Get Out of My House+/-
Math Concepts
Addition/subtraction – single digit
Materials
Paper, pencil, colored tokens or markers
Players
2
Set up
Use a deck of cards with numbers from 1 (Ace) to 10. On a shared piece of paper, draw 21 boxes or simple houses numbered from 0 to 20. Each player has 7 tokens distinct from the other player’s 7 tokens.
Play
During a turn, a player selects two random cards to work with. They then choose whether to add or subtract them to put their token in a house with fewer than three of the opponent’s tokens. If the house contains one or two of the opponent’s tokens, those tokens are given back to the opponent and the player says “Get out of my house.”
Goal
The first player to put all their tokens in houses wins.
Discussion and Traits
Which houses are the most likely to occur?
What are the advantages and disadvantages in putting tokens on frequently occurring houses?
Variations
A simpler version of the game, that involves no choices, uses only one operation of addition and subtraction fora given game.
You can extend the operations by allowing addition, subtraction, or multiplication.