Learning Resources Dino Math Tracks Place Value Game

by Learning Resources

Product Features

• Award winner
• Prehistoric twist
• Reinforces counting, addition, subtraction and place value skills
• Various levels of play
• For 2-4 players

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.8 x 10 x 19.8 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B00004TDKU
• Item model number: LER0712
• Our recommended age: 6 - 9 years
• Manufacturer recommended age: 5 - 7 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,574 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

Product Description

Editorial Review

The Dino Math Tracks game (winner of several prestigious awards, including an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal) is a race around the rainbow with a pack of pintsize, prehistoric pals. An unusual spin on a typical roll-the-dice-and-move game, it spotlights the mathematical concept of place value and gives kids reinforcement in what makes our base-10 number system tick. Each player is allotted one dinosaur for each of the four tracks (the tracks are labeled 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1000s). To play, a player rolls four dice to create a 4-digit number and then moves his or her prehistoric posse to the appropriate 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1000s places. Problem-solving strategies are honed as players scurry to get all four miniature mammoths or tiny triceratops into the dino haven, ahead of the other players' thundering herds. But look out! In the race to dino utopia, it's easy to get bumped by a baby brachiosaurus!

The Dino Math Tracks game provides multiple levels of play for a variety of ages. At the simplest level (perfect for a first-grader who knows Arabic numerals and one-to-one correspondence), kids use only the place track for the 1s. Later, cards with simple problems are introduced ("Stuck in a tar pit! Move your 10s dino back two spaces!"). At the most advanced level, players might encounter a question like this: "Your 10s dinosaur forgot its pants, so it went back 15 to get them. Then it hurried forward 25. How far did it get? Move that many." Young players will find the 2-inch, spunky vinyl dinosaur playing pieces irresistible. The game offers plenty of opportunities for friendly competition and brain bending--not to mention lots of nonthreatening practice at addition and subtraction. --Julie Ubben

Product Description

Prehistoric pals make this award-winning math game a blast. Roll the dice and move the dinosaurs around a delightfully illustrated game board. Learn all about numbers - from counting, addition and subtraction to place value skills. Includes game board, 16 dinosaurs, cards, number die and instructions for various levels of play. For 2 to 4 players.

Awards:

• Family Fun magazine Toy of the Year Runner-up (1992)
• Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal, Best Toy Award (1993)
• Early Childhood News, 100 Best Product Picks (1993)
• Canadian Toy Testing Council Three Star Seal

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mixed review, November 12, 2007

By 

TA Mom - See all my reviews

= Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Learning Resources Dino Math Tracks Place Value Game (Toy)

The upside:

If you're looking to get your kids excited about math, this works. My girls loved the dinosaurs and the Action cards sent them into giggles.

If you're looking to get your kids to understand the different place values in a multi-digit number, this works, i.e. within a half hour of play, my 6-year olds were able to read 5,425 as five thousand, four hundred and twenty five. Before we started the game they could not.

The downside:

There are errors in the instructions. The colors/place values described do not agree with the board. We found another similar error in the "Action cards". To me, it is not acceptable to have careless mistakes in a math game.

Educationally, it just doesn't make sense that 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1000s all appear as roughly equal footsteps on the board. Yes, they are marked as 1, 10, 100, and 1000s on the footprint, but moving ahead 1 step for 1 moves your dinosaur the same distance as moving forward 1 step for the 1000. It just gives you no sense of the relative values.

The board gets too crowded with even 2 players but with 4 it was very hard to keep track of your pieces (16 total on the board.)

Perhaps because I have been "conditioned" by so many other games (like Trouble or Sorry) I was used to looking for "my color" and not "my dinosaur". Every player gets 4 different colors of 1 type of dinosaur. I'm sure its something you get used to but it was yet another annoyance.

The cards that came with the game are very flimsy, barely a heavy cardstock. They do not look like they will hold up to much use.

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real winner!, December 26, 2003

By 

Micole Roy (Sugar Land, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Learning Resources Dino Math Tracks Place Value Game (Toy)

This game is great! The tiny dinos spark my 5 year-old son's imagination and enable him to have so much fun that he does not realize he is learning. Furthermore, he does not want to stop!!! He learned place value up to the thousands during our first game. After each roll of the dice the player uses all four dice to make a number and then s/he reads the number aloud (i.e. if you roll 6666 you say six thousand six hundred and sixty six). As we move our dinos around the board T.R. looks forward to our pieces landing on the same track so that we can have a "Showdown". In a "Showdown" you simply have to roll a dice and the person who gets the larger number wins. However, we move our dinos to the middle of the board and have a miniature battle. The player who rolled the larger number wins the battle. The loser is sent back home and the winner gets to move ahead. After playing the game a couple of times without using the cards - which is the simplest level of play with this game - my son asked to use the cards. So on Day 2 we began using the cards. Again he uses his imagination and does a great deal of role play as he carries out the instructions. It fills my heart with delight to see his excitement and to see that he has truly learned how to read numbers up to the thousands. (T.R. learned to read when he was 4 so he independently reads the dice and reads the cards.)

As a parent I highly recommend Dino Math Tracks because kids quickly learn a lot while having loads of fun. This game can be played at three levels, so it grows with your child.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My kids love this game, September 27, 2000

By 

Wesley K. Church (Northborough, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Learning Resources Dino Math Tracks Place Value Game (Toy)

I was not too excited when my kids got an educational board game as a gift, but my kids took right to it and still ask to play it on a regular basis a year later. They have learned a lot, and I am buying this game as a gift for our school friends this year. My only gripe is that the numbers wore off the dice, since the kids played the game so much!