Play the Navajo game of Ashbii with three painted sticks representing die. Spray paint craft sticks for this Native American game. Paint one stick black on one side and half-black on the opposite side. Paint the second stick half-red on one side and half-black on the other. Paint the third stick red on one side and black on the other. Place the sticks in a basket. Each player takes turns tossing them in the air. Scores depend on how the sticks "cross" each other. Crossing refers the sticks intersecting, and results in more points. The class determines the probability of all outcomes and records the data.
The early Hawaiians used disks made of volcanic stone to play the game Lu-Lu, but glass stones sold in florist shops work well for this elementary probability game. Paint the stones using a permanent marker. Each stone has either one, two, three or four dots painted on one side. Players take turns tossing the stones. The ones with the numbers facing up are counted. For example, if a stone with two dots and one with four dots lands up, the score is six. The game winner is the one to reach a score of 50 first. This is a good game for calculating possible outcomes of the tosses.
Play the Jewish Hanukkah game called Dreidel with a four-sided top inscribed with Hebrew letters. The inscriptions are "Nun," meaning "nothing," "Gimel,” which means "take everything," "Hey," which means "half" or "Shin," meaning "put in." Each player takes turns spinning the Dreidel and takes the action written on the side that lands up. Keep a tally of all the times a side lands up and calculate the probability for each one. Find the sum of all players' probabilities.
Mankala is an African stone game known as the world's oldest game. In ancient times, royal game boards were carved of ivory and lined with precious metals. Today's game board has two rows of three cups or hollowed-out holes and two end pots. Half-dozen egg cartons make excellent game boards in the elementary classroom. Counters, pennies, macaroni or beans serve as game pieces. The game is played with two players attempting to empty the pieces from the pits and place them in the pot at their end of the board. The player with the most pieces in his pot at the end of the game is declared the winner. Record the class results and determine the probability of whether the winner is the one who starts first or if the starting place makes no difference in the outcome.