Materials Needed:
Worksheet one per student
Colored Tower set one per group (https://a.co/d/6bpkqyE)
Directions:
Divide the class into groups, groups of 3-5 work best. Each group starts by building their tower on their desk/table. They set their dice at the edge of the table. Groups are competing against each other, and only 1 group will win in the end. Determine a worksheet, task card, or problem set that you want the students to practice. Each student needs their own sheet.
A student works on a problem. When they are done, the teacher checks it off. If they are correct, they go to a DIFFERENT table and roll their dice. (CAUTION: Be very specific that we are not bowling. They should not roll the dice towards the team’s tower. Instead, they should roll it on the edge of the desk. If a team’s tower gets knocked down because another team isn’t following directions on how to roll, they get to rebuild and start from the beginning.) Once they roll the dice, they say the color out loud. Someone at the table must remove a peg of that color. Example: If I walk up to a table and roll a purple. Somebody sitting at the table, part of that group, must take out a purple peg. The removed peg gets set off to the side and the game continues. (They can not remove an entire layer can make their tower shorter- it must remain 5 levels the entire game.) This process repeats until teams have their towers fall. Once any part of the tower completely falls, that table is then out. However, they can still participate by answering questions and then rolling the dice to eliminate other teams. I tell them even though they can no longer win, they can play a big part in determining who is the winner.
FAQs and Tips:
I have noticed that it doesn’t really matter if they build their tower with one of each color per level, or randomized. Generally, to save time, I just tell them to stack it randomly. There just needs to be 6 pegs per level and 6 levels tall.
If you roll a dice and a color comes up that is no longer left on the tower, you just get to reroll for a different color. Example: If I roll an orange, but the team has already removed all the oranges then I just roll until I get a color other than orange.
It is very important that someone in the group removes the peg. Do NOT let other teams remove a peg because they purposely knock over the tower. To ensure the piece gets removed I tell my students to stand at the table until the piece has been taken out then take a seat after. It generally takes like 10 seconds.
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