Play Graphing Battleship

What You Need:

• Graph paper
• Large book, or other divider
• Pen
• Highlighter

What You Do:

1. Draw a square on each of the four pieces of graph paper. Each square should cover exactly 10 X 10 boxes.
2. Draw an X-axis and a Y-axis directly down the center of each paper so that the four graphs each have four equal quadrants. Each quadrant on the graphs should be 5 X 5 boxes.
3. Label the number of lines for the X-axis and Y-axis on the graphs.
4. Give two graphs to each player. One will be the “home” graph, and the other graph will be for “aiming.” Place a divider between the two players so that they cannot see each other’s graphs.
5. Each player should take one graph and create five different “battleships” on it – one made from two dots, two made from three dots, one made from four dots, and one made from five dots. To make a battleship, the players simply use pens to draw dots in a line, either vertical or horizontal, on the graph. (For a harder version of the game, players can put the battleships diagonally as well.) They then draw a highlighted line over the row of dots to represent the ship.
6. Players take turns calling out an ordered pair where they think one of her opponent’s ships are located. The opponent calls out “hit” or “miss.”
7. If a player gets a hit, she puts an X on the coordinate that she specified on her “aiming” graph. The opponent puts an X on his “home” graph. If she missed, she'd put a dot on the specified coordinate on her “aiming graph.”
8. If a player has hit the last dot on the ship, the opponent should call out “You sunk my ship!” The first player to sink all of the opponent’s ships wins the game.