The Best Dice Games for Kindergarteners | Free File!

Simple and engaging dice games for young children to practice math and literacy skills. These dice games provide a lot of fun and practice for centers or small groups.

Benefits of Using Dice in Your Kindergarten Classroom

Little kids love dice. Plain and simple. Adding those small manipulatives to your centers or small group activities is a great way to provide a little more excitement to a simple game. And, dice games don’t have to just be math games. Some of my favorite dice games for young kids provide students with opportunities to practice various literacy skills.

Research says that, when done the right way, learning games with dice are an excellent tool to help young students learn basic literacy and mathematics skills. Developing ELA and math skills, along with improving motor skills (and social skills too) all become the goal of the game.

Let’s look at some different ways you can incorporate a set of dice to boost engagement during your literacy and math centers, small groups, early-finisher activities, morning work, or even indoor recess games!

Science of Reading Dice Games

Are you working on bringing more activities into your classroom that align with the Science of Reading? These literacy-based board games are simple dice games that your students will love!

This fast-paced dice game is super exciting! Race to Trace games are a fun way to practice CVC words and various other phonics skills. Each word game is meant to be played with a partner and two boards. Students roll the dice, say the word, and trace the word. Students try to complete their board before their partner.

Simply slide these tracing board games into dry-erase pockets to create a quick and easy literacy center for students.

There are multiple games and activities included in this Science of Reading bundle. Click the link below to check it out:

Science of Reading Literacy Centers – CVC Words and Sounds

Roll, Say, Keep Editable Games

Keep learning fun all year long with these thematic ELA and math dice games. This easy game can be introduced in the beginning of the school year and used all the way to the end. Each game is editable so you can easily add your own numbers, math facts, letters, or words.

The objective of the game is simple. Roll the die and read the card on the corresponding number. This game is a great option for younger players and also older kids because of the editable option.

There is a literacy bundle and a math bundle of the Roll, Say, Keep games. You can see those by clicking these links:

Clean Sweep Board Games

This fun game is intended to be played with a partner but it could also work as an individual game if needed.

I love that there is a video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on how to play each game! Students simply scan a QR code on the I Can card. This great game is perfect as an independent student activity.

Plus, these games are predictable so once students learn how to play, they can enjoy playing the different themed games without relearning the game objective.

You can find the set of Clean Sweep board games here:

Literacy Board Games | Clean Sweep Bundle

Sight Word Centers and Games

Sight word games make practicing sight words so much fun but when the games are editable, it is a game-changer! Type in your own sight words and print! Drop it into a center bin with a die and you have an engaging fine motor activity.

There are other dice games included in this bundle. I LOVE these pocket dice from Amazon. The large size of the dice adds even more excitement to each simple dice game.

The sight word games in this set are non-seasonal so you can easily use these editable games all year long! Check them out here:

Sight Word Centers and Games

Math Dice Games

If you’re a kindergarten teacher looking to engage your students and help them learn MATH while they play, then math games with dice are the perfect option! Little kids love math dice games! They’re having so much fun, they don’t even realize they’re also learning important skills, in addition to math and problem-solving in fun, interactive ways, all from a simple set of dice!

We often use dice during math and they can provide more math fun for students. You can, of course, use dice to practice building number sense in younger kids by simply rolling the dice and counting the dots. Students can also develop number recognition skills by matching the number to a number card. Those are simple activities using a pair of dice and are super easy to do!

I also have a few math games using dice that I like to use in the classroom. This roll, count and trace is a simple math game and super easy prep!

You can easily differentiate for your students by changing the number of dice and adding a different response sheet.

These printable dice activities are included in the Spring themed set of math centers. There are a total of 8 different kindergarten skills practiced. Those activities can be found here:

Spring Kindergarten Math Centers, Games, and Activities

If you would like to incorporate math centers into your classroom all year long, this bundle is a great resource to check out:

Kindergarten Math Centers, Games, and Activities for the Whole Year

I mentioned these pocket dice earlier. They are pretty much amazing and are perfect for the little hands of younger children.

These Roll With It centers provide a fun way to practice both math and ELA skills throughout the year! Your students will love the seasonal activities and these games will become a classroom favorite!

These Just Roll With It activities are perfect for Spring. There are 14 different math and literacy activities in this April set:

Math and Literacy Pocket Dice Centers for April

If you’d prefer a year-long bundle, you can find it here:

Math and Literacy Pocket Dice Centers for the Year

Kindergarten dice games can be used to supplement literacy and math activities, build social interaction skills, and reinforce kindergarten standards of learning. By relying on an easy dice game that can be played in different ways and used as teaching tools, kindergarten teachers can ensure their students have fun while developing foundational knowledge in both literacy and math.

Need even more game and center ideas? Take a look at a blog post linked below: