Personalized Wood Mancala Board Game gift set, custom gift for him, game night, hostess gift, gift for couple, laser engraved game grb020 WithInitials. 5 out of 5 stars (3,477) $ 38.75 FREE shipping. Mancala games are often won with the smallest margin. One extra stone in your mancala can make the difference to win or to lose. As the first player, you should start with the 3rd hole as opening move as your last stone will land now in the mancala. Mancala is a generic name for a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some set of the opponent's pieces. Mancala - Online Games At Softschools. Fun Games Connect Four Sugar Sugar 2 Gluey 2. To link to this page, copy the following code to your site.
Count and capture games that promote math and strategic thinking skills
© 2009 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
Mancala games motivate young mathematicians
Looking for activities to motivate your school-aged kids to count and think strategically?
Try out mancala.
Mancala is a whole family of games. This entry is referencing only the popular game also known as Kalah, invented in the 1940 by William Champion Jr. The game is played on a board of two rows, each consisting of six round pits. The rows have a large store at either end called kalah.
Also known as 'count and capture' games, mancala games encourage kids to conduct thought experiments, counting tokens and comparing tactics in their heads before they move a game piece. Such qualities have inspired educators in Africa, Europe, and the United States to bring mancala into the classroom.
Does playing mancala actually sharpen math and thinking skills? To date, nobody has performed the relevant experiments to find out. However, competent performance requires counting and the mental movement of game tokens across a game board. And research suggests that good players use abstract or hypothetico-deductive reasoning (Retschitzki et al 1986).
Here I provide an overview of the games, and I describe two popular variants of mancala: Kalah and Oware. If you want to play the games with your kids, you can buy a game board. But one of the great things about mancala is that the game equipment is easily made from everyday materials at home. You can make your own macala set using an egg cartoon, two bowls, and some dried seeds, beans, or pebbles.
Mancala rules: An overview
Mancala games are played throughout the world, but especially in Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The earliest evidence of mancala may come from Eritrea, where archaeologists have found game boards dating from the 6th or 7th centuries AD.
Though there are many variants of mancala, most versions share these elements:
- A set of counters (e.g., seeds)
- A series of small pits arranged in 2 or 4 rows
- Two large storage pits (where players keep the seeds they “capture”)
A game begins by placing a specified number of seeds in each small pit. Then players take turns 'sowing' and 'capturing' seeds.
A player “sows” seeds by choosing a pit, scooping up all the seeds in that pit, and--moving in a specified direction--dropping one seed in each of the pits immediately adjacent to the starting pit.
Depending on which variant of mancala is played, there are different rules for capture. In most versions, the object is to capture the most seeds.
Let’s review two mancala games. The first, Kalah, is usually considered a children’s game. The second, Oware, can be enjoyed by older children. It is considered a more complex, grown-up game.
Mancala rules for children
Kalah
Kalah is one of the most popular mancala games for kids. Inspired by traditional mancala games, the rules for Kalah were invented an American, William Julius Champion.
Kalah is sometimes called “Mancala” in the United States.
In Kalah, the game board consists of two rows of 6 small pits (or “houses”), with a large storage pit at each end. Picture an egg carton with a bowl at each end.
Mancala online, free
At the beginning of the game, you and your opponent sit on opposite sides of the game board.
The row in front of you is your row.
Tank games online, free. The storage pit to your right is your storage pit.
Four seeds are placed in each of the 12 houses.
And then play begins:
- The first player takes all the seeds from one of his houses. He sows the seeds, moving counter-clockwise. If he gets as far as his own storage pit, he drops a seed there, too. If the last seed in his hand goes in his storage pit, he gets another turn. Otherwise, his turn ends.
- The second player repeats the “”sowing” maneuver described in #1.
The game continues, often with these additional mancala rules:
- Players don’t drop seeds in each other’s storage pits
- If, during a turn, a player’s last seed lands in one of his empty pits, and there are seeds in the pit immediately opposite it, the player gets to capture both his last seed and the seeds opposite.
- The game ends when a player runs out of seeds on his side of the board. The opponent gets to capture any seeds remaining on his side, and the player with the most captured seeds when.
To make the game more challenging, begin with more seeds--5 or 6--in each small house.
Want to play online? Check out Mancala snails, an electronic version of Champion’s Mancala.
Mancala rules for older children and adults
Oware, a West African variant of mancala, is a more sophisticated game. It’s recommended for adults and older kids (11 and up).
In Oware (also called Wari and Awale), the game board resembles that used for Kalah, consisting of
- two rows of 6 small pits or “houses,” each of which begins with 4 seeds
- two storage pits, one for each player
Tank trouble 2 unblocked. The “sowing” is also similar to that practice in Kalah. When it’s your turn:
- Pick one of the smaller houses in your row,
- scoop up all the seeds in that house, and
- moving counter-clockwise, drop one seed in each of the small houses until you’ve sown all the seeds in your hand.
But here’s where the rules diverge from those of Kalah.
First, you don’t drop seeds into the storage pits as you sow—-sow seeds only in the small pits or “houses.”
Second, the rules for capture are different. If you’ve ended your move in one of your opponent’s houses (as opposed to one of your own houses), then you count the seeds in that house. Are there 2 or 3 seeds in it (no more and no less)?
If the answer is no, your turn is over and your opponent gets to sow seeds.
But if the answer is yes, you get to collect the seeds and keep them in your storage pit. Then you examine the next-to-last house. If that house belongs to your opponent, and it contains 2 or 3 seeds, then you get to collect those seeds as well. Continue working backwards until you get to a house that doesn’t contain the correct number of seeds.
Mancala as a group activity
Games like Kalah and Oware are often played one-on-one. But they can also be played as team games. In Africa, people sometimes play with very large boards in a party-like atmosphere. Multiple players might work together on a team, or—if there are just two opponents in the game—the players get lots of free advice from very enthusiastic, vocal, and involved onlookers (Townsend 1979).
More information about mancala games and mancala rules
Math Games & Activities from Around the World by Claudia Zavlasky presents school-aged kids with over 80 math games and activities played worldwide.Included are the instructions for four different mancala games, and other board games, puzzles, crafts, and games of chance. Zavlasky offers historical and cultural explanations of each activity, as well as clear, well-illustrated instructions and questions designed to get kids analyzing underlying mathematical and strategic concepts.
Mancala online, free Game
Copyright © 2006-2020 by Gwen Dewar, Ph.D.; all rights reserved.
For educational purposes only. If you suspect you have a medical problem, please see a physician.
For educational purposes only. If you suspect you have a medical problem, please see a physician.
References: Mancala games
Retschitzki J, N’Guessan A, and Loesch-Berger MC. 1986. Etude cognitive et genetique des styles de jeu et des strategies de jouers d’awele. Archives de Psychologie 54: 307-340.
Townsend P. 1979. African Mankala in anthropological perspective. Current Anthropology 20: 794-796.
de Voogt A. 2001. Mancala: Games that count. Expedition 43(1): 39-46.
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Image of Cape Verde Uril / mancala game players by DuncanCV / wikimedia commons
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