game | teachertreasurehunter

Today is National Dice Day! Dice are a part of many fun family games — including Monopoly, Boggle & Yahtzee. They are also a fun part of many educational math games.

Dice found at Cantonment Clinch (1823-1834) in Pensacola, Florida

Dice have been around for a very long time! In Iran, archaeologists discovered the oldest known dice. They are over 5,000 years old! I couldn’t find a picture that I could post, but you can see a picture of the oldest dice here. The picture on the left shows dice that were likely used during the American Civil War. Historically, dice have been made from bone, wood, ivory & plastic. There are many more materials available today. A little trivia – –did you know that the dots on dice are called pips? This is also the word for the dots on dominoes.

We have been taught that die is the singular form of dice. However, according to the Oxford dictionary, dice is now used for both singular and plural. I wish I would have know that at the beginning of my research for this post! While looking for graphics to use, I typed “dice” into the search field of a graphics site and when there weren’t any results (should I say – “no dice” LOL!) I quickly typed in die. Then, I started laughing thinking about the absurdity of finding a graphic for die on this cute graphics site that caters to scrapbookers– not to mention what will the site owner think when they look at the history of search terms. I’m pretty sure that I will be the only one who used that search term!

There are many great classroom resources that use dice. I’ve provided a little list here of some freebies. Read to the end of the post for a few ways to organize your dice collection!

CLASSROOM FREEBIES
1) Winter Dice Games by Teacher Treasure Hunter
2) Winter Color by Sum created by Teacher Tam
3) Polar Express Roll and Cover Games created by Mary Lirette
4) Roll a Snowman by the Tutu Teacher
5) Roll it! Make it! Expand it! worksheet by Rebecca Anderton – Teaching First
6) Roll a Tree a Christmas worksheet for adding 3 digits by Fun in First
7) Save the Snowman a winter game by Heather’s Heart
8) Anna, Elsa & Sven dice game for number recognition by the Activity Mom

Here are some great ideas to keep your dice organized:
*Put dice in magnetic containers that are put on a hanging cookie sheet (cutesified!)
*Plastic craft boxes with multiple compartments
*Plastic bin storage made for organization nails and other hardware (repurposed!)

Keep the dice QUIET with these ideas:
*Dice in a water bottle
*Glue felt or foam to the bottom of a container

Happy dice day! Now, go “shake” things up in your math lesson today!