Creating a fraction board game gives kids a chance to practice expository writing, art and logic skills in addition to fraction calculations. Design a game board on a poster board with spaces that have directions such as "Draw a card," "Take an extra turn," "Go forward two spaces" and "Go back three spaces." Have students write game instructions and fraction addition and subtraction problems on 3-by-5 cards. The instructions should indicate that when a game piece lands on a "draw" space, the student must solve the problem on the card or face a consequence, such as, "Go back one space." Hold a fraction math game day and let students trade and play their games.
Some people learn best when there is action and movement involved. To stimulate movement-based memory circuits, take kids to a basketball court or soccer field with paper and pencil in hand. Call out a fraction addition or subtraction problem and let the kids solve it. If a student gets the right answer on the first try, she gets three free throws or free kicks; award two throws or kicks for the second try, and one for the third. After that, the student must try a new problem to earn more throws or kicks. Keep track of the score. Play for a set time or to a point goal, attempting to set a personal best.
When working with fractions with unlike denominators, students must marshal all their calculating skills to multiply or divide to find equivalent fractions with common denominators before they can add or subtract. Finding common denominators requires finding prime factors, greatest common factor and least common multiple. Line students up on a starting line with paper, pencil and clipboards. Call out factor questions such as, "Find the least common multiple of 4 and 6" or "List the prime factors of 8 and 12." You may also use addition and subtraction questions that require factoring to solve. Everyone who gets the right answer must follow your instruction, such as, "Walk forward two steps." The first person to reach the goal line wins the fraction factor race.
A math card game comes in handy when space or time is limited, or just for a quiet alternative to the more active math games. Make a stack of fraction cards. On the first turn, each student draws two cards and rolls a die. Even numbers mean add, and odd numbers mean subtract. Let students perform their first calculations before continuing. On subsequent turns, a student draws one card and adds it to or subtracts it from his running total. The first person to reach 10 (or another goal that you set) wins.