Game description: Who doesn't love solving a great mystery - with various clues about a) who the birthday person is, b) what is that person's favorite treat, c) where in the yard is their laundry basket filled with water balloons, and d) the highest number of balloons per a given round of adding (or multiplying) more and more balloons each round? It's a classic logical reasoning game with an upgrade - encouraging math to hold it's own in it's own right of fun. Students ages 8+ will get to not only solve the mystery, but get to solve math addition tables and multiplication tables - growth patterns that eventually will set the stage for linear and exponential growth models that is so vital for understanding in business, entrepreneurship, and finances to snowball your wealth and duplication of education being passed down.
- Click here to see PowerPoint.
- 2-6 Players , Ages 8+
- Math Concepts: Patterns, Addition, Multiplication, Logical Reasoning, Comparison of Numbers, Function Equations and Linear vs. Exponential Growth Tables.
- Game Includes: Game board with 9 locations, and 2 opposite corners marked with secret passages, 2 Dice, 6 pawns for people, 1 Joy Marker, mystery cards for 6 people, 6 treats, and 9 locations, math cards for problems A-F (3 sets of each, with A3-E3 where you can create your own NOW-NEXT math problem; 27 cards total with a bonus for adding a secret passage), Detective Pad (1 half sheet per player; you need 1 pencil per player), Math Pad (1 sheet per player, 2 sided for problems A-F): only use 1, 2, or 3 for each letter problem, Math Pad: Answer Key (set of 4) and 1 Envelope.
- Playing the Game: Starting with the youngest player, going clockwise, take turns using any colored pawn to roll the dice, move into rooms, guess “person-treat-location” combo, and/or collecting information from the Math Card pile.
- As each player take turns: Roll dice and try to get onsite at a location.
- Any pawn color can be used by any player at any time of the game. Locations with Xs and XXs have secret tunnels for their respective match and counts as 1 space to use it.
- After any turn, you can guess envelope contents & basket number.
- Once the player is at a location, they get to ask any other player: if they have any named a) person, b) treat, and c) specific location of entry. If the 2nd player has 1+ of those Mystery Cards, they must show the 1st player one of those cards secretly.
- If the player rolls a double, see the Roll A Doubles rewards reference card or use the following information: 1s): Pick 2 Math Cards and share 1 with everyone / 2s): Choose one named treat to be revealed and it stays face up for all to see / 3s): Choose one location to be revealed and it stays face up for all to see / 4s): Choose one person to be revealed and it stays up for all to see / 5s): Exchange 1 Mystery Card (your choice for category) with one player OR pick 1 Math card / 6s): Any choice above.
- To view a Math Card, solve the problem, and see the answer key: a) roll a “1”, b) roll the chosen basket number on 1 die or the sum of 2 dice, c) when you enter the room with the Joy Marker (first person to roll doubles or a “1”), or d) rolling certain doubles. See reference card too.
- We hope you had as much FUN playing the game as we had designing Balloon Birthday Mystery.
