Educational Game: Robbin' Eggs!

I'm adding this math game to my series of posts about Educational Games!

previous posts:

Adsumudi - 4 operations

The Allowance Game - coins

Gnoming A Round - negative numbers

Jump One series - skip counting

Poetry for Neandertals - syllables

Today I'm writing about Robbin' Eggs! by Haywire Group.

Here is a video tutorial on Robbin' Eggs!

Sadly, this game is no longer being made but it is well worth tracking down. Many thanks to my co-teacher, Ms. Megan, for recommending it to me!

I use it in the classroom after introducing negative numbers with Gnoming A Round and a hands-on manipulative (we use the Mortensen math material).

When children are ready to think of subtracting as adding a negative, we play Robbin' Eggs!

In the Waldorf scope & sequence, integers are part of grade 7 Algebra. In his middle school book, Jamie York strongly recommends starting children out with the idea of a bank account instead of a number line.

When you enter deposits and withdrawals into the bank, the bank keeps track of them. Each new transaction is a line item (addition means "and"). For a withdrawal, you are adding a negative amount. If you spend more than you have, you have a negative balance! If you deposit funds into the bank, sometimes you still have a negative balance (if it wasn't enough to bring you out of the red) and sometimes you have a positive balance.

Note: After playing Robbin' Eggs!, I have children practice adding and subtracting integers with a traditional worksheet (FREE at TpT).

While talking about this worksheet with a student the other day, I realized something: subtraction is always rewritten!

subtracting a positive number is rewritten as adding a negative

subtracting a negative number is rewritten as adding a positive

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