Moon Cake
This traditional Chinese playground game reinforces addition skills. It is
good to play with a class of kids, divided into teams, and can be adapted to
suit different ages. It can be very exciting!
Age: 5+
A large circle is drawn on the playground with chalk. The radius of the
circle should be at least as long as 4 large child-sized steps.
Divide the circle through the centre into segments, according to the age and
abilities of your child, and write a number in each segment. Younger kids, for
example could play with the circle divided into quarters, with the quarters
marked 1, 2, 3 and 4. For older kids you might want to divide the circle into 12
and number 1-12. You can also number the segments randomly if you wish.
Divide the children into teams. Take one child from each team and stand them
in the centre of the circle, blind fold them, and turn them around 3 times to
disorientate them a little. Now let the child take 4 steps in any direction,
take of the blindfold, and discover the number of the segment he has landed in.
When one member of each team has had a go, choose another player from each
team. Continue until all children have had a go, and add up the numbers. The
winning team has the highest score.
Notes:
If you choose to use random numbers, make sure at least one is "0" and 1 or
two are high enough to cause some excitement amongst the teams!
You can play this game with a whiteboard or large piece of paper for the
children to record their numbers on, if you like. Appoint one child in each team
to keep score, or ask each child, when they have finished their go, to write
their own number under their team's total.
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