Math Games for All

Math Games For All

Poison (or Nim)

There are many variations to this game and you can find them easily online. The object of the game is to either end up with the last bean or marker or NOT end up with the last bean or marker. In this version we are describing playing with beans and trying NOT to end up with the last bean. The number of beans can vary and so can the choices for how many you may take each time.

POISON: When you play like this it is fun to pretend that the last bean is poison. Count out 21 beans. ONE of the beans is a different color. Say you have 20 black beans and one white bean. The white bean represents poison. You will need just 2 players. At each turn the player may take either one bean or two beans. If the last one to play has to take the white bean, he or she is “poisoned” and looses.

 

Number Heads or Heads Up!

This game needs a set of playing cards and 2 or three players.

2-Player Game:  One player will choose a card and without looking at it and place it on his or her forehead so the face is showing. The second player turns over the next card in the deck so both can see it. The second player then tells the sum of the card on the table and the card on the person’s forehead. The first player figures out what is on his head. Example: Player one chooses a 3 of hearts and puts it on his head (he has not seen the card). Player two flips over the 6 of clubs. He then says  “9!” because 3 + 6 = 9. Player one only knows the sum and can see the number six, and must figure out what is showing on his head. Hopefully he says  “3!”.  Then players switch roles.

Variations:

·      Play competitively and keep score each time the number head gets the answer correct.

·      Keep the same card on the table several times in a row and just change the number head card. This builds relational thinking.

·      Play with three people. This time the first and second player each put a number on their heads. The 3^rd player shouts the sum and the number head people figure out what is on their head by looking at the other number and thinking about the sum. This can be played competitively as well.

 

Nine Men’s Morris

The board consists of a grid with twenty-four intersections or points. Each player has nine pieces, or "men", usually coloured black and white. Players try to form 'mills'— three of their own men lined horizontally or vertically—allowing a player to remove an opponent's man from the game. A player wins by reducing the opponent to two pieces (where he could no longer form mills and thus be unable to win), or by leaving him without a legal move.

The game proceeds in three phases:

1  Placing men on vacant points

2  Moving men to adjacent points

3  (optional) Moving men to any vacant point when a player has been reduced to three men

Phase 1: Placing pieces

Nine Men's Morris starts on an empty board.

The game begins with an empty board. The players determine who plays first, then take turns placing their men one per play on empty points. If a player is able to place three of his pieces in a straight line, vertically or horizontally, he has formed a mill and may remove one of his opponent's pieces from the board and the game. Any piece can be chosen for the removal, but a piece not in an opponent's mill must be selected, if possible.

Phase 2: Moving pieces

Players continue to alternate moves, this time moving a man to an adjacent point. A piece may not "jump" another piece. Players continue to try to form mills and remove their opponent's pieces in the same manner as in phase one. A player may "break" a mill by moving one of his pieces out of an existing mill, then moving the piece back to form the same mill a second time (or any number of times), each time removing one of his opponent's men. The act of removing an opponent's man is sometimes called "pounding" the opponent. When one player has been reduced to three men, phase three begins.

Phase 3: "Flying"

When a player is reduced to three pieces, there is no longer a limitation of moving to only adjacent points: The player's men may "fly", "hop", or "jump" from any point to any vacant point.

Some rules sources say this is the way the game is played, some treat it as a variation, and some don't mention it at all. A 19th-century games manual calls this the "truly rustic mode of playing the game". Flying was introduced to compensate when the weaker side is one man away from losing the game.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Men's_Morris)