Did you know I carry a set of dice in my pocket just for this game? It’s as old as the hills and just as fun to play now as it was when I was a little math whiz back in 2nd grade.  (No kidding – when we had ‘math races’, I was always team captain.  Not quite the same thing as captain on the soccer field, though…)


This is one of those quick-yet-satisfying dice games you can play to hone your thinking skills and keep your kids busy until the waiter arrives with your food.  All you need are five or six standard 6-sided dice and two 12-sided dice.  (Note – if you can’t find the 12-sided dice, just skip it for now.  You can easily substitute your brain for the 12-sided dice.  I’ll show you how.)


You need to do two things to play this game. You can use a calculator with this game, but usually the kids without the calculator win the round, as it usually takes longer to punch in the numbers than figure out the different possibilities in your head (and that’s what you’re working on, anyway!) If  your kid is a highly visual learner, then hand them a scratch pad and a pencil so they can scribble down stuff as they go.



Download Student Worksheet & Exercises


First, roll the two 12-sided dice. Multiply the two numbers in your head.  If you rolled a 6 and 6, you’d now have 36. That’s your target number.  If you don’t have the 12-sided dice, just think up two numbers, each between 1 and 12 and use those.


Next, roll the 6-sided dice. Now, using your arithmetic skills, figure out a way to add, subtract, multiply or divide those three numbers to get the number you rolled with the first set.  So if you rolled six 6-sided dice and got 4, 5, 2, 1, 1, 5, you could do this:


(Red numbers are the ones rolled on 6-sided dice.)


(4 x 5) – 2 = 18


18 x (1 + 1) = 36


You don’t have to use all the numbers, but you can’t double up and use a 4 twice if you only rolled one 4.  And that’s it!  It’s loads of fun and engaging, because it’s got more than one answer.  And sometimes there’s no answer (although rarely!). As you get faster and better at this game, try taking away one or two of the dice.  It’s more challenging.


HOT TIP: You can add in the use of exponents when your kids get the hang of the game. An exponent tells you how many times to multiply a number by itself. For example, a 2 with a 3 exponent looks like: 23 = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. To use exponents, simply use one of the numbers as an exponent. For example, if you rolled five 6-sided dice and got 5, 2, 3, 2, 4, you can do this to get 36 (given 36 came from the 12-sided dice):


(Red numbers are the ones rolled on 6-sided dice.)


(5 x 2) = 102 = 100


100 – (43) = 36


When your kids get good, you can up the ante and use a set similar to what I have in my purse: one 20-sided double dice and a handful of 6-sided. Math craze, anyone?


Exercises


No dice? Try these combinations that I rolled and recorded for you. I rolled six 6-sided dice and two 12-sided dice. Can you figure out a combination that would make each target number? Remember that the target number is the product (multiplication) of the two numbers from the 12-sided dice.


6-sided dice               12-sided dice


  1. 2,3,5,6,1,3         —     10,2
  2. 4,3,6,4,5,3         —     12,9
  3. 1,6,4,4,2,1         —     5,8
  4. 4,1,1,1,2,3         —     3,9
  5. 1,6,6,5,5,1         —     9,7
  6. 2,1,4,5,2,2         —     6,3
  7. 3,1,6,5,4,1         —     11,4
  8. 4,3,6,4,5,3         —     12,7
  9. 2,2,3,3,4,6         —     4,6
  10. 3,5,6,1,3,3         —     6,9

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