Pig

Pig

We are playing Pig this week.  I did not enter my game for last week, because I gave my kids  a Geoboard Challenge instead.  They like Geoboards, but were excited to play a new game this week.

Your students practice basic facts and 2 digit addition while playing Pig.  There is a variation for subtraction also.  I find it particularly interesting to observe the little gamblers in my class with this game.

Materials:

2-3 players
Math journals for keeping score
1 number cube for each group

How to Play:

1.  Roll die to see who goes first.

2.  The first player rolls the die.  If he rolls a 1, his turn is over and his score is 0.
If he rolls any other number, he begins scoring with that number.  The first player can
roll again or keep that score.  Add any additional rolls to the score.  (Most of my second
graders are adding these digits mentally.  However, a few are writing the numbers down to
help with addition.)  His turn ends when he stops rolling, calls Pig, and writes down his score for that turn, or... when he rolls a 1, and his score for the turn is 0.

3.  The second player goes next.  She rolls in the same manner, and writes down her score at
the end of her turn.

4.  Play continues in the same manner with players writing their new scores under earlier totals.
Remind the kids to write their scores carefully with tens and ones aligned to make addition easier.

5.  The first player to reach 100 is the winner.


Variations:
1.  Start the scorecards at 100.  Add the total on the dice in the same way as above.  Subtract
your score from the total.  First player to 0 is the winner.

2.  Play teacher against the class using a smartboard number cube if you have one.  Students
should all keep track of the score in their journals.  Students also take turns deciding when to
call Pig.

4 Strikes and You're Out

This is a great 2-digit addition game.  It's not mine originally, but I don't remember where I learned it.

Kids should play with a partner.
One partner (the builder) writes a secret math problem for 2-digit addition in his math journal.

The second partner (the guesser) draws a game board.

And writes the digits 0 - 9.

The game is similar to hangman.
The guesser chooses one digit and calls it out.
If the digit is part of the problem, the builder writes it into each square in which it belongs.
If the digit is not part of the problem, tally a strike at the top of the page.
Cross out the digit so that you know it has been played.

Here's an example:
  26
+37
  63

If the first digit chosen is 1, the builder marks a strike at the top of the page.  1 is crossed off the digit list so the guesser remembers that it has been played.
Assume the next digit chosen is 2.  The builder writes a 2 in the first square of the game board.  2 is crossed off the digit list.
If the guesser chooses 3 next, the builder writes it in two squares of the problem.

There are good strategies involved here.  Students will guess randomly at first, but soon, they are finding sums, missing addends, and deciding whether regrouping is involved.

After the game is over, switch parts and play again.


Variations:
If 3 players are playing together, one is the builder and 2 guessers take turns.

Problems and game boards can get bigger.  Try 3 digit addition.

Four Strikes and You're Out

March 14, 2011

This week we are playing Four Strikes and You're Out.  It's a game I adapted from one found on the Scholastic.com website created by Marilyn Burns.

To Play:

2-3 players can play this game.  One player is the "teacher" who writes a 2-digit plus 2-digit addition problem on a sticky note.  The "teacher" must also write the sum before beginning the game.  For example, the child might write "34 + 19 = 53" on the sticky.  The "teacher" does not allow the others to see the post-it.  She writes a "hangman" style problem in her math journal:
        __ __ + __ __ = __ __

Then she lists our 10 digits below the problem.

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0

Now the game begins.  The player (if it is group of 3, the players take turns) guesses a number.  The "teacher" checks the sticky.  If the digit appears in the problem, the teacher writes it in the blanks where it appears before crossing it out of the digit list.  If the digit appears more than once, the child writes it in every correct blank. 
   
For example, in our sample problem, if the player guessed 3, the teacher would complete the journal page in this way:

        3 __ + __ __ = __ 3

1   2   X   4  5  6  7  8  9  0

If the player chose a digit that does not appear in the number sentence, then the teacher crosses out the digit and records "Strike 1." 

If the player solves the number sentence before getting 4 strikes, then he wins.  If he gets 4 strikes, then the "teacher" wins.  When the game is over, the sticky note is attached to the journal page before the children trade positions and play again.

To introduce this game, I played against the class on the Smartboard (or whiteboard).


Writing About Math
Journal Prompt:
Imagine you are playing Four Strikes and you see this:

__ 7 + 2 7 = 5  __

What is your strategy?




If your student needs hints:
What digit would you guess next?
Which fact strategies would you use:  ones, twos, doubles, near doubles, nines, tens.
Describe your strategy for guessing the missing tens digit?

From the student journals:

First I would see 7 + 7 = 14, so I would have to regroup the one.  Then I would have to add one to ___ but the blank would have to be 2 because if you add the one to it, it has to finish the number sentence 3 + 2 = 5.

So...27 + 27 = 54  (student 20)

What I would do is look at the tens.  Think about what plus what equals 5.  What??  I know that 3 + 2 = 5, so it has to be a 3 in the tens place.  

So, we move on to the ones.  7 + 7 =14.  So the ten now has to be a 2 and so the problem is 27 + 27 = 54.  (student 21)

So, I know that this number sentence is regrouping.  Because it's 7 + 7 =14.  So it can't be 37 + 27 because then the answer is 64.  However, 27 + 27 works.  It's because 7 + 7 = 14, and 1 + 2 + 2 =5.  The number sentence is 27 + 27 = 54.  (student 4)