See the 101 circle? It’s the big red circle at the center of the spiral. The goal of Prime Climb is to land both your pawns on 101 exactly. Rules 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: There's also the possibility for modeling the game with a computer. A friend of mine programmed the expected number of moves it would take to win from any spot. NOTE: You MUST land on 101 exactly. Player One could not have added 3 to the 100 spot and moved to 101. It must be exact. 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:

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. STEP EIGHT: If Player One has a pawn on an entirely red space, he gets to DRAW a card. But he didn’t, so there is no card to DRAW this time. As we’ve mentioned, if a player lands on a red space (representing a prime number), they can draw a Prime Card. You CANNOT add the 3 and 9 to use a 12. You CANNOT multiply 3 and 9 to use a 27. You have to apply the numbers on the dice one by one.Beyond math practice, Prime Climb also encourages strategic arithmetic thinking and actually does so in a couple of ways. The game feels somewhat similar to games such as Trouble, Sorry or Headache, but has an interesting and very useful educational twist to it that we really appreciate. In the case of doubles, you may use the number you rolled four times instead of twice. The “0” on the dice stands for “10.” You must use all your rolls. As for the appropriate age, we recommend the game for 10 and up, and a lot is possible with older kids. If you want to open the Pandora's box of probability, for example, there are all kinds of questions to ask. A series of questions I like is: what is the minimum number of rolls it takes to move one pawn from 0 to 101? What are the odds that you'll be able to achieve this journey in the minimum number of rolls?

NOTE: Even though Player One was on TWO red spots, he only got to DRAW one card. Only one card can be drawn per turn. In our opinion, the algebraic puzzles baked into the game’s core mechanics, combined with its competitive gameplay and card-based strategic element, can make it a solid and rigorous mental workout for players of any age. What’s Included Finally, Prime Climb also includes a sheet of paper with a multiplication table of sorts printed on it. STEP NINETEEN: Player One ROLLS a 4 and 5. Player One adds the 4 to the 97 spot and MOVES to 101! That pawn is done and can be removed from the board! Player One is halfway to winning! 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 activitiesHow 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? Add 9 to move one pawn from 4 to 13, and multiply by 3 to move the other from 26 to 78. Since 13 is completely red, you would draw a card. The overall goal of each player is to get both of their pieces to the space marked 101 without overshooting it. 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.

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. Roll the dice. The two numbers you roll will be used, one at a time, to move your pawns. In other words, if you roll a 3 and a 5, you have a 3 and a 5 to use on your turn; you do not get to use an 8, a 15, or a 35.Prime Climb seems like a natural fit for homeschoolers and others following a more conceptual approach to math study, such as those following the Singapore Math method or similar programs. The Prime Climb board is color-coded to make multiplication and division easy. Every time you multiply, the colors of the two numbers multiplied together are combined. Whether players are racing as fast as they can to 101, bumping each other to the start or sneakily deploying cards, Prime Climb is simply a fun board game to play and its mechanics and gameplay should keep kids and adults interested for quite some time. Good way to practice and visualize math