Educational Games - Tips for using Dice and Playing Pieces

I love tricking my students into learning by playing games! My department has a bunch of these PCI/Pro-Ed games and I love grabbing them when I need a quick back-up plan. They make for great sub plans, or back-up plans when suddenly half my students are out for therapies and I don't want half of them to miss out on my lesson! :) 

Even though it's quick and easy lesson for me, I love that it is still beneficial for my students. They work on basic game skills, such as rolling dice, counting, moving their piece, remembering what color their piece is, telling their friends it's their turn, and more (as well as learning about a specific topic including dollar over, money, health, cooking, and others)!

One problem we have often is students not remembering the color of their game piece. I'm using not paying attention to which color game piece they are moving either, and something things get quite confusing... Then, I had this GENIUS idea! We place a card in front of each student that says what color they have, such as "I am BLUE", or whatever color they are. This way we can refer students back to the card in front of them and I don't have to try to remember each student's color either. Game playing is so much easier now!

Does everyone has students who have to count each dot on the dice before they are able to move? Usually I don't mind, but I have some students who should definitely be able to memorize what a 5 looks like! I created this set of file folders to work on these dice skills and others. Right now I have these printed and they are in progress of being put together. I can't wait to start using them!

Even though these games were bought just about eight years ago when our program started, they are a bit outdated in some areas. So when I find a card that says something like "Why should you always have a quarter in your wallet?" Answer: "So you can use a pay phone."  I just throw it out. And other cards might say something like, "What would happen if you returned a video back to video store late?, so I just grab some white out and change them to say something more relevant, like "What would happen if you returned a DVD back to RedBox late?

While I was writing this post, I tried to find these games so I could link them for you, and it looks like they have all been updated, which is great, but I'm jealous! :) You can find the games here. A little expensive, but if you have money in your budget or something, they are great to have! I would love to have the updated games, but ours still work just fine.