Card and dice games are a wonderful, fun way to reinforce basic math skills of sequencing, addition, subtraction, multiplication, place value, and probability.
Each week, I'll be introducing a game to be practiced in class and at home.
Here's our new dice game:
SPEED DICE
Purpose: To practice addition or multiplication facts up to 6 + 6 or 6 x 6
Materials: 2 dice and 25 counters (beans, pennies, chips)
Number of Players: 2 to 5
Set-up: Place 25 counters in reach of all players.
To Play: Player 1 rolls the dice. The first player to call out the sum (if playing addition version) or the product (if playing multiplication version) wins one counter. Next player rolls the dice and play continues until all counters are used up.
The Win: The player who has the most counters at the end wins!
SWEET SIXTEEN
Players: 2 to 4
Provides practice in: Number combinations adding to 16.
Value of cards: Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13
All other cards are equal to their face value.
Object of the game: To get the most tricks by being the one to play the card that brings the total point value of cards already played to 16, or as close to 16 as possible.
Play: Deal 7 cards to each player. Leave the rest of the cards face down for a stock pile.
The first player plays any card from his hand, face-up next to the stock pile, calling out the value of the card. A card from the pile is drawn each time a card is played.
The next player plays his card on the first one, adding its value to the first one and saying it out loud.
The first player who makes a total of 16 (any number combination (any number of cards are OK, but only one card is played at a time) takes the trick and leads for the next one. If a player would have to go over 16, he passes to the left until someone can play. If the total is below 16, but no one can play without going over 16, then the last player who played a card takes the trick.
The winner is the player with the most tricks when no more plays can be made.
