Ploomp: Fun math board game

Rules for Ploomp

This is a game I’ve played many times with my students in scool and it’s always a hit. The game is called Ploomp and it’s a fun math board game. The aim of the game is to use the dice to add, subtract, multiply and divide to get points on the gameboard. Lots of fun!

This game is tailored for kids ages 9-12, but can be fun for everyone who can use arithmetic operators!

PS… if your kids are younger, we’ve made an easier game board for them as well!

You’ll need:

🟨 Game board with 42 squares.
🖊 Pen.
🎲 Three dice (if you don’t have three dice available, you can download a dice app!)

How to play:

🟨 Print the board with 42 squares or draw one yourself.

📝 Write the players’ names to be able to keep track of points.
🎲 Roll all three dice at once. Using the eyes on the dice, you need to do a calculation. If the dice show 2, 3, 4, you could can for example think 3-2+4=5, 4+2+3=9 or 4*3+2=14.

☑️ You’re allowed to use all four arithmetic operators, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. When you’ve decided on a number, write an x in that square. The first crossed out square awards the player one point.

👆 The first player can only get one point, but going forward the possibility for getting more points per round increases. If you can cross out a square that neighbors a square that is already crossed out, you get an extra point. If your new x is set in a square that touches two other squares you get three points, three squares touching your square awards you four points, four other crossed out squares you get five points and so on. You can get a maximum of nine point per round.

😨 If you’re not able to find an uncrossed square using the four arithmetic operators with your dice numbers, you get one Ploomp. Four Ploomps means you’re out!

🏆 The person with the highest score wins

For younger kids you can use a smaller board with 18 squares and use only addition and subtraction.