Bunco!

     After I purchased a large bag of dice at one of my favorite thrift stores, I remembered the Bunco parties my mother used to have at our home.  The living room was set up with card tables and chairs, the dice were brought out, and lots of laughter and excitement ensued.  I got to play a few times when they needed an extra player, and I thought that Bunco would be a great game for the last day of school for 2022.  

It's a fast-paced exciting game, and requires counting.  That's a win-win for school students. 

Everyone got a prize, (most Buncos, most wins, most losses, etc.) and the students enjoyed it even more than I thought they would.  We might make this a tradition.  Happy holidays!    

How to Play Bunco 

1.  There are six rounds, and each round has a separate goal:  for all three dice to land on whichever round you are on.  

2.  Round one's goal is to roll ones; round two's goal is to roll twos, etc. 

3.  Four players are at a table and there are two teams at each table.  The player across from you is your partner. 

4.  You get one point for every die that lands on that round's number.  For example, if you are on round 5 and roll a 5, you get a point.  You get two points if you roll two 5s.  You get to keep rolling as long as you get a 5.  When a roll produces no 5s, the dice pass to the next player. 

5.  A bunco is scored when all three dice land on the same number.  For the sample round described above, if a player rolls three 5s, he yells "Bunco!" and the round ends for all of the tables.  A bunco is worth 21 pounts, and that ends the round. 

6.  If all three dice are rolled and they all land on the same number, but not the number of the round, then 5 points are scored and play keeps going.  For example, in the sample round above, the goal is to get three 5s.  So, if a player rolls three 6s, he gets a 5 point "baby" bunco and passes the dice (because he got no 5s). 

7.  Score is kept by teams, so both players on a team add their points together.  The first team to get to 21 points wins.  This ends the game for all of the tables and players.  If a player is in the middle of his turn, he may continue that turn.  Whichever team has the most points wins at that table.  

8.   Players mark a "W" for a win, and an "L" for a loss.  If a player scores a real bunco (same numbers on the dice as the round number), he marks a tally mark under the "bunco" space at the bottom of the score card.  (These are availble to print for free online.).  Only the player who rolled the bunco gets to count a bunco; his team partner does not.  And a "baby bunco" (all three dice on the same number but NOT the number of the round) does not count as a tally mark for a bunco.  

9.  At the end of a round, the winning team moves up a table (Tables are numbered, with the lead table being #1, the next table #2, etc.), and the losing team stays.  The winning team at table #1 stays and the losing team at table #1 moves to the last table.  

10.  At the end of the game, (we played six rounds as shown on the scorecards above), prizes are awarded as follows:  most wins, most losses, most buncos, etc.  

You can choose themes as well, and decorate the tables according to whatever theme you choose, have snacks that fit the theme, and prizes that do as well.  

Four Square Math

We were working on our daily writing journal assignment when two of my students wrote that one of their favorite after-school activities was playing four square.  That gave me an idea.  As it turned out, their dad had already had the same idea and had made a four square court at their house.  So we made another one at school.  

We grabbed masking tape, a yard stick, and a ball, and headed outside at recess.  

Dimensions:  10 foot by 10 foot, "which makes the area of it 100 square feet" one of the students informed me. 

That would make the middle line at -  "5 feet!"  answered another student.  

We finished our little four square court and played a few nice long games of four square.  I got to be queen only once, and I fell over only once, which isn't too bad for me.  

 

Pass the Pillow - One of Our Top Five Inside Games

Have you ever played Pass the Pillow?  It is one of our favorite inside games.  The instructions are below, but before that, please allow me to explain the picture.
A few days after a concert, Jeff likes to reward the students by playing some team-building, fun games.  One of these is usually Pass the Pillow.  Well, as we were playing this out in the all-purpose room, it got pretty rowdy and loudy, and we were disturbing the other classes.  (My classroom opens into the all-purpose room as well, and I can vouch that it can get mighty loud.) So, Jeff said, "Everybody grab a chair and we'll play it outside!"  And we did.  I think it was twelve degrees out there.  We only made it through one or two rounds, and wet, cold pillows were flying everywhere.  Then we quietly tiptoed back inside, glad to be warm again.  Memories are made when we do something like this :-). 

How to play Pass the Pillow

1.  An even number of students or humans sit in a circle.
2.  They number off -- team 1 or 2 -- so that every other person is on the same team.
3.  Two pillows are given out -- one to a person from team 1, and the other to a person from team 2.  The pillows should be across from each other on opposite sides of the circle. 
4.  Someone yells "go" and the pillows pass around to every other person -- the team 1 pillow only to team 1 members, and the team 2 pillow to only team 2 members.  (It helps to have different colored pillows.)
5.  The first team to pass up the other team's pillow wins.  

Four Corners -- A Great Inside Game

  
January is always time to play Four Corners-- a nice, quiet, inside game that is actually very fun and does give students a little running-around type of exercise.  
Here are the directions on how to play, just in case you didn't know. 

1.  Tape four different colors of construction paper up on the walls in four different corners of whatever room you choose to use.  
2.  Choose an "it". 
3.  The "it" counts to twenty with "its" eyes closed.  While this is going on, all the other students choose a corner and go and stand near it.  (If they are not in a corner by the time the counting is done they are automatically out.)
4.  With his or her eyes still closed, the "it" calls out one color.  Everyone standing in that color's corner is out.  They may either sit in the middle of the room or in another designated space.
5.  The remaining students run around and go to another corner while the "it" counts to twenty again.
6.  Near the end of the game when very few students remain, the "it" can call out two colors.  



For an extra-fun twist on this game, use poster board or other materials and make a map on the floor of states or continents.  The "it"  may choose two or three states or continents to be out every turn or this version may take a very long time :-).  

8th Graders. End of School. The Sharks Game.

For some reason I began explaining to my students one of my favorite games to play when I was a child.  I called it "Sharks".  I would pretend that the grass all around my swing set was shark-infested waters, and that as long as I stayed off the grass, I was safe. I would pull picnic table benches over and use them as stepping stones so that I would not touch the grass.  

So, as I was telling my story, the idea occurred to me that we could do the same thing in the classroom.  The carpet could be the shark- infested waters, and we could walk around on the desks and stools using pillows for stepping stones.  I declared that Monday would be "Shark Day".  And so it was.  

The idea carried over into math and English as well.  I like to put something history-related on their math papers, so that Monday it was a picture of Laika, the first dog in space on the Russian spaceship Sputnik.  I had inadvertently copied their 8" x 11" math worksheets on 11" x 17" paper, so I told them they had to draw me a picture on the blank side.  One of my students drew "Sputnik Shark", with a shark riding inside a spaceship.  And, for their vocabulary word "permissible", one of the students wrote, "Playing sharks is permissible in Mrs. Swanson's room."  Absolutely it is.  

And, I might add, that even though we are being a little silly this last month of school, my students just got their highest grammar grades of the year on a quiz identifying and diagramming compound-complex sentences.  They also had to write compound-complex sentences on their amazing history essays, which they did.