Math Dice Game

We were always looking for ways to encourage women to practice their math. Lots of women are not familiar with the times tables and feel very rusty on decimals, fractions, etc. One day, I was in a Dollar Store and saw these big, colourful dice. They were so big and chunky that you just wanted to pick them up. So I bought them and took them to WISH. I spent about two minutes thinking up the rules and it worked! It was a game that used math but also relied on chance. So if you were a whiz at math, it didn’t necessarily mean you would win. And the same was true if you were just learning math skills.

A pair of dice

How to play:

  1. Everyone rolls once dice to see who starts -the highest wins
  2. Each woman (or pair, some women like to work as a team) throw(s) the three dice. In order to figure out the score, the player must add the black dice and the blue dice. Then she must multiply that number by the yellow dice. Using a pencil and paper or fingers is fine.
  3. If the player gets it right (every other player is doing the calculation, too) then she writes down her total number as her score.
  4. Go round until someone reaches a certain number such as 100 or everyone has had four turns.
  5. Feel free to change any of these rules to make it easier or harder, a shorter game or a longer game.