Better than a Video Game!

he last few weeks I have been trying to give my students some tools to use over Christmas break. I have been giving them simple STEM games that they can play at home either by themselves or with a few friends/parents/relatives/people/whomever. 

Two weeks ago we played "STUCK IN THE MUD" and "KNOCKOUT." Both simple dice games that reinforce the idea of probability. My students had a blast playing, and I had a few come back and say that they had played at home.  You can see my score sheets HERE! Make your own or print these off!

This week we are playing a simple form of YAHTZEE!  I have it scaffolded for EK/K/1, 2/3, and 4th grade. With the younger students I only give them two dice and one roll. The middle group gets three dice and two rolls, while the 4th graders get five dice and three rolls. It has worked well! I was a little concerned (as I often am) with the EK and K groups, but they are adding and having fun. I know that my students will have screen time this Christmas break, but my hope is that they will put the iPad down for a fun STEM game with some of their friends
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Probably = Probability

Working with probability the last two weeks has been a lot of fun!
We have been flipping quarters, rolling dice, and shuffling cards.
1) Flipping a quarter. There are only two things that can happen, heads or tails.  That seems simple enough. Last year I had 5th graders flip a quarter 5,000 times.  We ended up with 2,495 heads and 2,505 tails. Only 5 away from perfect probability.  This week we have seen some funny things happen. As a demonstration, I will flip the quarter 10 times.  Sometimes I go 5 and 5, other times 6 and 4. One time I flipped 8 heads and 2 tails.... but why?
2) Rolling a die. This has been a lot of fun. For some reason, elementary students (mine anyway) LOVE to roll dice! Probability? 1 out of 6. We haven't had a lot of crazy things happen with the die, other than I watched a 3rd grader go 4 for 4 on guessing the right number! How?
3) Shuffling cards. We have two games we play with this. The first one we try to guess if it will be red or black (1/2 probability...same as the coin). The other game is to try and guess the number (A, 2-10, J, Q, K....1/13 probability) The red or black game is fun, but the guess the number game is really interesting. It goes back to my post about "PREPARING TO FAIL." Most students understand the 1/13 chance of getting the right answer and are okay when they get it wrong. Other students are not and it ruins their entire day. Trying to manage expectations is an interesting animal with a 6 year old.

If you would like to play, you can check out the handouts here: Probability Handout

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