Math Games Camp

Students will get to play games that will focus on using number sense and patterning to strategically find answers to various puzzles.  Sessions will begin with a brief number talk to warm up.  Students will then be introduced to the day's game or challenge.  Games in this camp will focus on challenges involving numbers and numeric patterns. I will judge the interest level show in each game, and may lengthen or shorten the time we spend on certain games based on student interest.

 We will play all starred games, and we will play some of the others.  I try to read the personalities and interest in each class and choose the games that are most appealing and useful.

***Muggins--a student favorite!  This game encourages flexible, strategic thinking to determine how to use the three numbers you roll with any operation to play on a number.  The strategy involved in deciding whether to play in a spot most advantageous to you, or to play where you block an opponent, disguises the rich algebraic thinking involved in determining all the possible solutions.

***Knockout--another student favorite!  Students roll three dice and get to decide where to play so that the numbers they play on is the same sum as the sum of their dice.  Each number on the board has two spaces.  Play where an opponent is on the other side of the number?  Knock the out of that spot!  Play on a number with *your* color on the opposite side?  That knocks that number out of the game, and you get to keep the point.  This is one of our most strategy-rich games, and not only leads to rich flexible numeric thinking, the class will be able to have rich discussions about strategy and what patterns they see in the success of different strategies.

How close to 100? A dice game in which students will color rectangles based on their dice rolls: how close can you get to 100 before you run out of room?

Pig and/or Odd Pig Out--a dice game in which students will use probability and computation to race to a number.

***Bowl-A-Fact--a strategy game using number, operation, and a bowling frame

24--a numeric puzzle card game

SET—a visual card game in which students search for sets based on number, color, shape, and shading.

***Broken Calculator--a game in which students try to get the answer to a problem using a "broken" calculator (I tell students which "keys" they can't use.)

Battleship--a modification of the classic children's game to practice strategy and grid usage.