Materials Needed:
Computer with accessible keyboard
Colored Post It Notes (Different color one per team)
White Board or Screen
Worksheet or Task Cards
Directions:
Divide the class into tables/teams. Each group gets a post-it note specific to their team by color. Project the PowerPoint template on the board. Each team starts by placing their post-it note on a stone. The rules are simple: Don’t sink and only one team can occupy a stone at a time.
The game begins with people working on their assignment. When the entire table does a problem correctly, someone goes to the board and moves their post-it note 1 stone. (You must move it in an analog direction: up, down, left, or right.) Then they click the “spacebar” on the computer and a random stone will disappear. If anyone was on the sinking stone their team is now OUT. This process continues. If someone is unable to move their team’s post-it note (due to being blocked in or having no stones in an analog direction) they still must press the spacebar and eliminate a stone. This continues until only one team is left on a stone. That team wins.
Teams that are OUT still go press the spacebar every time to help eliminate teams.
Optional Alternate Rule:
If a team that is OUT finishes a problem, they still go press the spacebar. They can earn their way back into the game if they remove a stone that has a team on it.
Example: Bob is on the purple team and the purple team is OUT. Bob presses the spacebar and the stone sinks that the blue team is on. The blue team is now OUT. Since Bob’s team pressed the spacebar that removed them, they get to place their purple post-it note back into the game. They can place it anywhere on the board. This continues with teams exiting and earning their way back into the game until 2 teams are left. When a stone sinks eliminating the 2nd place team, the team left on the board automatically wins.
FAQs and Tips:
There are multiple slides in the PowerPoint and they are all programmed to remove different stones so you can play multiple rounds if you want.
If you teach younger grades, you can remove the rule about analog direction and just let them move their post it note to ANY stone each time.
REMINDERS: TO EDIT ANY OF THE TEMPALTES YOU WILL FIRST NEED TO DOWNLOAD THEM TO YOUR COMPUTER. NOBODY IS ABLE TO ALTER THE ORIGINALS AS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE USE THEM. ALL POWERPOINTS ARE MEANT TO BE USED IN POWERPOINT AND NOT GOOGLE SLIDES.