Tossing Games: Tic-Tac Checkers

These races can be played with as few or as many of your friends as you want. You can play some of the games by yourself, by racing against the clock. For bigger groups, it is a good idea to choose a person to be a judge. The judge starts off a race by calling out "Ready, Set, Go!," watches to make sure the players are doing the races correctly, and judges who the winner is at the end.

Some races seem easier than they actually are. These are all toughies, but you won't believe me till you try them!

Here's a new twist on an old game- and you can play it in the packed sand.

Draw a tic-tac-toe pattern in the hard sand. But, instead of drawing X's for one player, and O's for the other, use shells of two different shapes.

The new twist? If your tic-tac-toe game is about to each in a tie, as so often it happens, try this before that last box is filled: continue playing almost as if the game were checkers. You do not jump over the other person's "man" rather, you get to move into the other player's box and take away his or her man. Beware! Your pal can do the same to you, and the last man left on the sandy board is the winner.

Before you start, both players have to decide whether, when you get to the "almost checkers" part of the game, you can move only from side to side and up and down, or whether you can also move diagonally.

Of course you can also play this indoors, drawing your pattens with pencil or crayon and substituting buttons and beans for shells and pebbles.