background math knowledge. I highly recommend this for teachers and definitely parents!

This is a great book for kids! I think children who aren't a huge fan of math would love it and could help them understand concepts that are harder on paper. There are a lot of labs and activities that seem appropriate for a range of ages. Classrooms could benefit from this book but definitely seems like it would be great at home for the whole family.

This book is incredible! Teaching in a school for gifted students, I know I have students who will need these activities as math extensions and bonuses. The book is laid out well, activities are Cleary explained and the illustrations are appropriate and helpful. I like how the book is broken into sections and connected challenges. I can't wait to start using this with kids!

So many interesting things in this book. From making geometrical shapes to Möbius strip magic, to fractals, and to playing Nim, an ancient maths game which I had never heard of before.

To be honest, I especially liked the section on colouring like a mathematician. It makes total sense when you look at it from the mathematician's perspective, it's a simple yet "mindblowing" method".

No matter which game from this book you'll try with your students, I'm sure they will not only have fun playing/making, they will also learn about Maths in a hands on way rather than boring lectures.

My guess is, the Math Games Lab is adaptable to all kinds of ages. Primary school kids to young teenagers (you know, the age before they think making something is only fun for small kids and they no longer are kids).

This book is very cool. My 6 year old was too young to dive in but I was very intrigued and think there’s lots of fun stuff here for when he’s a couple of years older. Anything to make math exciting is worthwhile in the world!

Telling a kid that the book you're gifting them has some forty pages of math might well make the kid turn and run the other way. Is math fun? Well that depends how it's done. If you lead with the idea of building 3-D shapes using toothpicks and...gumdrops, then you might get the kid's attention, and that's how this book starts out!

Not all kids are math averse, of course. Some do love it already, but for many, if they're at all like me (and hopefully they're not!), then math might seem daunting rather than haunting. The first thing you should know is that this isn't really about working with numbers, but about working with shapes and patterns, and reading this made me wonder if maybe our approach to math ought to include topics like these early - bring math to your kid as fun and games and maybe when the tougher and more numerically-oriented materials inevitably crop up, they'll be less inclined to run? I know I would have been.

Colorfully- and simply-illustrated and full of fun topics laid out intelligently and attractively, this book begins with creating shapes using toothpicks for the edges and gumdrops for the vertices, teaching about prisms and pyramids, but before your child becomes completely imprismed, the book moves on to drawing circles and ellipses, including how to create a giant one in the playground. Next up is topology and Möbius strips, which might sound scandalous to some but it really isn't, because Möbius knows where to draw the line.

This is followed by a little bit of geography and a lot of four-color maps, and then stitching curves (which commendably shows both boys and girls at work) followed by fractals. And trust me if you understand only a part of the fractal section you've got it all. Snowflakes and graph theory lead to Eulerian circuits and a trip to Königsberg which now has a much less appealing name I'm afraid to say. No! I'm not afraid to say it. I will say it! It's Kaliningrad! There, I said it!

All the solutions to the various puzzles are included toward the back of the book along with an index. I liked this book, and consider it very useful and effective way to introduce young children to math. I commend it as a worthy read.

I'm a math nerd and have always loved and been interested in different applications of mathematics. This book is chock full of games and puzzles and activities that my grandkids will love. I just ordered a copy for them and can't wait to hear what they think! They are 4, 6, and 8 and interested and excited about math. I know this will foster an even greater appreciation of math for them.

Math Games Lab for Kids shares more than 50 hands-on activities that make learning fun and creative,

Included are geometry and topology by making prisms, anti prisms, Platonic solids, and Moebius strips.
Learners build logic skills by playing and strategizing through tangrams, toothpick puzzles, and the game of Nim.

Everything you need to complete the activities can be found in the book or around the house.

All of the activities are for children ages 6 – 10 but I have to admit that adults may even have fun doing some of these activities. The activities can be done in any order and the materials needed for the activities call for simple household items. When doing some of the activities, it may feel more like a game than actually doing math because students won’t realize they are using math principles to complete the activity.

These activities can either be done at home or in a classroom. Each activity begins with a question to think about. It allows the student to come up with a hypothesis and hooks them into the lesson. Each activity is well written giving materials needed, math facts, directions and illustration.

I think this book would make math learning fun for children! This book would be great in a school library or a classroom library or even for a student’s personal library.

This is a great book for engaging kids in play based learning about maths. My 5 year old loves maths and really enjoyed lots of these activities. Some will be better for when she’s older but this has been a welcomed resource during home learning.

'Math Games Lab for Kids' is filled with so many neat projects for kids! This would be great for summer time or even quarantine. A huge variety of match concepts are included. This will definitely appeal to kids who like art and craft projects. Overall, a very cool educational book!

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Quarry Books for providing this ARC.

