There were so many activities that I could have chosen for National Dice Day, but I selected one activity for morning preschool and prekindergarten classes and two others for the afternoon prekindergarten and kindergarten students. All activities involved rolling either a die or dice, identifying the number, and doing something with that number.
Morning students rolled one die and corresponded the number with a scooter movement that I had drawn on the board. They went forward and backwards in different ways. This activity worked both arms and legs. Scooters are always such fun.
One activity done by afternoon students was a quick warm-up that we did to a version of "Everybody's It" tag. In this game, one die was used with actual written numbers and another die was used with dots. The dice were rolled together. If the number matched the dots, everybody was "it" and started chasing one another. If tagged you sat down for a moment and we saw who was the last person standing. If it didn't happen quickly then we called the game a "draw" and everyone returned to play. We often had to roll the dice a number of times before getting a match.
Afternoon students also played a game where they were divided into two teams facing each other on lines a short distance away. Two different colors of over-sized dice were thrown at the same time, with each team identifying with one of the colors. The team with the larger number dice had to chase the team with the smaller number dice. The smaller number team had to run to a home base to be safe. Any player tagged had to move to the other team. This game kept students running. Kindergarten started with one die then moved to two dice and added them together. What a challenge.
Research has been unable to determine the origin of National Dice Day but archaeologists have discovered dice dating back more than 5000 years. The dice appeared to be associated with a game similar to backgammon.
As you play games at home with your children, encourage them to count the dots on the dice so they can understand the one to one correspondence of one dot to one number. Rolling dice is a great way to work on math skills. Over-sized foam dice can often be found at Dollar Tree. The larger dots make it easier for young children to count.
Rolling the die before comparing the number to the one on the board.
Matching the die with the number on the board to determine the way to ride the scooter.
Sitting forward on the scooter pulling with legs.
Sitting backwards on the scooter pushing with legs.
Kneeling on scooter pulling forward with arms.
Kneeling on scooter pushing backwards with arms.
On tummy pulling with arms and pushing with feet.
Little Red Wagon style - one knee on the scooter and one leg off the scooter pushing.
In our "Everybody's It" tag, the written die had to match the dotted die before children could chase.
These two numbers do not match so runners stay in place.
One classmate chases another as they try to be the last runner left untagged.
This student is the last person standing in "Everybody's It" tag.
In this tag game one team is red and the other is green. They watch their
rolled die to see which one will have the higher number.
If their team has the higher number, they will chase the other team to their home base.
The green team has the higher number. They use their yarn balls
as tagging equipment and chase the team with the beanbags.
If the same number is rolled, opposite sides step forward to shake hands with the competition.
The red team turns and runs towards their home base.
The green team rolled the highest total using two dice.
