Pack & Stack is super fun game for students of all ages. It has a lot of components, and I recommend having an older or experienced student assigned to decide challenges and monitor play during the game for large groups. Students are pretending to be truck drivers moving different loads (wooden cubes/rods) without having anything left behind or having empty truck space.
Components: 30 truck cards, 64 point markers, 5 dice (all different colors and number combinations); 96 wooden pieces (30x 1 cube pieces; 24x 2 cube pieces; 18x 3 cube pieces; 12x 4 cube pieces; 12x 5 cube pieces) in 5 colors divided by size.
Setup:
1) Shuffle the truck cards and place them face down in a stack.
2) Give each player 75 points worth of markers- if using money/points.
3) Each player takes a turn rolling the 5 dice. For each dot on the top, the player receives a matching wooden cube/rod from the bag. For example:
This player takes one piece for each dot; since there are no dots on dark blue, they don’t receive any 5-cube dark blue pieces in this round.
4) Once each student has rolled their truck load and considered the size truck needed, each student takes 2 trucks (3 or 4 players) or 1 truck (5 or 6 players) and puts them face down in front of them, but where everyone else can reach them. Then all the players flip the trucks cards at once, and take a truck from in front of a different player. This is where things can fall apart in the classroom…I have used name-sticks to take turns picking a truck from a choice of 7 trucks or just let every student pick 2 trucks from the pile to start with. Once they touch a new truck, they cannot pick another. It is also possible to let student choose the top card of the draw pile (no peeking) instead.
5) Each student now tries to fit all of their wooden pieces onto their selected truck without having any empty spaces or left overs. The pieces MUST fit in the open footprint on the card, and can only be as-many-cubes-high as the number on the truck. For example:
Since I can only go 2 cubes high, and the plus-sign shaped footprint is 3 cubes across at most, these 5 pieces fill the truck completely. But I have 2 teal and 1 grey piece left over.
6) For every empty space (1 cube size) the truck owner must pay 1 point/dollar to the bank. Each left over wooden piece that did not fit into your truck is 2 points/dollars per 1 cube size to paid to the bank. In this case, I have 2 teal pieces each the size of 4 cubes (4x2x2) and a 2-cube sized grey piece (2×2) so I owe 20 total. Students can use a white cube to measure their spaces and pieces if needed.
7) The “winner” is the person with the most money after a set number of rounds; or the last person left with money. The truck draw pile can be shuffled after each round, or as needed.
Alternative versions/uses:
This game is moderately complex, and has a lot of room for modifications and other uses. Ages 5 and up will play this game, even high school and adult buddies love it. Be creative! And if you make a DIY version, let me know. Buying a copy seems infinitely easier 🙂
1) Students play in partners, max of four teams (8 students). The first student rolls for the load and selects the truck, the second player fills the truck. The roles switch in each round. You can allow the partners to talk through solutions to introduce cooperation, or make it a silent game to test spatial awareness.
2) Use this in a small group to talk about volume, spatial awareness, adding/subtracting/multiplying in a real world context. In a small group, I have each student roll to make their load, then have them experiment with putting the pieces together in different ways. Then I show them 5-7 preselected trucks (different heights, similar or dissimilar shapes depending on what I want to talk about) and ask which is the BEST truck for them to use. I let them experiment as we talk through the decision process. With younger students, I may have 2-3 students with all the same truck load (one roll for all) and investigate a set of 6 trucks to see which is best for the load and why.
3) You can also leave out the wooden pieces and truck cards as a center to let them experiment with loading the trucks.
4) If you leave out the pieces and truck cards as a center, younger students can practice measuring with the cubes or cube-measuring sticks or tapes that you provide in appropriate sizes.
5) If you are working with money, you can switch the point markers for play money and make the business theme more prominent.
6) A timer can help change the dynamic of this game, both in total playing time and in actually packing the truck. Some students may enjoy a “bonus” for packing their truck the quickest, or having the least amount of pieces left over.
7) You are always welcome to throw out the point system completely and make up your own goals- least pieces left over, most filled truck, best explanation, ability to fix someone else’s truck to add more pieces from their left overs….
Paradise's Playroom 