Pig
Math Concepts
Addition of 1 through 6 to double-digit numbers
Materials
Die, pencil and paper
Players
2 to 6
Set up
Create groups of two to six students. Give each group one die and a piece of paper to keep score. Set up an order for the students to play in.
Play
During a turn, a student rolls the die.
If they roll a 1, their turn is over and they lose all the points they have accumulated so far on this turn.
If they roll a number other than a 1, those points are added to their running total for that turn. They can roll again and risk potentially losing all their points, or they can choose to end their turn and add this turn’s total to their grand total.
Goal
The first player to accumulate 50 points wins.
Discussion and Tips
Discuss the students’ strategies. Do they have a fixed point limit for when they should stop, or do they stop when it feels right? Do they roll a fixed number of times and then stop? How do the scores of the other players in their game change their strategy?
Run a classroom experiment where one half of the class uses one strategy and the other half another strategy. Is one strategy clearly better than the other?
Variations
Target Total: Change the winning total from 50 to 100, or to any other total that fits ability and time constraints.
NumberRange: Use numbered playing cards from 1 to 10, or from 1 to the appropriate upper limit for the adding abilities of the students.