Domino Fraction War – Denise Gaskins’ Let’s Play Math

Students in upper elementary and middle school can practice estimating and conducting mental math with fractions with this game.

Many parents recall having difficulty learning math. Our goal is to give our kids a better experience.

Additionally, hands-on play is one of the best ways for kids to enjoy learning.

Domino Fraction War

Math Concepts: proper fractions, comparing fractions.

Players: two or more.

Equipment: one set of double-six or double-nine dominoes.

How to Play

Remove the double-blank tile. Turn all remaining domino tiles face down on the table and mix them around to make the wood pile.

Each player turns one tile face up and makes a proper fraction (smaller number on top) with the numbers on the two halves of the tile. The player who has the greatest fraction takes the other players’ tiles prisoner, placing his own and all the captured tiles face up at his side.

If there is a tie for greatest fraction, turn that hand of domino tiles face down and shuffle them back into the wood pile. Then the players all turn up new tiles for the next skirmish.

When there are no longer enough dominoes on the table for every player to draw one, the players count their prisoners. Whoever has captured the most tiles wins the game.

Variations

Instead of requiring the smaller number to be on top, you can allow improper fractions, but be careful with blank sides. A blank is a zero, and a fraction may never have zero in the denominator, so the blank always has to go on top.

Domino tiles work for any Math War variation. Turn up a tile and add, subtract, or multiply the two numbers — whatever you want to practice.

Domino War Trumps: Beginning with the youngest and continuing around the table, players take turns saying “high” or “low” to tell whether the greatest or least fraction will win that round. Players draw tiles as described above but hide them from each other. After seeing his or her tile, the player whose turn it is declares the trump. Then all players display their tiles.

Exponent War: If you draw the 3|5 tile, will you make 3⁵ or 5³?

History (and a Puzzle)

Tile games that resemble dominoes appear to have started in China and made their way to Europe via the major commerce hubs of Venice and Naples. Because European domino sets differ from Chinese sets in a number of ways, some game historians contend that the European game was created separately. (For example, similar to a deck of playing cards, Chinese tiles are packaged in suits.) In the late eighteenth century, dominoes made its way from France to England, where it quickly gained popularity in British pubs.

Encourage your kids to look at a set of domino tiles and explain what they see. For instance, there are no duplicates, but every potential combination (double-0, 0|1, 0|2, etc.) is a single tile: 0|1 and 1|0 are identical tiles.

Inquire, “If you purchased