Calco-Route - Calculator Game

This is a straightforward number chasing game for two children using a calculator. The game give children plenty of practice using a calculator and encourages them to solve multiplication and division problems mentally.

The idea of the game is for the children to move their counter around the Calco-route board performing calculations as they go, the winner is the first player to return to their starting square. The players need a Calco-route board (see the attached file) a calculator and a counter each.

Children choose to start in any of the corner squares.The challenge is that they can only move to the next square (in any direction) if they can choose a number and a mathematical operation that will enable them to turn their starting number into the next number.

For example:

Jack chooses to start in the top left-hand corner: 15. He decides to divide his current number by 5; this enables him to move to the next square: 3.

Jilly chooses to start in the bottom right-hand corner of the board: 30. She chooses to divide this number by 3 to give her 10... she can now move to this new square.

Children should choose the mathematical operation and number mentally, then use a calculator to confirm the calculation is valid before they move their own counter.

At first this seems like a simple game, but it can easily be adapted to offer more challenge. For example, the original idea was that the players move one square at a time, but if you choose you could let the players jump forward 1, 2, 3 or 4 squares by performing a correct calculation. In the earlier example Jack moved from 15 to 3 by dividing by 5. Now he could move from 15 to 30 by multiplying by 2.

A further alternative is to provide the children with 4 counters each which they place on a picture near their starting corner - they then aim to get all of their 'men' home before the other player in a similar way to the game of Ludo.

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