After Ready-Made Preschool today Sweet Pea asked if we could play a game. She chose Sum Swamp, which is one of the best games out there to help children learn the concepts of adding and subtracting! The game is for ages 5+ but, with the use of our bear counters, I figured Sweet Pea might enjoy this game!

You play the game by rolling three dice. Two dice have the numbers 1-6 on them and the other die has + and – signs. Sweet Pea rolled 5 – 4.

Sweet Pea put 5 bears out and then…

….she took 4 bears away.

She was able to see that 5 – 4 = 1. Then she moved 1 space on the game board.

I love this game because it is such a fun way for my girls to learn the concepts of adding and subtracting. Little Bug no longer needs to use the counting bears when we play, but the counting bears help Sweet Pea visually see the math concepts!

Moving your swamp animal on the game board helps with one-to-one correspondence. There are spaces that have a number on them. If you land on one of those, you roll the operation die to see if you move forward or backward that number of spaces. So, if you land on a 5 and you roll a + sign, you would move forward five spaces!

There are also spaces that have “even” or “odd” on them. If you land on an “even” space, you are to roll one number die. If the number you roll is an even number, you move forward that many spaces. If you had not rolled an even number, you would have to try again on your next turn!

Sum Swamp is only $10 on Amazon*! We gave Little Bug this game a couple years ago and it is one of our favorites for sure!

*Not an affiliate link! Just sharing a game we love!

- Elaine