LEGO fans will love these playful addition and subtraction game boards. They’re a motivating way to work on addition to five, subtraction within five and practicing addition and subtraction at the same time.
Getting Ready
To prep this fun addition and subtraction game, I printed the LEGO game boards on cardstock to give them extra durability. Then, I grabbed a die and our stash of LEGO bricks. (Each child needed at least 30 LEGO bricks and a LEGO person to use as her playing piece.)
Three Versions
There are three versions of the game to make it easy for kids to practice a variety of skills: addition to five, subtraction within five and both.
Addition to Five Game
To practice addition to five, each player starts with zero bricks. He rolls the die and moves his game piece that many spaces on his board.
Then, he reads the addition problem he lands on and adds that many bricks to his tower.
The player with the most bricks in her stack at the end is the winner!
Subtraction within Five Game
If you’re in more of a take away kind of mood, kids can work on subtraction within five instead.
To play, each player starts with a tower of 25 bricks. The first player rolls the die, moves his game piece that many spaces and takes off the number of bricks written on the space.
The player with the fewest bricks when all players have reached the end wins.
Addition and Subtraction Game
And finally, to work on both operations at once, players start with a tower of 10 bricks. Player One rolls the die, moves her game piece and either adds or subtracts the number of LEGOs written on the space from her stack.
The player with the most bricks when all players have reached the end wins the game.
Grab Your Download
Teaching is one of the hardest jobs out there, and it’s easy to feel like your efforts go unnoticed. But here’s the truth: what you’re doing matters, and we see you. The Science of Reading Formula is here to make your job easier and remind you of the incredible impact you’re making every single day. Let’s celebrate your wins and tackle those challenges together.
Hi! I love these games! I have been looking for a fun way to practice math at home! It looks like you can play these several different ways! Awesome.
Thank you for all you do!
We love your site!
Bridget and M
Hi,
Thanks for all your great work and fun games you share with us. I sent you an email with some questions 🙂
This game is awesome! Thank you so much for creating it. The kids in my preschool class loved playing the addition version and it really kept their interest!
thank you
Me encanta el blog y todos los materiales que compartes. Gracias !!! Utilizo algunos de tus juegos en mi clase y mis niños están encantados.
Muchas gracias, estamos encantados de tenerte como parte de nuestra familia en línea.
¡Quédate inspirado!
Love your resources! My grade one class finds them both fun and engaging! Thanks so much 🙂
Wonderful, Lisa!
I’m so glad you’re students are enjoying the activities!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
I like this, but I will change the rules slightly. I will have my higher students in first grade add /subtract either blocks with the correct amount of knobs, or make a combination (E.g. a block with 4 knobs and 1 block with 1 knob to represent a 5) Should be interesting for subtraction!
What a great way to differentiate for your higher students.
I hope they love it!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
Hi there,’
Thank you for this amazing freebie! I’m just wondering if you were relaxing your sharing rules during the pandemic. I was hoping to share this in my Google Classroom so my students could play it as part of my math unit. Please let me know if this is possible! Thank you for your consideration.
Hi Rebecca,
I just emailed you 🙂
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
Hi!
Thank you so much for this amazing resource! I love that it provides easy ways to differentiate based on students’ needs. Many of my students would need to work solely on addition or subtraction, but I appreciate the fact that there is also an option for both addition and subtraction in one activity for my higher performing students!
HI Sarah,
We’re thrilled you like the Lego game boards! Differentiation really is key. It can save so much time to have options for all of your students!
Sarah // Playdough to Plato Team
Hi there, these game boards look amazing! I would love to use these but the link doesn’t seem to be working. Can you help me with this please?
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
When you click the blue “Download Here” button, a pop-up should open. You can try checking to make sure your browser isn’t blocking pop-ups from the site or try using a different browser. Let me know if you’re not able to get the game!
Warmly,
Sarah // Playdough to Plato Team
Hi, I really love the Lego board games and I am sure the children in my grade would as well. As we are remote learning am I able to upload them on Seesaw for my year level? I understand if it can’t be done. I just think the games are great and very appealing to young learners!
Thank you Claire
Hi Claire! Thank you so much for checking! Yes, you may upload the game to your class Seesaw library. It just cannot be shared to the public Seesaw library because that would infringe on the “one classroom use” copyright. I hope your students love it! 🙂
Hi!
I cannot download the addition & substractoin game… i dont know why
Kind regards,
Inés
Oh no! We just fixed that up! Can you try it again? Be sure that your pop-up blocker is turned off. It will attempt to open another page.
Hey there. I tried to download with pop up blocker off. No luck. The button does nothing.
Any other way to get this awesome game?
Thanks!
Hi Amber,
You can also try using a different browser. If you happen to be downloading at school, the district’s web filter could be blocking the pop up too. Let me know if you’re not able to get the game!
Warmly,
Sarah // Playdough to Plato Team
Success!
Thank you!