This book has many different parts of math. Each part has several activities in each part. It would be a good hands on book for children that learn through hands on. It is basically a book that makes models/Manipulatives to teach math. It would be good for children learning the concepts for the first time or those who need more hands on.

What a wonderful book! This book has done, what some of us feel to be, the impossible!! This book has taken math, a topic many struggle with, and has made it fun and engaging!! I am looking forward to introducing the activities to my own children and watching their joy as they work through this book. The illustrations and photographs are well spaced and provide the right amount of visual support. Well done!
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Very cute book of games that go far beyond the normal addition and multiplication. It would be good for a kid who believes they don't like math and for the kid who likes math too! Sadly it is a little young for my own kids or I'd be buying it right now. The only downside is that it would be hard to tie in with a specific math program they were working on.

By approching complex mathematical problems with a simple language and in a creative way, this book bring various math branches close to the soul and mind of children. From learning about shapes and colouring as a mathematician, to Tangram games and various applications of the fractal theories, Math Games Lab for Kids is an excellent collections of exercices supported by short theoretical introductions. One can easily work most of the applications suggested by using household objects, such as toothpick or matches.
The visual part is entertaining and well done as well.
A recommended read for further use in the classroom for teachers, but also for parents coping with the homeschooling tasks and children curious to explore maths in a natural way.

A fun books on Maths activities. The layout with the images is good. It is easily understandable for kids. Topics included are Geometry, Topology, Colouring Maps, Stitching Curves, Fantastic Fractions, Terrific Tangrams, Toothpick Puzzles, The Game of Nim and Graph Theory.
We had fun with the activities on Mobius Strips

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

What I love about the activities in this book is that the emphasis is on fun, rather than the maths. Yes, there is a mathematical concept underlying them but children will simply be playing a game or colouring in. This approach has allowed Rapoport and Yoder to include some rather complex (sometimes graduate level) mathematical concepts such as topology which I think is very impressive. I loved this Möbius strips lab. My favourite lab was learning to play the game of Nim – I’d never played before! – the scenario diagrams worked well and it’s an easy concept to pick up and discuss the strategy with children.

** This is from a larger review to be published on my blog 4 June**

There are 37 ideas contained within this book, to help make maths more fun and relevant. They scratch the surface of maths and sometimes contain additional or more advanced material. The projects are created using standard household materials, such as toothpicks, gumdrops (jelly tots for me!!), pencils, ruler and string.

This book is split into 9 sections
- Geometry
- Topology
- Maps
- Curves
- Fractions
- Tangrams
- Puzzles
- Game of Nim
- Graphs

Each project contains a colour photograph of work in progress, steps to follow and matching diagrams to provide details on how to build up the shape. There is also a Maths Fact with a number of drawings to explain the maths side of things. At the rear of the book are the solutions. Some of the projects are done with small bits of paper, some can be upscaled to do on the ground outside. Only in one lab is there sums to do, it's colouring in, making shapes or playing games otherwise. The book is aimed at children between the ages of 6 to 10.

It certainly makes maths a little more fun, especially if you could eat the prisms afterwards!

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

A great book full of fantastic ideas and great, step by step, examples. My learners have enjoyed learning about mathematical concepts in a relaxed and fun way. An excellent resource that I know I will dip into for years.

#MathGamesLabforKids #NetGalley
Introduce your child and/or your students to the beauty of math. Help them to see that it is so much more than formulas and memorized facts. Math has gotten a bad rap for years. It is the brunt of many jokes about how hard it is. It doesn't have to be hard. This book offers 37 "labs" that invite children grades 2-5 to explore math concepts in geometry, fractals, topology, color maps, stitching curves, the Koch snowflake, tangrams, toothpick puzzles, etc. The math adventures in this book can be done with materials found in most homes or in the book itself. Each lab begins with colorful visuals, clear steps to help one get started. and challenges to take the learning to another level. As a math teacher for the past 40 years I know how important this book is to help your child to discover the beauty and fun side of math. Help them learn that the willingness to keep trying is one of the most important mathematical skills of all.

A wonderful resource for children, parents/caretakers, teachers and anybody who would like to discover the beauty of maths through hands-on fun activities. The book is orgaised into 9 chapters and 37 labs that can be done in order. All of them contain clear instructions and illustrations that make it easy to follow the task and learn something new about maths. My students loved experimenting with toothpick shapes, tangrams and Möbius strips to name just a few.
Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishg Group /Quarry for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.

I always had trouble with math and was never really good at understanding how to find a logic way for solving the math problems at hand.

But I am quit sure had somebody handed me this book my path would be a different one.

I like this book because it helps children ( and some adults, myself included) in a fun way to better understand math.

There are puzzles, things you can build and with that the understanding for math is rising and in a short time you start to like math ( never thought this could happen to me )


So thanks for letting me read the book.