Circles and Stars

We have begun our new math unit on multiplication.  To help the students understand equal groups and to become more familiar with the relationship between addition and multiplication, today we learned a new game called Circles and Stars.  You can play this game at home with some paper, a pencil, and a die.  Here are the directions:

Circles and Stars

PURPOSE:  To have the most stars on your page.

WHAT YOU NEED:

         One piece of paper

         One dice

         A pencil

         Your thinking mind

HOW TO PLAY:

1.       Fold your paper in half like a hot dog and like a hamburger.  Open it up and trace on the folds.  You will have 4 equal sections on each side of the paper so you can play a total of 7 rounds.  One box is used to add at the end.

2.       The first person rolls the dice once.  Whatever the number is he or she draws that many circles in the first box.  Make sure your circles are big enough to draw stars in later!

3.       Player two rolls the dice and draws circles on his or her paper as well.

4.       The first person rolls the dice again and that number is the number of stars that will go in EACH circle.  Draw that number of stars in each circle, then write a multiplication problem and repeated addition problem that shows how many stars you have.

5.       Player two does the same thing.

6.       Repeat this until you have filled up 7 of the 8 boxes.  In the 8^th box you will add the number of stars you had in each box to find your total.  The person with the most stars is the winner!