Elementary Math Games with Dice

Here’s a collection of the best elementary math games with dice!

Math is WAY more fun when it’s a game. Games add an element of play and competition to whatever math skill you are working on, which increases motivation and focus by a LOT.

These math games with dice are appropriate for kids in grades 1 – 5. I have organized them by category such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, etc.

My 10 year old daughter (and aspiring math teacher) helped me develop and test out these games. Some of them were inspired by Pinterest and other websites, and then we made a few modifications. It’s fun having a girl that loves math! It’s her favorite subject. She thinks in terms of numbers about so many things.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means that I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

Recommended Supplies:

Here’s a 10 pack of Bicycle Dice – this pack is a great value and good quality.

We also love this pack of Math Dice from Think Fun. The little storage bag is very handy!

Addition and Subtraction Dice Games

Add Them Up: Roll two dice and add up the total! Ask your students to record the addition sentences they create to encourage greater retention of the facts. For example, if they roll a 3 and a 6, they’ll write 3 + 6 = 9.

Make this game more challenging by rolling three dice! Or even four. Or, roll two 12-sided math dice.

Race to 100: This is a great way to practice addition as well as tally marks. Players take turns rolling the dice and adding tally marks to their paper until they get to 100. You can decide if you want them to roll one dice at a time or two. The first player to get to 100 wins!

Make this game simpler for young kids by racing to 50.

Empty the Bowl: Fill a bowl with 24 math cubes, LEGO bricks, buttons, pom pom balls, or whatever you want to use. Then roll a dice. Count how many rolls it takes to empty the bowl! This is a fabulous counting game for 4-5 year olds, but for upper elementary students, it’s a great lesson in probability and number combinations. You can see a full explanation of this game plus ideas for making it higher level here: DUPLO Math Games

Take-Away Towers: Build a tower out of LEGO bricks or math cubes. Each player will need a tower of equal size. 20 or 25 cubes is a great tower height.

Players take turns rolling the dice and then taking away that many bricks or math cubes.

You can play that the last tower standing is the winner, or you can play that the first one to take down their whole tower wins. Either way is fun!

Place Value Dice Games

Make the Biggest Number: This is a fun game that requires kids to make decisions about place value.

Make four dashes (or three, or five, or whatever you decide) on your paper. Then roll four dice. Make the biggest number that you can using the digits that you rolled.

Make the Smallest Number: Play the game the same way as above, but this time make the smallest possible number.

Make the Biggest Number Competition Version:

Each player should draw four dashes (or three, or five, or whatever you decide).

Player 1 rolls the dice. Then they have to make a choice about where that number should go. For example, if they roll a 5, they may want to put it in the thousands place. Or, they may decide to take the chance that they can roll a 6 on another turn and put it in the hundreds or tens place. Once a number has been written down, it can’t be moved to a different spot.

Then player 2 rolls the dice. Play continues until both players have filled all their spaces. Whoever has the largest number wins!

Multiplication Dice Games:

Multiply It: Roll two dice, then multiply the numbers. Write down the math sentence you created.

For example, if you roll 6 and 3, write down 6 x 3 = 18.

Make the game harder by using two 12-sided math dice.

Cover the Product: Print the game boards for this simple multiplication game! Roll two dice. Multiply the two numbers together, and then find the product on the game board. Cover it with a math counter, button, goldfish cracker, or whatever you want to use. The first player to cover their board wins!

This game works well with two players, but you really can do 3 or 4. Just print the number of game boards you need!

Graph Paper Dot Arrays:

Grab some graph paper. Roll two dice and make a row with that many dots. Then roll the dice again and make a column with that many dots. Fill in your array with dots and write the multiplication sentence that you made.

Make the game easier by using just one dice. That will limit you to arrays with 36 dots or less.

Times Table Drills:

Roll a 12-sided math dice, or roll two dice. Whatever number you roll, practice that times table!

So if your student rolls a 3, they should say all of the 3’s multiplication facts.

1 x 3 = 3, 2 x 3 = 6, and so on.

If they roll a 12, they can practice the 12’s, etc.

This makes practice more fun, and the dice are telling them what to do, not YOU telling them what to do!

Fraction Dice Games:

Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers:

This is a fun way to practice changing improper fractions to mixed numbers.

First, roll 2 dice. Add them together, and use that number as your numerator.

Then roll 1 dice. That number is the denominator.

Finally, convert your improper fraction to a mixed number!

Equivalent Fractions:

We had so much fun with this one that I decided to create a printable page for this too.

Roll one dice. That will be your numerator.

Then roll two dice. That will be your denominator.

Is the fraction you made equivalent to any of the ones on your paper? Write it in the appropriate box! For example, if you roll 3 and then 9, you’ll write 3/9 in the 1/3 box since they are equivalent.

If you roll a fraction that is NOT equivalent to one of the fractions given, then write it in the box that says, “Not a Match.”

Probability Dice Games:

Which number is rolled the most?

If your dice are weighted properly, they should have an equal chance of rolling all 6 sides. Really cheap dice may have imperfections that make them land on one side more than the others. But average dice from the store should work well enough for most games!

When you roll just one dice, you rolls should be fairly evenly distributed across all 6 numbers. However, when you roll two dice, there are more combinations possible. For example, there is only one way to roll a 2. You must roll two 1’s. But there are three ways to roll a 6! 1 & 5, 2 & 4, and 3 & 3. There are also three ways to roll a 7 or 8. There are two ways to roll a 4, 5, 9, or 10. There’s only one way to roll a 2, 3, 11, or 12.

Have your students figure out all the possible ways to roll the numbers 2 – 12 with two dice.

Then roll the dice and graph what happens!

(I put a 1 on our chart, but then we discussed that it isn’t possible to roll a 1 with two dice.)

Here’s how our rolls were distributed after 10 rolls.

And then here’s how our chart looked after 30 rolls:

Why did we roll so many 4’s? And why did we NOT roll a bunch of 7’s when there are three ways to roll a 7? I don’t know!

But if we kept going, we should find that 6, 7, and 8 would be rolled the most often.

With probability, the more events you have, the more your results should look like what you expect.

Ready to print your activity pages?

Click the link below. The file will open and you can print or download from there.

Dice Math Games Printable Pack