How Long? How Wide? How Many?

Since I just did a post on multiplication, here is a fun way to have your students practice their facts. In this game, students roll dice to make boxes on a grid, trying to dominate the board by covering the most box and blocking their opponent from filling in boxes.

This game is called How Long? How Wide? How Many? And the play is pretty simple. You will need to provide your students with two dice (you can do just one, and two rolls), two different colored color pencils (these work best), and a game board (provided below).

To play, a student rolled the dice. Let's say he or she rolls a 3 and a 4. The student now needs to make a box that is 3 squares by 4 square. The player can put their box anywhere they wish on the board. Then the student outlines their box in his or her colored pencil, then writes the multiplication problem in the box, as in 3x4=12, and circles the total.

Once most of the squares have been filled, or each player has rolled 3 times without being able to place a box (or whatever you determine), the game is over and it's time to total. This is where the totals from all the boxes come in handy, and this is where students see how handy multiplication is. Because, instead of having to count each little square, they can just add each total.



The other nice thing about this game is that students don't actually need to know their multiplication tables by heart in order to play, which means this can be very multi-level (homeschoolers, wink, wink!). Students can count the number of squares in their boxes, and over time, if played often, they will start learning facts that haven't yet been covered.

Below are links to download two different game boards. One is a mini, half page version, which is perfect for quick play, such as when you have 5 minutes to burn. The second is a full page version, which is perfect as part of a lesson, or as a center.

How Long How Wide Mini

How Long How Wide Full