A Place Value Game with a Twist

 

 Do you find that more and more students do not not know how to interact with "low-tech" games?  Most of my 2nd graders probably know more about playing computerized games than I do.  But, they still have a hard time with basic rule following (taking turns, not cheating...hahaha, being a gracious winner or loser, and following rules of a game) on a good old fashioned game.

 

I LOVE getting to work in very small groups and teach my students games.

You will find that I use a LOT of games in my classroom to teach concepts.  I also have many of my activities in my TPT and TN stores in the form of games.

 

A game I've been teaching my kiddos this week is a simple, but fun place value game that I made up.  It always amazes me how much they like the silly little things I just come up with!

 

Here is what each student will need:

 

To begin, have each student draw lines and write Th for thousands, H for hundreds, T for tens, and O for ones.

 

When I introduce the students to the game we take turns rolling the dice.  The directions I give the students is that they can put the number in any column they wish, but once they write it, they cannot change it.

 

When it is back to the first player, we take turns rolling the dice again and placing that number in any of the three remaining columns.

 

Play continues in this manner until a 4-digit number has been formed.  Then we go around the table and say the number.  To help the students  I have them point to the number as they say it and then the thousand, number, hundred, etc. discouraging any "and" between numbers.

 

The fun part is the twist.  After everyone has had a chance to read their number, I draw a card from the pile and read, "And the Winner Is...."

 

 

There's the twist! 

 

Students never know who will win as each round is different.

 

I also keep a tally scoreboard as we continue the rounds.  The students LOVE this!  I have made you a copy also.  Please click here to get your own FREE copy.

 

ENJOY!!!  I would love to get some comments!  ;-)