Name Game

Goal: Be the last to write your name in a grid

1. Introduce the game

Each pair or small group gets a piece of graph paper. They box off 12 grid squares across and 12 down. Explain that players will take turns writing their names in this grid, one letter in each grid square, The goal is to be the last to write your name, so your partner can’t find enough spaces together to take a turn. 

 

2. Take turns writing names

On each turn, a player writes his or her name anywhere it fits in a row or column, but not diagonally.

 

The game is over when there is no room for anyone to take a turn. The winner is the person who wrote the last name.

 

3. Share strategies (optional)

Prompt the discussion with questions such as:

Did you block your partner? How?
Which names fit just once across the grid? Twice? Three times?
Do the letters in the names change anything about the game? Why or why not?
Did the length of your name change the game? How?

 

Variations

Design a Square (Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Players use patterns or colors instead of names, filling the same number of grid squares each time. For instance, one player draws 5 triangles; the other draws 8 circles.

 

 

Play with Different Names (Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Children switch partners so they play with people whose names have different features: longer, shorter, letters in common, no letters in common. How does the game change as the pairs of names change?

 

 

Play with Different Grids (Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Children play with grids of different sizes: 10 x 10, 9 x 9, or 15 x 15. On which grids can you write your name twice going across? How does the grid size affect where you can write your name?

 

Books and Other Resources

Chrysanthemum (Grades: K, 1, 2)
Henkes, Kevin. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1991.

More book ideas to come!

 

 

Spotlight

Variables

As children develop strategies for filling the grid, they consider several variables: the number of letters in each name; the number and position of common letters; the location of the empty squares on the grid.

As children play with different partners, they investigate what happens when variables change. For instance, when Avi plays with Latasha, the game is different than when he plays with Desmond. Latasha and Desmond both have seven letters, but Avi and Latasha have the letter a in common.

Connections

Arranging boxes and furniture efficiently

Reasoning about how and where things will fit plays a role in using space efficiently. Closet designers, workers at storage facilities, and office managers plan ahead to place boxes in a way that maximizes storage space.

Before moving, some people make grids or scale drawings to help decide where to place furniture in their new rooms—a special challenge when moving to a smaller apartment with all of your belongings. Just as in the Name Game, where you put one thing limits where you can put the rest. A bookcase against one wall might mean there is no room for the bed against the same wall, so advance planning is important.

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