Don’t Break the Bank
Math Concepts
Placevalue-2-digit, addition-2-digit
Materials
Paper, pencil, 1 die or deck of cards
Players
2+
Set up
Each player starts with an empty piece of paper on which they will write a column of seven numbers as they are created. There is one die whose values will be shared by everyone.
Play
Seven rolls of the die are used. Each time the die is rolled, its value is used by all players. Each player decides whether to use that value as that number of ones or tens. For example, if a “4” is rolled, each student will write either 4 or 40. After the seventh roll is played, each player adds up their seven numbers.
Goal
Be the player with a seven-roll total closest to 100 without going over 99. If a player goes over 99, they have “Broken the Bank!”
Example move
After two rolls one player has this situation: 40 + 5. If the third roll is a 2, they might use it as a 20 to bring their running total to 65. If instead the third roll is a 4, it’s probably safer to use it as 4 to bring their running total to 40 + 5 + 4 = 49– if they use it as 40, they would have a running total of 40 + 5 + 40 = 85 with four more rolls to go.
Discussion and Tips
Discuss strategies for when it is good to use a number in one column or the tens column.
At various times you can ask what number the students are hoping will be rolled.
Variations
Use Cards: Use playing cards from 1 to 9 instead of a die.
Record Keeping: Instead of writing the tens and ones, use manipulatives to work with groups of tens and ones.
Different number of rolls: Experiment with using more or fewer rolls than seven.