#mtboschallenge Week 5: SKUNK and Other Favorite Math Games

This is Week 5 of the #mtboschallenge on twitter.  The challenge is to blog once a week for the remainder of 2014.  Each Saturday there will be a different prompt shared to blog about.  The prompt will be shared prior to Saturday on twitter using #mtboschallenge  You can link up on my blog (or any other blog that shares the link up). Also share your blog post on twitter with #mtboschallenge .  You can copy the following graphic into your blog post.  Each Sunday @druinok from  Teaching Statistics will host a 3-2-1 Summary prompt where you can blog about anything you choose.   Feel free to join the blogging challenge on either Saturday, Sunday, or both days.  We really hope you join the challenge!

The prompt for this week is to blog about a favorite math game or activity your students enjoy.  Please check all the blogs that link up and leave comments.  

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 down they add up the total points they earned 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. 

Love playing on my SMARTBoard

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 played the game for fun, but plan on doing 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 projector (wait does anyone even have an overhead anymore?!), but we play it on the SMARTBoard and they LOVE the virtual dice.   Enjoy and let me know what you think.  

This bookcase is in the corner of my room and it is for storing math manipulatives, games, and learning station activities.  Last year was our first year implementing Carnegie Learning Curriculum and I really did not have time to do much with learning stations as I have done in past years. I'm hoping to incorporate stations more this year and also have them available for early finishers and for students wanting some extra practice or enrichment.  That will be a work in progress.

The bottom two shelves are where I store games

Over the years I have purchased many math games for my students to enjoy in class.  A few years ago (before CC and Carnegie) my students would play the games all the time at the end of class once they had finished their homework.  I have to say that the past couple years there has been very little time for that.  I am hoping to find more time for games and fun activities this year.  They are still doing math and learning while playing the games.

Blokus has always been a student favorite.  I have 3D Blokus, but they tend to prefer regular Blokus instead. I also think VersaTiles is a great way for students to independently practice important math skills and they nice thing is they are self correcting.  The blocks in the bottom right corner are manipulatives, not a game.  If I let my 7th graders they would build with those blocks all.day.long (but I don't).

A closer view of the game shelves

I absolutely love Think Fun Games.  They are great independent/partner activities.  They really make students think.  

Think Fun Games and Playing Cards

These are my Think Fun Games:  Block by Block, Shape by Shape, Brick by Brick, Square by Square, Serpentiles, and Math Dice.  I love that they come with bags for storage.  So much nicer than having a bunch of different size boxes to store (not sure they still come with the bags so you may want to check first).

Love these games by ThinkFun

I can't wait to see what other teachers blog about today.  I'm always looking to add more fun and educational learning activities/games to my classroom.

get the InLinkz code

An InLinkz Link-up