Dots and boxes

Last week my Year 7 daughter told me about an activity she'd done in a maths lesson.  It was basically a game of Dots and Boxes, but it had the added bonus of each square containing a positive or negative number.  Each time they won a box, they had to add the number in the square onto their total, largest total winning.  My daughter's friend had got more boxes, so would have won in a traditional game, but my daughter went for all the positive numbers so that she had a much bigger total at the end.

This idea of having something in the box has been taken on by the languages community.  (Thank you Rachel on SecMFLMatters!)  The boxes have in them target language words or English words, or a mixture of the two.  To win a box, you have not only to put on its last side, but you also have to say the correct target language or English word.

At my school it's transition week, where all the children from Reception to Year 5 are meeting their new teachers.  This has left Year 6 at a bit of a loose end.  This afternoon we sat in the Year 1 classroom, at the tiny chairs and tables, and I gave them their exercise books and a blank Dots and Boxes grid.  They chose a word for each square and then some of them played the games.  They particularly enjoyed how it's possible to steal a square from your partner if they don't know the word.

I took this picture of a game between one of the hard-working boys and his very idle friend.  They enjoyed playing it, and it's the most work I've seen the latter do in 6 years!!

They've given me the grids they made and I've said I'll make them into resources for Light Bulb Languages and put their names on, as a little legacy.