Math Playgrounds

Math Playgrounds are dynamic, for-all-ages, arena filled with engaging math game, introduced by YPP at the 2024 National Tournament in Cambridge, MA.  Playgrounds are organized by four “lands”: Number Discovery, Flagway, Algebra, and Fractions/Ratio.  Each of the four lands reflect YPP's pedagogical approach of using games, activities, and a focus on multiple representations to develop conceptual understanding and build procedural fluency with mathematical concepts. Activities draw on YPP's catalog of games and activities developed over the years; are developed by math literacy workers in response to noticing a particular conceptual challenge their younger students are having; are developed in collaboration with mathematicians to make higher level math concepts accessible to elementary students.

Mathematical Background

Each of the four lands reflect YPP's pedagogical approach of using games, activities, and a focus on multiple representations to develop conceptual understanding and build procedural fluency with mathematical concepts. Activities draw on YPP's catalog of games and activities developed over the years; are developed by math literacy workers in response to noticing a particular conceptual challenge their younger students are having; are developed in collaboration with mathematicians to make higher level math concepts accessible to elementary students.

Flagway Playground Lands

• Number Discovery Land helps 2nd - 6th graders develop skills across the following strands: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base 10, and Geometry. Concepts include fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; categorization and fluency with odd/even, and prime/composite numbers; and analyzing shapes. 
• Fraction Land helps 3rd - 6th graders understand fractions. Concepts include working with unit fractions with a numerator of 1, adding and subtracting fractions, fraction equivalence, and adding/subtracting and multiplying and dividing fractions by whole numbers.
• Flagway Land helps 4th - 7th graders deepen and apply their number sense to a study of the Mobius Function, which categorizes the natural numbers into three mutually exclusive groups according to the prime factorization of the number. Students use algebraic representations of numbers to support categorization and multiplicative fluency skills. Flagway builds number sense and helps students apply algebraic expressions to solve a math problem. 
• Algebra Land helps 6th - 8th graders develop skills in the following strands: Ratio and Proportional Relationships, Expressions and Equations, and Statistics and Probability. Concepts focus on representations of ratio relationships, trip lines and the idea of a movement number, probability and random walks on mathematical objects, and introduction to functions. 

Math Playground PORTAL!

The Math Playground Program

The Math Playground Program is a dynamic, game-based math experience designed to support 2nd–7th grade students in building deep mathematical understanding through exploration, collaboration, and play. Led and co-designed by youth, this initiative brings math to life using games, facilitation, competition, and discovery.