Ramblings from Lamplight Christian Academy

Aug. 18, 2006 - MUS Alpha Math Game Idea

This may not be a new idea, but this is something I just came up with that I'd like to try with my first grader who is doing alpha.  We are up to the lesson on solving for the unknown, so we have also covered +0, +1 & +2.    Things needed:   chutes & ladders board or really any kind of game board that has a path of spaces to follow to the end on it (even candyland board would probably work) one (or two) decahedra dice (could use a regular die with numbers 0 to 6, but I like the decahedra dice that we bought from rainbow resource because they have numbers 0 to 9 on them and they also have colors to correspond with decimal street) (or you could use 10 pieces of paper with the numbers 0 to 9 written on them if you don't care for dice or don't have decahedra dice but want to go all the way to 9) Editing to add that we just played this & I took a regular six-sided die, covered all sides with masking tape, and wrote 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2 for the numbers on the new sides, since this is all the facts we have done thus far. squares of paper with numbers written on them (if you only want to do certain fact families, i.e., if your child hasn't gotten to certain addition facts yet) (I plan to only use 0, 1 & 2.) Optional - a cup or bowl or something to put the papers in (if you also use papers instead of dice, as mentioned above, you could also use different colors for each stack of numbers)   We will write 0, 1 & 2 on little pieces of paper & put them in a cup.  We will also get out one decahedra die and our chutes & ladders game board.  Instead of using the spinner for the numbers, we will do math.  The person whose turn it is will draw a piece of paper and also roll the dice.  She will add the numbers together & move that many spaces ahead.  The goal, of course, is to reach the end first.  (And for our particular game, since it is going to be chutes & ladders, she can either go up the ladder or down the chute, depending on where she lands.)  Later when we get to subtraction, we could do basically the same thing, but with subtraction.  Or, we might try a game of solving for the unknowns, and have the rolled die be the sum, and have her draw one of the papers with 0, 1 or 2 on it.  For example, if she rolls a 9 and draws a 2 paper, we will ask either "What plus 2 equals 9?" or "2 plus what equals 9?"  The only caveat I see with solving for the unknowns this way is if she rolls a 0 but draws a 1 or 2 (since she obviously knows nothing about negative numbers yet), or if she rolls a 1 and draws a 2.  Maybe after she rolls the dice we could remove any numbers from 0, 1 or 2 that wouldn't be feasible?  Or if she draws an "impossible" fact, we could have her draw again.  Anyway, we will try this and see how it goes.  Thanks for letting me share this with you.

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