Write down a game each to teach children
i) multiplication,
ii) what a circle is,
iii) estimation skills.
Also say what you expect the child to know before you try to teach them these concepts.
You can also create a variety of guessing games like the following. They give children ample opportunity to develop their mathematical thinking and language.
a) One group can think of a number and whisper it to the teacher. The other groups have to guess the number. A clue is provided to enable them to guess, such as: This number is a prime number between five and nine.', or 'This is the number of sides of a cube.' or 'This is 2/5th of 90% of the girls in this class.' The questions would depend, of course, on the level of the children, because children are setting them.
b) In another game, an assortment of familiar objects is placed before the class. One group or child (as you may wish to conduct the game) is asked to choose an item and whisper its name to the teacher. The other children/groups take turns to guess which object was chosen, based on clues which refer to the size, shape or position of the object in relation to the others. For example, it is taller, it is heavier, it is in front, it is not round in shape, and so on.
c) You can think of guessing games in which the guessers are allowed to ask only a limited number of questions, the answers to which must only be 'yes' or 'no'. Such games give children the opportunity to shift from asking specific questions (Is it a door? a book?) to more general questions (Can you sit on it? Is it as big as me? Are there more than one in the room?). This helps cut down the number of questions needed to reach the answer. For example, suppose the object chosen is a number from 1 to 100. At first, children may ask if it is a particular number, like 4 or 26. After a while, they learn to ask questions like : Is it bigger than 4?, Is it even?, etc. Others will soon pick up this strategy. Or, if the object chosen is, say, a cylindrical container. Then questions will lead to the use of mathematical terms such as - is it curved? Is it symmetrical about a line? Does it have 4 angles?
Such games enable children to develop mathematical thinking, by developing their skills of generalising, particularising, estimating and recognising patterns. All these, in effect, add to their power of mathematical thinking and reasoning.