We are all probably familiar with using dice in all kind of environments. Many of us have our favourite games that use dice and see our pupils enjoying the game experience while reinforcing some of their basic numeracy skills. Using dice with younger children who need to have their confidence boosted in the world of mathematics requires us to use the usual dice with dots on.
It would be good if the adult also had a dice in front of them so that they could be more effectively joining in. It’s probably best if there is not a strict agenda in the adult’s mind at the start of the session. There are lots of prompts that can be appropriate throughout the session.
“Who's got the most dots?”, “Do you think anyone has the same number as me?”, “You have two dots on yours, can we all turn our dice over and around so we all have just two dots?”.
Lots of useful dialogue can go on in which the pupils may feel more confident to contribute their own thoughts.
One way of extending an activity to help them develop their thinking further is to use some of the less usual dice, those with a different range of numbers on them. Just showing a $0$ to $9$ dice in place of the usual $1$ to $6$ dice can give the opportunity for the teacher to ask some good open questions. Then we can go further, leading to some discussion among as to whether the game will go
quicker, slower or much the same.
Other dice, that can act as a catalyst to this kind of thinking is one that goes $1,2,3,1,2,3,$. Try it out, you may be surprised. Another way of getting into the larger numbers is by having two $0 – 9$ dice of different colours so that one will determine the tens numeral and the other the units.
We have a number of activities here that rely upon the use of dice. We try very hard to have activities that have a Low Threshold and a High Ceiling, so that pupils of lower ability can get into the activity and get somewhere, and the most able can easily be extended.