Banking

This is another game idea to get those ELL students talking to their peers. The materials are minimal!! Each team needs only two number cubes (dice). They will have to compute math mentally and keep the score on paper. The first person rolls the dice and adds the two together to get the sum. This number they must keep in their head! No paper and pencil for such easy adding. The player may choose to roll again. Each time adding the total to the previous sum. Here's the catch... if a one is rolled the player looses everything in their head and its the next players turn... second catch, if the player rolls snake eyes (two ones) the player looses everything in the "bank" (on the score sheet) and it's the next players turn. When the player decides they have tempted fate long enough the player then chooses to write down that round's score, dollar amount, in the "bank" and the next player gets his try. Encourage the players to discuss not only their totals but also the reasoning to stop their turn or to move foward rolling again. As always, sentence frames will help the students use complete sentences. Word banks will also expand the students' use of the language.