Number Pick Up

This is a fun activity based on the ‘Shut the Box’ game.

To start, on a scrap of paper each player needs to draw a line of 11 boxes or circles and label them with the numbers 2 to 12. This becomes their ‘gameboard’.

The players place a raisin on each circle of their own gameboard.

Players now take it in turns rolling both dice and finding the total of the numbers shown.

The player must remove raisins from their own gameboard to match the value of the dice total.

For example…

The total rolled is 6. This player may choose to remove the raisin numbered 6, or they could instead remove the raisins on the 4 and the 2 (to make the total 6).

The idea of the game is to take it in turns to roll the dice and remove a raisin (or more than one raisin). The winner is the player to empty their gameboard first.

On his next turn the player rolled a 10…

The player can’t use the 6+4 because the 6 has gone.

What other ways can he make 10?

Which raisins would you remove now? Why?

Play the game a few times. Think about whether there are good or bad moves. Is there a strategy that will help you to win?