Small foods like candies and marshmallows are excellent tools to use in teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and even fractions and decimals. Instead of using handouts, worksheets or flashcards, allow the students to use the food to illustrate the problems. For subtraction, you may even consider allowing the students to eat the food as they work through the problem. Students will enjoy the chance to use their hands (and eat the food), but they will also gain understanding of the math process if they can work it out with actual objects.
When teaching fractions, one of the most popular questions a teacher will hear is, "When will we ever use this in real life?" To answer this question, allow the students to split into groups. Give each group a recipe to follow. The recipe can be for a cake, cookies or any other treat you have in mind. Be sure the recipe contains fractions. For an added challenge, have the students split the recipe in half, requiring them to divide the fractions by two. If your school does not have an oven, you can still do this activity. Simply have the students mix the ingredients, store the mixtures someplace cool, and bake them when you get home that evening. The students will enjoy the results of their efforts -- if they completed their calculations correctly -- but they will also have learned how to apply their knowledge of fractions.
Blank bingo boards can be adapted to teach many different procedures in math. Creating a bingo board for each student can be time consuming, but if they are made well, the same boards can be used over and over again for various topics. These boards are available for purchase online and at local school supply stores. For variations on this game, do a simple Internet search for "Math Bingo."
Every student enjoys a good magic trick. There are many "tricks" available to aid your students in basic mathematical functions. Here's an example of one from 10Tricks.co.uk: (1) Pick a number between one and nine (2) Subtract five (3) Multiply your answer by three (4) Multiply your answer by itself (5) Add the digits of your answer together to form one digit (i.e. 63 = 6+3 = 9) (6) If the number is less than five, add five. If it is greater than five, subtract four. (7) Multiply your answer by two. (8) Subtract six from your answer. (9) Assign a letter of the alphabet to correspond with your digit (i.e. A =1, B = 2, C = 3) (10) Pick the name of a European country that begins with that letter (11) Take the second letter of that name and think of an animal that begins with it. (12) Think of the color of that animal. If all calculations are done correctly, the answer will more than likely be "gray." (European country = Denmark; Animal beginning with "e" = elephant) Students will be so astounded that you can read their minds that they will barely notice the number of mathematical calculations they just performed.
There are a myriad of games and puzzles that can be adapted and used in the teaching of math. Dominoes and dice work well in teaching addition and subtraction. Treasure hunts and mazes can be used to encourage students to complete certain calculations which will, in turn, lead them to their next clue and eventually, the prize. Simple index cards can be used to create a memory game for reinforcing the multiplication tables. For this activity, create two sets of cards, one set that contains the multiplication problems and the other that contains the answers. The students pick one card from each set. If the cards match (the problem and answer go together), that student keeps the set of cards. The student with the most sets at the end of the game is the winner. For younger children who have the need to expend extra energy, create life-sized game boards in which the students themselves can be the playing pieces. These boards can be easily created with a plastic table cloth or shower curtain and a magic marker. The possibilities here are endless. Search the Internet for articles dealing with creating your own game boards, and see how easy it truly is.