This game combines the skills of mental addition and strategic thinking. The object is to be first to score 100 points. It is played with two contestants using two dice. Player one rolls the dice as many times as desired, keeping track of the total after each toss. If a one comes up on either dice before he stops rolling, he gets a score of zero for that turn and the other player takes over. If, at any time, a one appears on both dice, the affected player loses his entire accumulated score up to that point.
You will need a deck of cards for this challenging contest of probability. Assign a value of one to aces, 11 to jacks, 12 to queens, and 13 to kings. Create a chart for each player, with four columns and ten rows. Label the columns "Round," "Cards," "Round Score" and "Running Score." Shuffle the deck and place 13 cards face down in a circle. Take turns picking one or two cards. Record on the chart the number of the round, number of cards taken for that round, the score for the round and the running score so far. The player who picks the last card earns an extra 50 points. Repeat rounds until the chart is full. Highest score wins. Vary the game by adding more cards to the circle and selecting up to three.
Spark a discussion about how to determine the many different ways to line up four children. Stand four volunteers at the front of the room. Label them by name, number or color. Encourage the group to think about what they need to know and the strategies they might employ to solve this problem. One possible strategy would be to physically rearrange the volunteers so they stand in new positions. For example, one, two, three, four, or two, four, one, three. Assign individuals to chart the results as the game progresses. Continue this way until the group decides all possible combinations have been exhausted. Finish by talking about the number of possible arrangements discovered and whether any were overlooked.
This exacting game requires only pencil and paper. Divide the group into teams of two. Draw three random dots on a sheet of paper. Take turns drawing a curved line connecting any two dots and placing a new dot somewhere along the line. Do not cross any other line and do not allow any dot to have more than three lines coming from it. Continue until no more connections are available. The player who makes the last valid connection wins.