I've finally come to accept...
I'm a gamer. I love games...video games, card games, board games. I love playing games by myself or with groups...chance or strategy. There are few games I've played that I didn't at least moderately enjoy. The other day amazon had strategy games on sale up to 30% off and I was in heaven. One of the games I purchased was a very simple dice rolling game called "Roll for it!" I originally became aware of this game on a You Tube web show called Tabletop. You can watch it here.
Image courtesy of Amazon
The object of the game is to roll your 6 dice and attempt to be the first to create the dice combinations on the cards that are shared in the middle of the table. As I was playing my mind kept drifting to the thought that this game could very easily involve math. Instead of having dice patterns, there could be empty boxes for the dice to fit in (similar to open middle problems.)
Now, if you actually read what makes an open middle problem "open middle" it's not just the fact that it has boxes that kids fill in to achieve a specific goal. Here's what it says on their website:
- they have a “closed beginning” meaning that they all start with the same initial problem.
- they have a “closed end” meaning that they all end with the same answer.
- they have an “open middle” meaning that there are multiple ways to approach and ultimately solve the problem.
Here are my thoughts for how the game will play...
- Each player will get 6 dice of a certain color (each person's dice are different colors.)
- Place the game cards face down in the middle of the table and deal 3 cards face up. Below is a sample card:
- First player rolls all 6 dice. They place as many dice as they would like on to the upward facing cards in order to complete the goal. If they cannot complete the goal on the first roll, they can choose dice to reserve for their next turn and place them next to the card they are trying to complete. Once a dice is reserved for a card it cannot be used for a different card in another turn. A player cannot use another player's dice to fulfill a goal.
- If a player completes a goal, they immediately pick up that card and create a staggered score pile with points visible to all players. All dice on a scored cared are returned to the player and can be used in their next turn. Immediately flip a new card from the deck to replace the scored card. If the player still has rolled dice available, they may use them on any card (including the one just flipped) or reroll them on their next turn.
- After a player has rolled, placed dice, and scored qualified cards, their turn ends and play passes to the next person.
- Take Backs: At the beginning of a player's turn they can choose to take back ALL the dice they have reserved on the table and roll all 6 die.
- A player wins when they have reached 40 points.
I have to admit...
Classroom games are not usually my favorite. I don't typically play them because I feel like so often they are DOK level 1 questions where kids compete to earn points. Sure, the "game" part might be a break from much classroom monotony, but the "thinking" just isn't there. I enjoy strategy games and I feel like with this game there could be some good opportunities for students to actually utilize that frontal lobe of theirs (note: I think that's the part of the brain associated with problem solving???) as well as practice those specific standards. Anyway...I felt like it was a game that I would actually enjoy playing, which is kind of the barometer I use to determine if it's good enough for my kids.
What do you think?
I didn't really start this blog for anyone to read, but if anyone does and you'd like to give your input about this game...maybe you've played something similar...maybe you see a glaring problem with it or a way to make it better...maybe you'd like to give it a try and let me know how it goes...I'd greatly appreciate it! I don't have all the cards made up yet, but I'll link them when I do.
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