Mighty Meaning Maker Resources
Welcome to the Mighty Meaning Maker Resources page!
After poring through ALL my favorite puzzle books, activity books, games, and math tools, I’ve listed here the ones that are perfect for your child’s interests and learning style.
The Mighty Meaning Maker is one of three learning types from the Discover Your Math Superpower quiz. Of the three learning styles, your child tends to be the most creative, imaginative, and deeply thoughtful.
These are incredible traits to have as a math learner. 🥰
Unfortunately, when it comes to math, your creative learner can struggle to make sense of facts and rules that don’t seem to have connection to her world.
Thank goodness math can be learned in different ways–including activities, books, games, and hands-on tools that engage the whole child. Since these are visual, they really stick in her mind and help her learn much faster.
But before we dive into the math goodies, let’s take a look at a snapshot of your child’s math superpower.
A Quick Snapshot of the Mighty Meaning Maker
The Mighty Meaning Maker learns math best with visual models, games, and experiencing math in context.
When your child tries to memorize facts or rules, these feel completely random. Her brain struggles to make sense of numbers. They have little to no meaning for her, beyond a set of steps to remember.
She may “learn” something briefly–a math fact or new skill–then forget it just days after. It’s like her brain is looking for a meaning hook to hang up the new skill; when it doesn’t find one, the new learning falls away and is forgotten.
This is incredibly frustrating for everyone. 😩
Happily, there IS a way to make math meaningful to your child, and that is with pictures or real-life objects.
Images and context give your child the meaning her brain craves. These help your child understand math, and remember it for much longer.
Here are some of my top recommended Mighty Meaning Maker resources for helping your child understand and love math. They are organized into four sections: Math Activity Books, Math Picture Books, Games, and Math Tools.
*This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love and would use myself.
Math Activity Books
Pictures, art, and real-world math are all great ways to make math meaningful and interesting to your child. These books make math COLORFUL and fun, and help your child connect the world of numbers to their creative brain.
Complete Kindergarten Math Workbook: (Ages 4-6) This ultra-colorful activity book is a fun introduction to math. Chock-full of pictures, there are 175 visual number puzzles and games that keep little kids coming back for more.
Color By Math: Dinosaurs: (Ages 6-8) This addition and subtraction color-by-number activity book starts very easy (numbers to 10) and builds to more challenging problems (numbers to 100). The pictures are vibrant, with a bigger range of colors than typical color-by-number. Fun book for extra practice.
Amazing Visual Math: (Ages 8-11) This incredibly visual & tactile book helps kids learn about 3D shapes, patterns, symmetry, telling time, and more through hands-on pull tabs, flaps, and pop-ups.
Kitten Math: (Ages 8-11) Your child can learn math through the real-life lens of fostering kittens! Your child will use math to care for their kittens, as they mix formula, weigh their kittens, shop for supplies, design a kitten room, and much more. Animal lovers will LOVE this book!
Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries: (Ages 8-11) Join Molly as she ventures into a curious world where nothing is quite as it seems. A trail of clues leads from scene to scene, presenting Molly with a number of challenges. But who is leaving the clues, and where will they lead? This interactive mystery shows math isn’t just about numbers—it’s about imagination!
Multiplication and Division Color By Math: (Ages 8-11) A gorgeous color-by-number for older kids. Solve the problem, match the answer to a color, and color in the intricate picture.
Math Art and Drawing Games for Kids: (Ages 8-11): Visual & creative kids will love this book, which is heavy on the “art” and light on the “math”. While most of the book is geometry/shapes focused, there are a few projects on multiplication and fractions. It’s a good way to help art lovers connect with math.
This Is Not a Maths Book: (Ages 9-12) A book of art and geometry that is sure to draw in your creative-minded child. (Ha ha, see what I did there?) There is some detail-oriented line drawing, so good fine motor skills are helpful.
Math Picture Books
Did you know MATH picture books are a thing? It’s true! Your child can learn a ton of math simply by reading wonderful children’s books like these (and the Meaning Maker LOVES stories)!
Dozens of Donuts: (Ages 5-9) LouAnn the bear makes a dozen donuts to eat before hibernating. But her neighbors keep coming to visit, and she keeps sharing them until she has none left for herself. As she sleeps, her friends cook up a plan for their friend bear when she wakes up. A tale of counting and division, similar to The Doorbell Rang.
The Penny Pot: (Ages 7-9) All the kids at a school fair want their faces painted. It costs 50 cents. As each child counts out their change, the book shows the coins they used so kids can count along with them. It’s a cute story, and one of the best I’ve seen for practicing counting coins.
The Lion’s Share: (Ages 7-11) A lion invites all the animals for a feast on his birthday. Greedy animals take half of the cake that is passed to them, so none is left for the ant…or King Lion! Ant promises to make Lion a cake, which prompts the other animals to promise cakes as well. This is a tale of halving and doubling, with incredible illustrations and a great story.
