Prime Climb

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EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ If you are looking for a game that allows for practicing all four operations, pushes kids to strategize and really hounds the concept of factors and prime, this is a GREAT game! I would classify this as the math game with the HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL VALUE of every math game we have tried! It’s a wee bit on the expensive side, but the depth of the EDUCATIONAL VALUE makes it well worth it, in my opinion. EDUCATIONAL LEVEL SCORE: 5/5 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ After we played a round, our facilitator challenged us to list every single space on the game board that we could be on and in one roll end up winning. Now, that was a fun problem to solve! We got a lot of mileage out of this seemingly simple problem. Especially because our answer was different than our facilitator’s answer. Then, she gave us 12-sided dice (1-12) to see how that changed our answer. All in all, very interesting!

The engrossing and competitive nature can get kids practicing their basic operations and prime factoring skills without it being too obvious, busy as they will be figuring out their next ideal move and how to best beat their opponent (something that can make things a bit more personally engrossing compared to more cooperative board games). Prime Climb is playful learning as it should be, where the play actually reinforces students’ discovery and understanding of mathematical concepts. It takes a creative mathematics educator like Dan Finkel to achieve that balance. It is obvious from the design of Prime Climb that Dan’s pedagogical aims fuel every aspect of gameplay. Choose one or more prime number(s) between 30 and 80. Before a player can move any pawn to 101, they need to land a pawn on the chosen space(s). This is a good variation for players who have begun to master the strategy of the standard game. How can you get two pawns from 0 to 101 in four rolls (that’s eight numbers) without any number appearing on a die more than once? As a result, it can be a good way to introduce logical and strategic thinking to kids. Those looking to augment a conceptual math curriculum with some fun activitiesIntended for two to four players, once the board and cards are laid out, each player gets two pieces of a particular color and positions themselves at the start, i.e. at 0.

In terms of look and feel they are similar when placed face down, which adds a bit of suspense to each card draw. Multiplication Table STEP ELEVEN: Player One uses the 4 die and adds it to the 7 that it’s on and MOVES that pawn to 11. Then he uses the 10 die and multiplies it with the 10 spot and MOVES that pawn to 100. Prime Climb appeals to students across the fluency spectrum. The ingenuity of Prime Climb is that the colouring system acts as an optional scaffold when students combine numbers. To compute 8*12, for example, the most fluent students can head straight to 96. But speed is not the aim of the game here, and students can derive just as much pleasure by inferring their destination from the colours of relevant tiles. This works for division too. Say you want to divide 84 by 4. When you divide, all you do is remove the colors of the smaller number from the bigger one. In this case, you need to remove the two oranges in 4 from the colors in 84. That means you’re looking for a number with the colors purple and green. Sure enough, 21 has precisely those colors, and 84 divided by 4 is 21.There is a lot of deep thinking involved when it comes to Prime Climb, from figuring out which of a series of potential moves will provide a best outcome to deciding when and where to deploy potentially game-altering Prime Cards. With each roll of the die, Prime Climb has kids use their knowledge of prime factors, common multiples and numeric operations to advance their pieces until they reach the end of the board. What Ages Or Grades Is Prime Climb Intended For? Although Prime Climb is for older kids, there's no reason why a 1st grader can't color in the sheet. Just tell them to skip-count by 2s and color a section with the 2 color. Do the same for the 3s, 5s, and 7s, and you'll have colored in a lot. Then you and your kids can discuss how to color in all the pieces that are still unfilled. With each roll of the dice, students need to either multiply, divide, add or subtract numbers to get to where they want to go and, ultimately, win the game.

People sometimes ask why you would ever subtract or divide. As you play more, you’ll see opportunities where subtraction and division open up great moves. Here is a case where you might want to divide. With a pawn on 64, you roll a 2 and a 3. You could: Its analog approach, however, doesn’t require an internet connection or electronic device, which can be a big plus for families looking to reduce screen time, and it retains its appeal as a casual strategy game even when students have already developed skill fluency in its underlying topics. Encourages Strategic Thinking With its mix of race-to-the-finish gameplay, competitive bumping and sometimes unpredictable cards, Prime Climb can be a lot of fun to play, particularly for kids who enjoy board games. After you play a card, discard it. If you run out of cards, shuffle the discard pile and continue drawing as necessary. 101 and Winning the Game A: Yes! If you have a second pawn, you must apply the 5 to it. If not, the game ends as soon as you land on 101, and you don’t have to use the 5.

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After your first pawn reaches 101, you must apply all dice rolls to your remaining pawn. You win immediately when you can apply a die roll or Keeper card to land your second pawn on 101. You do not have to use both die rolls on your winning move.

This is largely due to the fact that it relies on students being comfortable with certain mathematical concepts that have been introduced and worked on by around grade four, such as: But would it hold up to the scrutiny of a maths lesson? The ten primary students of my weekly maths club are willing and eager guinea pigs . The students vary in age, current ability and confidence. All have mathematical potential ready to be developed. Some have encountered primes, others have barely grasped the fundamentals of multiplication. My task, as their maths coach, is to prepare activities that engage them as a collective, while also hitting their individual sweet spot of challenge — the so-called ‘low floor/high ceiling’ criteria of task design. The inclusion of a multiplication table is a very helpful addition for this game as it can be used to help students who are still a little less than secure in their multiplication work things out and generally have less of a frustrating time when playing. Educational Benefits of Prime Climb Game-based Math PracticeWith that said, we feel that the game can be used by kids of just about any age (such as homeschooling students following a more advanced math curricula) so long as they are comfortable with the underlying math skills required and, of course, are able to sit still and learn, remember and adhere to the usual series of sequential and conditional rules that board games tend to involve (if a piece lands on X then do Y). STEP TWO: Remove the blank cards from the pile, shuffle the remaining cards and place them in a pile so that all players have access. This works for division too. Say you want to divide 84 by 4. When you divide, all you do is remove the colors of the smaller number from the bigger one. In this case, you need to remove the two oranges in 4 from the colors in 84. That means you’re looking for a number with the colors purple and green. Sure enough, 21 has precisely those colors, and 84 divided by 4 is 21. Example. Say you have a pawn on 14, and you roll a 3 and a 9. You could, if you chose, subtract 3 from 14 to land on 11, then multiply 11 by 9 to move to 99. Note that each die is applied one at a time. You cannot multiply 3 times 9 and use 27 for your move.