Dec 29, 2008 The object of the game is to be the last team captain with everyone on your team. Fishbowl Everyone in the group gets 3 – 5 slips of paper on which they write the name of a person or character (Mickey Mouse, Ronald Reagan, MacGuyver, Joan of Arc, etc.). Roulette is a game of pure chance, no strategy can give players advantages, the outcome is determined by randomness A game of chance is a game whose outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device, and upon which contestants may choose to wager money or anything of monetary value.

Odd beans is a simple game of chance appropriate for even the youngest players. It is a game of guessing...or is it a test of your psychic abilities?

Players simply need to know the difference between odd and even numbers to play.

What You'll Need
A small bag consisting of 12 dried beans for each player.
2 or more players

Playing the Game
Each player is given a small bag containing twelve dried beans. The first player pulls out some beans from the bag. Without showing them to the other players they take notice as to whether the total number of beans in their hand is an odd or an even number and then closes their hand hiding the beans.

The first player then asks the second player 'Odds or evens?'.

The second player then tries to guess if the first player is holding an odd or even number of beans. If they guess correctly they are given the beans the first player is holding. If their guess is incorrect they must forfeit the amount of beans the first player was holding to the first player.

It is now the second players turn. They pull a number of beans from their bag and take notice of whether they are holding an odd or even number and then hides them from the view of the other players. The second player then turns to the third player and asks them 'Odd or even?'.

It is now the third players turn to guess if the second player is holding an odd or even number of beans.

Play continues in this fashion until a player is out of beans. As soon as a player is out of beans they are out of the game.

Winning the Game
The player in the end that has collected all the beans is the winner.

Tips
If the game has just begun players may choose to risk a larger number of beans whereas further into the game it may be wise to risk smaller quantities.

Try to sweeten the deal by changing the dried beams to jelly beans. Amazingly children are more than happy to play when the end result could be a bag full of candy.

Yes…I said SKUNK…

My kids love to play this fun game. The only materials needed a pair of dice for the teacher and a sheet of paper for each student. Oh, and an overhead projector is helpful too.

Begin by having each student draw a game board on their own sheet of scrap paper like the one pictured below. I usually have students fold the paper hot dog and then hamburger style. Once folded, open the paper back up and draw a game board in each section that was created by the folds. This creates four game boards, because when we play, we will play at least 4 rounds.

Once game boards are drawn, you are ready to roll…literally! Okay…let’s play!

Instruct everyone to stand because the ‘S’ round is beginning. When the ‘S’ round begins no one has any points so everyone should stand because they have nothing to lose. The teacher rolls the dice (project the dice up on the screen using the overhead projector). The students tally the two dice numbers together and record the total under the ‘S’.

****UNLESS ONE OF THE DICE IS A 1!!!****

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If one of the dice lands on a 1, no points are recorded in the ‘S’ column and everyone moves to the ‘K’ round.

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And, if ****BOTH DICE ARE ONES**** (more on that in a minute!)

So, let’s say the game has just started and the teacher rolls a 6 and a 5. The students would record an 11 under the ‘S’ and then make a decision. Do they remain standing for a second roll and take the chance that one or two 1’s are rolled? Remember if one 1 is rolled all ‘S’ points will be lost. Or, do they sit down and ‘lock’ in the 11 points they earned on the first roll? Give the students a few seconds to decide what they would like to do. Some will remain standing and some will sit (once a student sits, they must remain sitting until the round is over). Okay, the students have decided and locked in their decision (either sitting or standing). Let’s say the second roll in the ‘S’ round is a 3 and a 5. Those who chose to stay standing would record 8 under the 11. Once again, those standing need to decide if they want to continue playing or sit to lock in their points. The ‘S’ round continues until either a 1 is rolled or no students are willing to risk losing their points and sit down. Once the ‘S’ round is complete, everyone that was sitting, has the opportunity to stand back up and the ‘K’ round begins. You may have some students that don’t stand at the start of the ‘K’ round because they don’t want to lose the points they earned in the ‘S’ round…AND THAT IS THE FINAL TWIST…

If TWO 1’s are rolled at any point of the game, any student standing loses ALL points accumulated in all the rounds played up until that point!!

It is important to remind students that If they choose to sit during a ‘letter’ round, they can not stand back up until the round is over and play moves to the next letter. Likewise, they need to either stand ALL the way up or sit ALL the way down. No half ways, bailing on their choice once the dice are rolled.

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The game ends after all 5 (s,k,u,n,k) rounds are played. Students tally their points and the player with the highest total is given the opportunity to roll the dice if they’d like–we didn’t always have that as the reward…but…a few kids thought my dice rolling abilities were cursed (too many ones) and asked that someone else roll, lol!

I always find this game interesting to watch…some kids are very conservative and others throw caution to the wind and gamble every time! As we play we talk about what the chances are I’ll roll a one…two ones…etc.

I’m not sure there is a great deal of educational value (other than a little probability and addition) but we sure do have fun. It’s perfect for a 10-15 minute time-filler or indoor recess. Fair warning…it can get a bit loud, especially when a few ‘gamblers’ lose a boatload of points with the appearance of the ‘snake eyes’!