Math Battle

Do you have any games you loved to play in your childhood that your teachers even used in the classroom?

I LOVED Scrabble and Boggle, both of which my teachers used.  I have seen both numerous times on Pinterest used by others in the classroom. 

Today, I used an old recess favorite of many, BattleShip.  We used the same concept to practice using coordinate graphs.  We called it Math Battle.

Each student recieved a game card and a file folder.  (I used a coordinate graph template from Kim Sutton, but for the purposes here and clarity, I made a new file to share).

The file folder is to hide each player's game board from the other.

Step One:  Players draw 4 boxes.

                 -  Each player draws 2 boxes two squares long, 1 three squares long, and one 4 squares long.

Step Two:   Players take turns finding each others boxes. 

             - Each player takes turns by asking the other player coordinates such as (1, 2).  When a player guesses correctly, the other player says yes (many were saying hit like Battleship).  If the player guesses incorrectly, they are told no (many were saying missed like in Battleship).

The player that guesses correctly places an O on the coordinates guessed to keep track of their successful guesses.  Incorrect guesses are denoted by an X. 

When a player guesses correctly, their opponent draws a shaded dot to mark that the coordinate's box has been "found".   

When a box is totally found. A player will denote it on their own card by circling the entire group of circles. This makes it easier to see who wins.  

Step Three:  Count the number of found boxes.  The player with the most found boxes wins.   If the same number of boxes have been found for both players, the one with the most squares found wins. 

Warning:  It may be a little confusing at first, but once they get the hang of it, they really like it.  If anything, use the real Battleship game.

What commercial games do you use in your classroom (in any form)? 

Colleen