Connect 3 Class Championship

Connect 3 is a simple starter game for a maths lesson for 2 players. You need 2 dice, a multiplication array from 1x1 up to 6x6, and some coloured counters. Players take turns rolling the dice. They use basic facts for multiplication to find the product of the dice and place a counter on the array. The aim is to get 3 in a row.

Students learn that there is often more than one place to put a counter, for example, 2x6, 3x4, 4x3 and 6x2 all equal 12. You can displace an opponents counter if you throw dice that multiply to that number!

We found it only takes 5 minutes to play best of 3 (first to win 2 games). In no time a class championship was proposed and organised. This got students thinking about the structure of sports draws - how do we start with 28 students? (a round of 16 games where 2 players have a bye).

Here's the kind of array required for the game:

Action from the semifinals: