DIY Dice - Idea #3

I am continuing on with my series called "DIY Dice". If you haven't seen my previous posts you can find them here.

My main goal is to provide you with some alternative ways to make Math manipulatives without breaking your budget, as well as some interactive activities for using your new hand-made manipulatives.

So, another week, another idea. Here is another way I use "do-it-yourself" dice in my Math classroom...

DIY Dice - Idea #3

Integer Dice 

Again, the thing I love most about using these dice is it allows for easy differentiation. These activities allow students to develop their understanding at their own rate, thus becoming more confident learners. Each set of dice can be slightly different to accommodate each student's abilities. . One group could be working with positive integers, one with a negative integers, one with a combination of positive and negative integers, etc. Plus, you can easily keep them organized by color-coding them, i.e. positive integers are red, negative integers are blue, etc.

I also love that the possibilities with these dice are endless. Here are a few ways to create your integer dice. 

1.      Sign Dice – I use these most often as I find they provide the most variety in terms of integers rolled. Students will roll two dice to determine their integer. One die represents the sign (positive sign and negative sign each appear 3 times on the die), and the other the value. If you have already created sets of number dice, you can use either single digit numbers or double digit numbers, depending on your students and the activity. 

2. Positive/Negative Dice – I make sets of dice where all the integers on one die are positive, and the numbers are random between 1 and 9, alternatively I create sets where all the integers are negative. These are helpful when you want students working on a particular skill, such as subtracting negative numbers. 

3. Combination Dice- These sets of dice include random positive and negative integers between 1 and 9. You could also use double digit numbers if you wanted.

Here are some sample activities in progress.

...and here is a sample game to play with integer dice.

You can find the whole collection of activities and games using DIY Integer Dice here. There are over 12 activities and printables included in the pack!

I hope you have been enjoying these posts and have found some ways to incorporate DIY dice in your own classroom. I would love to hear about them.

Stay tuned for another way I use DIY dice next week!