Math Tic Tac Toe
Math Concepts
Addition- single digit
Materials
Paper, pencil
Players
2
Set up
Use a Tic-Tac-Toe board and slips of paper with the numbers from 1 to 9 on them. One player, Odd, plays the odd numbers, and the other, Even, the even ones.
Play
Players take turns placing a number, with the Odd player going first. Any of the tokens on the board may be used by either player to make a sum of 15.
Goal
The first player to complete 3 in a row whose sum is 15 wins.
Discussion and Tips
Discuss ideas your students have for strategies.
Variations
One variation is to keep going, filling all the squares, and keep track of which player makes the most 15’s along the way.
A related game is to have an attacker and a defender. The attacker goes first (the first move cannot be in the center) and tries to get 15, and the defender tries to stop the attacker. In this version of the game, there is no restriction (odds versus evens) on the numbers either player may use.