Numeracy Development – Monopoly
Are you looking for a family activity on weekends, or to get you through the school holidays? Do you want to help your kids with their maths? Don’t sit down and write out times tables, pull out the Monopoly set! The family favourite
board game employs many mathematical concepts, and it’s a fun bonding family activity too.
Here’s some of the skills which you can practise and develop with your family. I’ve put the ones for younger kids first and worked up.
Addition. When the dice are rolled, the addition skills are practised every turn. With younger kids, they can try counting one dice then the other. For example, if one player rolls a 4 and a 6, he or she has several options. He/She can add up and get 10 then move. Younger children can count 1,2,3,4, then 1,2,3,4,5,6 or the other way around – 1,2,3,4,5,6, then 1,2,3,4. Young children will learn that 4+6 is the same as 6+4 this way. It’s also an opportunity to learn doubles.
Moving pieces – counting in 2s. When a young child rolls 11 and tries to move counting every single space the game can take a looooooong time to get through. You can introduce counting in 2s here. Sometimes you’ll have to ‘prove’ that counting in 2s is the same as counting individually. Kids can be a bit resistant to the idea of skipping spaces and skipping numbers. You might have to count it out both ways at first to show them you’re not cheating.
Moving pieces – addition with 10s. One of the magic things about the Monopoly board is that each side has 10 places. If a player is on a station, and they roll a 10, they can jump straight to the next station without counting. Again, you might have to ‘prove’ this by counting it out to your kids a few times. If you’re 2 places past the station and you roll a 10, go to 2 places past the next station and so on. Once they’ve got the hang of working with 10s, you can expand it to other numbers, eg rolling a 9 or 11. If a player is on a station and rolls and 11, then the reasoning goes like this- ’11 is one more than 10, and moving 10s outs me on the next station, and then I go one more’. Works for 9 too – move 10 then back one.
Rent – finding information and doubling. Looking up the amount of rent required when another player lands on one’s property is a great maths skill in itself – referring to a table for information. When all the properties in a colour group are owned, the rent for each doubles. So not only does the player have to look up the rent, but double it too – good practise at multiplying by 2!
Money – denominations. Looking at the different denominations of money is a great chance to see how different things can add together, and looking at multiples of numbers. Players can learn that 5 x $20 notes, 2 x $50 notes and 1 x $100 note are all worth the same amount.
Money – making change. If a player lands on a property with a rent of $14, it’s easier to pay $15 and get $1 in change than to try to make $14. Pointing out these strategies (which you probably just do without thinking) will help your children’s arithmetic and money skills.
Mortgaging – determining 10%. When a property is unmortgaged, 10% interest is required to be paid. This is a good chance to have a go at working it out. Remind kids that if the amount ends in zero (eg $130) all they need to do is wipe off the zero and shift everything down a place (eg $13).
Of course, the numeracy benefits of Monopoly are only the beginning. Other skills include social skills, building alliances, diplomacy, negotiations, budgeting, debt consolidation, communication skills, espionage, peace keeping and hostage negotiations. Well, in our family anyway…
Libby
For more family activities which help with numeracy development check out www.makemathseasier.com/makemath
(September 2007) (
Lexi xxx
