Thursday 12 March 2015

Spoof in Maths

In my younger days, I loved a game of Spoof. I thought I was quite good at it. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to outwit others at a game that involved elements of chance, estimation and prediction.


Earlier this week, I was looking for a new starter for my maths lesson. Spoof came to mind, I grabbed some counters and decided to give it a go. 

I introduced the game (explaining the rules and giving a demonstration) and off the children went. Lots off excitement, success, mathematical thinking and reasoning. 

Anyone unfamiliar with the game, here are the rules:

- each player has three objects that can be held in their hand;

- everyone chooses to put 0, 1, 2 or 3 objects in their hand and holds it out;

- in turn, each player predicts how many objects are in all the hands;

- the winner is the one with the correct answer.


In a game of three players, the total could be between 0 and 9. To give an answer, the player must use times table and counting knowledge, estimation and prediction skills, while knowing what's in their hand and taking into consideration what other players have said.

Note: I did not give the game a name as I'm aware of it being, "typically played as a gambling game, often in bars and pubs".

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