Over Under was one of those simple games that surprised me in how much it benefited my kids. It is a very simple game of estimating. All questions have a number for an answer. Players draw a card, ask a question of another player, and then guess whether the other’s player’s answer was too high, too low, or exactly right.
There are 200 cards, each with 3 questions to choose from. So far in many rounds of play I have only found one question that the players actually knew the answer to (how many zeroes are there in a googol.) Most of them are things you would have to guess. However, making a reasonable guess takes quite a lot of number sense. Many were very challenging for me! One of my tutoring students calls it “The Weird Question Game.” (He wants to play it every time I see him!)
The discussions we have had as kids verbally worked through how they would make their guess (and I have done the same modeling my thought process for my own guesses) have been very rich. The game hits on all real world uses for numbers- money, time, distance, etc. Playing it with a child tells me quite a lot about their number sense and how they approach a problem.
Sample questions:
The largest insect is the Goliath beetle; how long is it in inches?
What is the surface area of the earth in square miles?
How many seeds are on the average strawberry?
How many rooms are in the White House?
What was the population of New York City in 2012?
In what year was NASA established?
The game is labeled for ages ten and up. However, a highly gifted 8 year old was my most challenging opponent so far! I most often play with 2 players but you could definitely play with a group of any number.