The Greedy Triangle: (Ages 5-8) A bored triangle visits a local shapeshifter to add another angle to his shape. Poof! He becomes a different shape! He keeps adding angles and changing shape until he realizes how special a triangle is. This is a great book for learning shape names and seeing them in real world contexts.
Measuring Penny: (Ages 6-11) Lisa has an important homework assignment: to measure one thing in several different ways. She decides to measure her dog Penny, and uses paper clips, dog biscuits, and other creative tools. (Warning: This book may inspire your child to measure their own furry housemates!)
One Grain of Rice: (Ages 7-11) Long ago in India, a raja stored up almost all the people’s rice in case of famine. But when famine came, he refused to share the rice and people went hungry. A clever young girl named Rani devises a clever plan, asking for just one grain of rice, doubled for the next 30 days–then shares it with all the people.
Blockhead: (Ages 7-11) A delightful book about patterns in nature, and the life of Leonardo Fibonacci as a boy. Bullied by other kids and by teachers for being a dreamer, Leonardo’s observations led to his discovery of the Fibonacci Sequence. Kids love finding the hidden Fibonacci spirals and nature objects on each page!
Games
Your Mighty Meaning Maker doesn’t like to be rushed when it comes to math. So when it comes to games, look for games that give them time to solve–not the ones where the goal is to answer first.
Here’s are some of my favorite math games for the Mighty Meaning Maker:
Tiny Polka Dot: (Ages 4-9) Don’t be fooled: this is not just a deck for little kids! There are lots of games to play with these colorful dot and number cards, for a range of abilities. I love that you can play each game with different types of cards (ex: random dot, or ten frame, or the digit).
Double Shutter: There is something about the sound and feel of flipping these number tiles that feels soooo satisfying! The game is a version of Shut the Box, where kids roll 2 dice, then flip over any number tiles that add to that total. The goal is to flip as many tiles as possible. The game ends when one player can’t make their number. Fast, fun, and super addictive!
Money Bags : This counting money game is a favorite with 2nd and 3rd graders. Players get to take coins to match the amount they landed on, but spinning the spinner tells them one coin they can NOT use. It’ really gets kids thinking about counting coins in new ways.
Clumsy Thief: This addictive game teaches kids number pairs that add to 100. It’s faster than some of the other games on this list, but kids love it so much even the Mighty Meaning Makers don’t seem to mind. (See also Clumsy Thief Candy Shop for adding to 20.)
Quirkle: (Ages 6-11) In this visual logic game, players make columns and rows of tiles (kind of like a crossword puzzle). Make lines with the same shape and all different colors, or the same color and all different shapes.
Skyjo: This is an interesting game in that almost all the math happens in the last 5 minutes of each round. But it’s still one of my top math card games, because of how easily it teaches kids to add with negative numbers. It’s also really fun (similar to the card game Golf).
Fraction Formula: Fill the plastic beaker with colored cylinders to reach the top (1 whole). Even kids who hate fractions love this game! Super hands-on, visual, and quick to play.
Miss Brain’s Cool Math Games: This is actually a book of 30+ dice and card games to help your child learn math. Highly recommended! There is a book for grades 1-3, and another for grades 3-5.
Adsumudi: (Ages 9-12) Adsumudi is a lively little monster who calls out the answer. Each player’s job is to use numbers on their card to make a problem with that answer. Different levels require players to use at least 2 numbers, 3 numbers, 4 numbers, or all 5 (for “monstrously hard mode”)–making it possible for those at different levels to play together.
math tools
The right math tools can really help your child make sense of math in their world. Here are some of my favorites for visual and tactile learners.
Math for Love Multiplication Flash Cards: These picture flash cards show multiplication three different ways, and give kids a way to remember times tables visually. (Here is the same idea in addition flash cards.)
Rekenrek Abacus: Also known as a math rack, this abacus is a great resource for counting and adding to 100. It helps your child see quantities and think about math in visual ways.
100 Chart Poppers: This awesome new resource turns the hugely helpful 100 chart–which I already couldn’t get enough of–into a hands-on counting tool! (I personally pair this with the wipe-off 100 chart for when I want kids to color in squares, etc.)
Multiplication Chart Poppers: Like the 100 Chart poppers, only as a times table. I personally prefer this way of coloring in the numbers (rather than straight lines) because it highlights how the down-and-across numbers work together.
More Mighty Meaning Maker Resources
The Mighty Meaning Maker resources on this page can bring your child LOTS of joy in the days, months, and years to come! Be sure to bookmark this page; this is one you’ll want to revisit often as your child grows.
For even more creative math resources, be sure to check out our Artful Math Shop. You’ll find holiday math, creative activities for specific math topics, and real-world projects. (NOTE: These are digital, downloadable products that you print out at home.)
Did you find this page helpful? Leave a comment below and let me know!