Unplugged: Sink A Ship
In this activity, you will practice using a coordinate grid.
The game Sink A Ship is perhaps the most fun a student can have practicing using a coordinate grid. The original Sink A Ship game is a 10x10 grid with numbers on one axis and letters on the other.
This will help us practice using the correct x and y coordinates instead of letters and numbers. Each student should make two grids. One grid is for placing their own ships and keeping track of their opponent’s hits and misses and the other grid is for keeping track of their own hits and misses while trying to determine the location of their opponent’s ships.
Each player gets 3 ships:
- A battleship (4x1)
- A destroyer (3x1)
- A cruiser (2x1)
Your grid: Mark where your ships are and keep track of your opponent’s hits and misses.
| (0,0) | (1,0) | (2,0) | (3,0) | (4,0) |
| (0,1) | (1,1) | (2,1) | (3,1) | (4,1) |
| (0,2) | (1,2) | (2,2) | (3,2) | (4,2) |
| (0,3) | (1,3) | (2,3) | (3,3) | (4,3) |
| (0,4) | (1,4) | (2,4) | (3,4) | (4,4) |
Opponent’s grid: Keep track of your hits and misses while trying to locate your opponent’s ships.
| (0,0) | (1,0) | (2,0) | (3,0) | (4,0) |
| (0,1) | (1,1) | (2,1) | (3,1) | (4,1) |
| (0,2) | (1,2) | (2,2) | (3,2) | (4,2) |
| (0,3) | (1,3) | (2,3) | (3,3) | (4,3) |
| (0,4) | (1,4) | (2,4) | (3,4) | (4,4) |
Pair up with another student. Conceal your ships on your 5x5 grid.
Take turns trying to guess where your opponent’s ships. Use x and y coordinates, in proper order to convey where your guess is. Make sure to record where you have guessed so that you don’t accidentally guess the same square twice.
If your opponent guesses a square that one of your ships occupy, then you say “Hit” and you record that the square was hit. Otherwise, the shot misses and you say “Miss”. If the entire length of a ship is hit, it is sunk and that ship is removed from play.
The winner is the player who sinks all of their opponent’s ships.