Catholic Math Activities

by Mary Ann Grobbel

Catholic Heritage Curricula

Mary Ann Grobbel has compiled this 102-page book that has two distinct parts. The first part consists of instructions for about 50 different, easy-to-do math games. Each game is introduced with a brief spiritual lesson based upon Scripture, the Catechism, or principles of Christian living. (These introductions are not crucial to the games, so you can use them or not as you please.) Next are listed suggested grade levels for players, number of players, materials needed, the object of the game, and simple directions.

Materials are fairly easy to obtain--things like dice, play money, real coins, Unifix cubes or other snap blocks, cardboard, yardstick, protractor, recipes, grocery ads, and M & M’s. The games are really quite creative and effective for all their simplicity. These are excellent for practicing a host of math skills, and one game even includes some spelling skills. While the publisher suggests their suitability for ages 4 to 14, they seem most strongly targeted toward about 2nd-5th grades. Still, there are some activities appropriate for younger and older students. I suggest looking through the book before the school year starts, identifying which games relate to skills you want your children to practice through the upcoming year. Planning ahead will ensure that you really take advantage of all that’s available in this book.

The second part of the book consists of brief saints’ biographies, each followed by a series of math problems that relate to a key for coloring in an original artwork coloring page for each saint. Math problems in this section are all relatively simple addition and subtraction. However, children will also be learning history, geography, and Church history along with math and hagiography (study of the saints). In addition, this section includes creative instructions for making and using flash cards.