Guess My Number - Guess Who With Numbers

Guess Who? is a classic game that was one of my childhood favourites. I used to love narrowing down the possibilities with yes or no questions to work out who the character was. Although I am yet to introduce Adam to the traditional way of playing Guess Who? I wanted to adapt the game to work on Adam’s number knowledge. Through playing Guess My Number – Guess Who With Numbers I wanted a fun way to practice place value, using mathematical vocabulary and simple mental maths problems.

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Resources needed for Guess My Number

I purchased a cheaper version of Guess Who? game specifically for this activity. The game is called Who’s That? and is part of the GAMEtastic range in PoundLand. This isn’t the smaller version available at PoundLand – I had bought that game originally but the pieces were too fiddly to put together. I purchased Who’s That? for £3.

* 3 pieces of A4 card in three different colours – I opted for red, orange and blue

* Scissors

* Black felt tip pen

* IKEA Glis box (optional)

How to set up Guess My Number

1. Assemble the Who’s That? game board without inserting the individual character cards.

2. Use one of the character cards to use as a template on the coloured card. You will need 24 rectangles on each of the three pieces of card.

3. Write the numbers 1-24 inside the rectangles on each piece of card. Ensure that the numbers cannot be seen through the card.

4. cut out all of the rectangles.

5. Slot two of the sets of number cards into the game board. I added the red cards to the red board and the blue cards to the blue board. The number cards can be placed in any order. I made sure that similar numbers such as 6 and 9 were not near each other and numbers that could be reversed ie 12 and 21 were also apart.

6. Keep your third set of number cards separate. We placed our orange number cards in an IKEA Glis box.

7. Place the boards at either end of a table with the box of additional number cards in the middle.

How to play Guess My Number

You play the game exactly the same way as the traditional Guess Who? game but instead of asking questions about the appearance of the characters, you ask mathematical questions to determine what number your opponent has. Each player picks an orange number card from the box and places it in the slot at the front of their board so the other player cannot see it. You then take turns at asking mathematical questions to narrow down the numbers. The winner is the person who can identify their opponents number first.

My husband and I modeled how to play the Guess My Number several times with Adam watching. We asked each other these types of questions to eliminate the numbers?

Is it a single digit number?
Does it have two digits in?
Is it an even number?
Is it an odd number?
Is it bigger/greater than _?
Is it smaller/less than _?
Is it double _?
Is it half of _?
Is it in the _ times table?
Is it a multiple of _?
Is it _ + _ ?
Is it _ – _?

I was surprised how quickly Adam picked up the concept of the game. His initial response was just to ask if it was an individual number (which ironically he guessed correctly twice!). However, through playing the game with Dad-Dad, Adam was able to ask a range of different mathematical questions by himself.

$Guess Who with numbers simple math activity$

Guess My Number is certainly a game that will be used time and time again. The next morning Adam set up the activity himself and was trying to play the game with his teddy. Guess My Number will be joining us at the dinner table as a way of entertaining Adam whilst eating his evening meal.

I already have plans for adapting Guess My Number as Adam’s mathmatical knowledge widens. I will be making a set of different numbers with a range of place values. I also want to make a set to include 2d and 3d shapes to discuss properties of shapes and even fractions as Adam gets older. So many possibilities for such a simple game!