The fourth day of the Math and Game course.

On the 4-th day we prepaired a lesson in pairs. First we chose a game, and then made a methodical and didactic preparation for a "lesson". Me and Andreja, a teacher from Slovenia, chose the game NIM, a game with matches. NIM is a game of strategy  in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps, and may remove any number of objects provided they all came from the same heap. The goal of the game is not to be a player to remove the last objects.  At the beginning we put the matches in four rows with 1, 3,5 and 7 elements. The first player removes any number of matches from a row which he choose. The other players takes one or more matches from the same or another row....and so on...until there is only one match left, so the next player is losing the game.

With game NIM, pupils improve counting to ten, adding and subtracting single-digits with totals to 10,...After the presentation we had discussion about different use of game.

Others chose a game MILL. It is a board game for two players.  Each player has 9 tokens or pieces. Tokens are usually coloured black and white.  The board consist of a grid with three squares and four lines. Squares and lines together make twenty-for intersections or  points. The intention of the players is to form »mils«.  That means, three of their own tokens in the same colour lined horizontally or vertically. If you »get« a mill, it allows the player to remove an opponent's toke from the game immediately, and it is obligatory.  A player wins by reducing the oppnent to two tokens, where he can no longer form mils and thus is unable to win, or by putting him in a position where he is unable to move within the rules.

With this game pupils can learn counting reliably up to 9, read and write numbers up to 9, order and compare numbers up to 10, adding and subtracting with totals to 10.