Parents and teachers, this one’s for you. If you are regularly around kids, you know there are frequently pockets of time when you need to keep them occupied. Whether it’s the last few minutes at the end of a school day or you’re waiting at a restaurant, resist pulling out technology to quell their boredom and try this game!
“Guess My Number” is a simple, fun, easy, and educational game for kids 7 and up that you can play anywhere that you have pen and paper. It’s a flexible game, and can be easily adapted for young elementary aged children or your middle school math whizzes. I played it often with my fourth graders and they always loved it.
Teachers: this is a game that almost any child in any level in your upper-grade class can happily and confidently participate in. Parents: this is a great anywhere-game that will engage their minds in a way that is really fun for them while working their mathematical brains– parenting WIN!
Here’s how I teach it:
Me: This game is called Guess My Number. The goal is for you to guess my number! I am thinking of a 2-digit number, and I will give you two hints every time you guess: I’ll tell you how many digits you got correct, under the “digits correct” column, and how many are in the right place value:
Reader: just so you know, my secret number is 43! Remember it as I go through this example.
Me: Okay. Raise your hands. Who has a guess for my 2-digit number?
Student: 16!
Me: 16. Okay let’s see… (I write down their guess, “16”). You got none of the digits correct– (I write in “0” for the digits column) and so of course none of them are in the right place value. So now you can see there is no 1 and no 6 in my secret number. What other guesses do you have?
Student: 32!
Me: 32! Good job avoiding the 1’s and 6’s. Well, you have ONE digit correct, but it’s not in the right place value. Another guess?
Student: 27!
(I think this student understands that either the 3 or the 2 is one of the correct digits, and this student is hoping it’s the 2. This student also appears to be moving it into the tens place, in hopes of getting not only the digit correct, but also the place value correct! This is pretty high-level thinking, and there are only a handful in my fourth grade classrooms that would quickly come to this conclusion. It is an excellent guess, even though it turns out to be completely wrong.)
Me: 27! That is a really good guess, but there are no 2’s and no 7’s in this number. Next guess?
(Most kids would not catch on quite yet that this means 3 must be in the ones place. That’s okay. They’ll get better and better over the course of the year. For the sake of speeding up this example, though, I’ll pretend someone figured out that 3 must be in the ones place).
Student: 83.
Me: 83. Ah yes, you have one digit correct, and it is in the right place value.
(Many students now correctly guess that 3 must be in the ones place value, so they begin to focus on finding the tens place to get the final number. Some will get thrown off and think the 8 is the correct digit, but they’ll figure it out soon enough.)
Student: 93!
Me: 93? You still have one digit correct, and one digit in the correct place value.
Student: 53!!
(More exclamation marks because they can feel that they’re getting close to the right number!)
Me: 53 is… not my number. You still have one digit correct, and one digit in the correct place value.
Student: 43!!!!
Me: 43 is… CORRECT! Both digits are correct, and both digits are in the right place value!
In my classroom, I’d let the person who guessed the winning number come up and choose the next 2-digit number. They would whisper it into my ear, and we’d play again.
Most kids improve their strategy skills with every round, so it’s good to play a few times in a row so they can practice their new strategies. We would discuss strategies as a whole class after each round and share ideas, so everyone could benefit from it.
In reality, your fourth graders would probably have a lot more errant guesses and get thrown off at different points. It usually takes between 10-20 guesses. They will also forget to look back and keep track of which numbers are out and will end up repeating numbers that should already have been eliminated. You can teach them strategies like writing the numbers 0-9 on a piece of paper and eliminating numbers as they go. You can also teach them to write two _ _ blanks on a piece of paper to help them visualize and keep track of the numbers and place values.
Playing this game can give you good insight into what your child understands and doesn’t and gives a look at how their logic and reasoning skills are. It’s also provides great opportunities to teach new strategies. Challenge advanced students by saying, “Try to guess my number in fewer than 8 guesses!” Grow their minds and have fun together with this simple and educational game!
14 responses to “Guess My Number”
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Brilliant! I love it! Thanks for sharing, Jo. Josh will love playing this.
So glad you guys had fun with it!! Thanks for sharing the pic :D.
If you come across a 7-year old who figures out how to get the number in fewer than 8 tries every time (and had a blast coming up with a method), that 7-year old has a future in cryptography.
Hahah I will keep that in mind!
Love it!
😀
Hmmm… I’m really sorry, but I have to say I liked your summer series of games better. I’m a little skeptical about the educational interest of this game. Sure, it does make them work on logic, but (even though I haven’t tried it yet) I’d imagine it would quickly get too easy for 8 or 9-year-olds. If it doesn’t, I guess I’d start with that, but I’d complicate the game a little, by making it more like a 20 questions rather than a Mastermind. I’d have them ask stuff about relations between the numbers, like “Is it a multiple of 3?” or maybe start with “Is it higher than 50?” (while staying < or = 100)
What do you think of that idea?
Yes, the summer games are definitely more engaging for longer periods of time, and probably pack a more powerful educational punch :). This game is more for filling up an extra 5-15 minutes you have before school’s out or during rainy day recesses.
Depending on the level of your students, this can be a very quick or short game, and it works great as a class game. If you give it a shot, you might be pleasantly surprised at how much they like it :).
The version/extensions you suggested is another game we play, which is a great way to develop number sense! In our program, we called it “Math Talks,” and kids could use hints such as even/odd, prime/composite, multiple of __, etc. to try to guess the number. It’s a great activity to kick off the math period and get kids thinking mathematically, and gives lots of space for math conversations!
Yay!!
Yes, I suppose if you’re just trying to keep them usefully but shortly busy, that game works better.
Ok, I’ll try the short version, and also I believe I’ll try “math talks”. Could you maybe send me stuff on how you planned it, and how you played it out with them? I’d maybe like to do it the day I’m inspected.
Let me know how it goes! For the math talks, also called number talks, it’s just a short 5-15 minute discussion that is intended to help the students start thinking mathematically, practice speaking mathematically, and just develop number sense. You start with some chart paper, and can just draw a bubble for the mystery number. Then have students ask you yes/no questions– is it a multiple of 3? Is it greater than 50? Is it an even number? Is it a prime/composite number? Write down the clues on the paper to help them keep track of it, and try to discourage them from just randomly guessing a number… or make a rule like guess the number, then ask a Y/N question about it, then guess the number, etc.
Hah!! They loved it!!! ^^ I’ll have to try the more complicated version 🙂
Fun! The old game Jotto is like this, but with five-letter words instead of two-digit numbers. Fun for older kids—and grownups!
Love your blog!
Ooh, I’ll have to look that one up! Sounds fun! Thanks for reading, Norman!
…annnnd I just spent the last few minutes playing Jotto online. Fun!! =)