DiceRally2020

...is a [free; download the PDF below] game I threw together for quarantined kids to have some fun and get some addition practice. It's basically just a little bit of arithmetic drill and some dice rolling, but it's wrapped in a race game that's compelling enough to keep them interested. This plays well in the K-2 range; from counting to mental math. If you’re looking for a multiplication practice game, check out Animultiplication Rally.

Dice Rally (for two 6-sided dice)

Dice Rally (for two 6-sided dice)

How To Play

  1. Download the PDF and print one or both race sheets

  2. Get the number of dice shown on the sheet

  3. Roll the dice and add up the total. Alternatively, just count the pips, for kids who are still learning to count.

  4. Mark the next square in resulting car's "lane"

  5. Repeat until a car crosses the finish line (or you can play until third place is decided; that's what we do)

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Depending on the kid, they may prefer to add the dice in their heads, count the pips on the dice, or use the starting line as a counting ruler (that's why there are "ghost" lanes for the 1 and for the three dice race, the 2), or a mix of these strategies, depending on what they are comfortable with.

For the 2 dice race, expect about 150 dice rolls for the race to end. For 3, expect about 200 rolls.

It makes it more engaging for everyone to pick a car to "root" for, but make sure that kids pick cars towards the middle of the starting lineup or they are liable to get left behind; cars #3 and #18 will barely move at all and have essentially no chance of winning.

What Does This Teach?

Oh man, all sorts of stuff. Because there are multiple ways for kids to arrive at the result— pip counting (if your dice have pips), using the starting lanes as a number line, or straight mental math— it can act as a good “ladder” to improve skills. If they get an easy one (2 + 3, say) they can do it in their head. A harder one (6 + 3) they can count up on the number line, and for a trickier one (6 + 5) they can count the pips. This lets them naturally “graduate” to more sophisticated techniques as they skill into them.

It’s good practice at documenting. We’re used to being able to see something and mark it down (or just remember it until we need it) but that’s a skill that has to be learned, too.

It’s also a good introduction to probability; in the two dice game, the central cars have an advantage (you may be familiar with this from Monopoly if nothing else). In the three dice game, this advantage is substantially higher.

You can also do some narrative work with it. Our 6 year old was sportscasting the entire event (I think he learned this from the marble rallies you can find on YouTube).

Advanced Play

If you've got the poly's (you know who you are) you can mix up the 3 dice race a few ways:

  • 1d10 + 2d4

  • 1d4 + 1d6 + 1d8

  • 4d4

  • 20 - 2d8

Doing this will mix up the distributions a bit- the 4d4 will be very tightly clustered around 11 (in general the more dice you are adding, the more likely their average value is to win). You could even have kids pick their own numbers and then reveal them (how to ensure these are within the range of race sheet is left as an exercise for the reader or their parent/legal guardian).

Cool pixel art cars are from kenney.nl. Font is Cabrito. DiceRally2020 is released under Attribution-NonCommercial creative commons.