Trivia games are ideal to use for math instruction with fourth- and fifth-grade students. Children of this age enjoy challenges and putting their knowledge to the test. Create trivia games that test their understanding of math concepts and skills that are taught during these grade levels. Make a "Jeopardy!" game or a game that involves students facing one another in a challenge to answer mathematical questions first. Questions for these games could include mental multiplication of two- and three-digit numbers, conversions of decimals and adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers.
Provide children with opportunities to play math matching games. Create sets of decimal and fraction cards. Encourage children to match the decimal cards to the correct fraction cards -- the student who makes the most matches wins the game. Divide the class into two equal groups. Offer one group division problems and the other group the answers to the division problems. The two groups must work together to find the answers and problems that match.
Card games are ideal for independent, one-to-one activities to reinforce mathematical skills in fourth- and fifth-grade students. Write fractions or decimals on index cards and have students play a game of "War," in which they flip over cards and the person who has the higher fraction or decimal keeps both cards. The child with the most cards wins the game. Create a missing divisor game. Write division problems on one set of index cards with a divisor from each problem missing. Write the missing divisors on another set of index cards. Distribute the divisor cards to students. Place the division problem cards face down. Children flip over a division card. The student who has the missing divisor removes her card from her hand. The first child with no cards remaining is the winner.
Challenge students to mathematical races. Divide the class into two teams and write a list of mathematical problems on the board for each team. These could be double- and triple-digit addition, subtraction or multiplication problems, or fraction-to-decimal conversion questions. One student from each team steps up to the board and has to answer the first question on the list; if able to do so, he erases the problem. If not, he steps to the back of the line. The first team to erase all problems wins the game. Another idea is to send children on a geometrical shape hunt. Provide groups of students with lists that contain names of geometrical shapes. The group that finds the most objects in the room that are shaped like each geometrical shape wins the game.