Sprouts
Sprouts starts with three (or more) dots on a
piece of paper. The animation over to the right is playing a game a
sprouts. The rules are as follows:
- The players take turns moving.
- A move has two parts: drawing a line
and making a new dot.
- The line must go from a dot to a
dot so that it does not cross another line and so that once the line
is draw, no dot has more then three lines coming out of it. The animated
game marks these used-up dots with red X's. You might want to circle
used-up dots.
- The new dot goes on the line the
player just drew (this means it starts with two lines coming out of
it).
- The winner is the last player to
move. Notice in the animated game that there are two dots that are not
used-up at the end. They get marked with light blue X's because, even
though they are not used-up, you can't use them as the ends of a line
without crossing another line.
- As the animated game shows a line
can go from a dot to itself as long as you don't break the "three lines"
rule.
The strategy in sprouts lies in using your lines to divide the paper
up into parts that trap dots. It is very hard to think through all the
ways this came can come out because of the many different ways it can
divide up the paper. If the three dot game gets too easy four you,
start with more dots. This game is a good tool for building your sense
of spatial perception on flat surfaces.
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