Math Dice Games for Place Value

Math dice games are a surefire way to engage students of all ages but especially in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. I mean, come one, who doesn't love Yahtzee? Plus they are low prep. All you need are a bunch of dice which if your school doesn't have the dollar store certainly does.

Here are three ideas that you can use to help reinforce place value with your students using dice.

1. Freeze the Dice

Materials - 5 or more dice per player (depending on your curriculum expectations for place value - Grade 6 need to know place value to millions so I would use 7)

1. Split students into groups of 4 and give each player 7 dice. 

2. They all roll all their dice at the same time and then move their dice around aiming to make the largest 7-digit number.

3. The first player to make the number yells, "FREEZE" and reads out his/her number. Everyone else stops. 

4. If the player who yelled, "Freeze" has the largest number they get 5 points. If another player has a higher number that player gets the 5 points, instead. 

5. The first player to reach 25 points is the winner.

2. Place Value Yahtzee

Speaking of Yahtzee, Brittney Field from Games4Gains has a free place value yahtzee game available with different challenge levels for students in grades 2-6. Click here to check it out. 

3. Place Value Boxes

Using pill boxes from the dollar store is a great way to have your students shake dice without having them fly all over the classroom (you know what I'm talking about.)

Kelly from An Apple for the Teacher goes into a lot of detail in her post about how to set them up. Click here to see how. 

Using the Place Value Boxes you can have your students write the numbers they shake in expanded and written form with Tonja's freebie. Her worksheet only goes up to 5 digits so you'd need to adapt for Grade 6. 

Jill from Hello Fifth has an inexpensive product that includes labels for the pill boxes, task cards and recording sheets. It goes up to millions so it's appropriate for Grades 4-6. Click here for her Place Value Shake. 

Get shaking!