Teaching

Printable and No-Tech Tug of War Maths Games

Four ways to play maths tug of war on paper with cards, dice or a skipping rope.

How to test touch, open full screen and solve common problems on classroom boards.

How to keep a match close and fair when players are working at different levels.

A tug of war set for older students: negative numbers, fractions, percentages, order of operations, algebra and roots.

Use tug of war to keep multiplication and division facts sharp while pupils tackle larger calculations.

Practical settings and short routines for addition and subtraction within 20 and early times tables.

How to adapt tug of war for the youngest learners, including settings, adult support and when to use the no-screen version.

Three tournament formats for a class, including one where no team is knocked out early.

A clear plan for a whole-class competition: teams, turns, timing, what the rest of the class does, and how to finish.

A short weekly routine that uses tug of war to build times-table recall for Year 4 pupils in England, alongside practice that matches the check.