Sum of the String Players take turns pulling a multicolored string from a coffee can to earn points. Age Range: 7 to 11 Skills Used: addition, knowledge of place
value Number of Players: 2 to 4 Noise Level: moderate Activity Level: low Materials: coffee can with plastic lid, yarn
in four colors (white, red, green, and blue), paper and pencils, standard deck of playing cards
Setup The red, green, and blue yarn should be cut into lengths of about 8 to 12 inches with at least 10 pieces of each color. Only one piece of white yarn is needed. The pieces do not have to be exactly the same length for this game. The colored pieces should be knotted together in a random order to form a multicolored string. The same color can be tied to itself. This knotted string is rolled up and put in a coffee can. The end of the multicolored string should be knotted to the piece of white yarn, forming the starting end. Put the cover on the can with the end of the white string showing through a slit in the cover. As shown in the key, each of the three colors of string represents a particular place value: green is the ones place, blue is the tens place, and red is the hundreds place. Before the game, shuffle a deck of playing cards with the 10s and face cards removed. Math Games
How to Play The player chosen to go first takes a card from the top of the deck and pulls the white string just until the next knot appears and reveals the color of the next section. The players do not use the color that is showing in subsequent turns because that was the last player’s string. The color of the string after the knot determines the place value of the card number and the player records it on his or her paper. For example, a 6 card and the color blue would correspond to the number 60. As play continues around the group, players add numbers to their cumulative total. The first player to reach or pass 1,000 points is the winner.
Variation Additional place values can be added by
including more colors in the knotted string. The target total would be adjusted upward to be the value just above the highest place value in the string. For example, if there are five colors in the string, then the winning total is 100,000 points.
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