Grabbing Factors
Math Concepts
Factors of numbers from 1 to 24
Materials
Playing board, score sheet, tokens
Players
2
Set up
Use a board with a 4 by 6 grid of numbers from 1 to 24. Have a piece of paper to keep score. Use tokens to keep track of covered numbers.
Play
On a turn, a player chooses a number that is uncovered and has at least one factor uncovered– the player gets the selected number and the other player gets any or all of the uncovered factors (their choice as to how many). Play alternates until there are no legal numbers left.
Goal
The players add up their numbers and the higher sum wins.
Discussion and Tips
Discuss circumstances when the player who gets all the factors on a turn might choose to take only some of the factors.
Variations
This can also be played as a solitaire puzzle, sometimes called Tax Collector. In this version, the one player selects each number and the tax collector gets all the available factors. Play continues until the player no longer has a legal move. At that point, the tax collector receives all the remaining numbers. The goal is to have as large a sum as possible. A particular challenge is to get more than the tax collector, when that’s possible.
Make the range of numbers suit the ability of the players. It could be 1 to 12 or as high as 1 to 60.