SKUNK Game

I play a game in my classroom called SKUNK and the kids absolutely love it.  Each player needs a piece of paper with the word SKUNK written at the top of it.  Draw lines between the letters to create a score column for each letter.  Basically the leader rolls two dice and then you find the product of the numbers (great practice for beginning multiplication up to 6 x 6).  As long as players remain standing they get to write down each product rolled.  Once they sit they add up the total points for that round (each letter S-K-U-N-K is a separate round).   Play ends for each round when everyone is seating or when a one or snake eyes (double ones) are rolled.  Anyone standing when a one is rolled loses their points for that letter round.  Anyone standing when snake eyes is rolled loses all their points for the game up to that point.  The game ends after five rounds and winner is the person with the highest point total.  Also I play that if a one or snake eyes is rolled on the first roll of the round it does not count, otherwise no one would get points for that round.

This game involves both choice and chance and is a great discussion springboard when you are studying probability.  I am linking you to Illuminations.  They give a detailed explanation of the game as well as a great Thinking About Skunk sheet.  I have always just played the game for fun, but will do the follow up sheet this year when we start probability.  My students always ask to play SKUNK if we have some extra time.

You can play it old school with dice and a chalkboard or overhead, but we play it on the SMARTBoard and they LOVE the dice.   Enjoy and let me know what you think!  I am joining a couple fun linky parties.  Click to see more amazing math ideas!