GUNPOWDER PLOT GAME (2 player) - Stack barrels of gunpowder and investigate maths strategy.

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It is a 2 player game that I have used as a starter (mainly around November 5th in the UK)
OR EVEN BASED an ENTIRE LESSON AROUND IT
I give the pupils the choice of going first or second. Either me Vs 1 pupil or me Vs the class
As I know the strategy that you have to get to 3,9 or 15 first to make sure you it doesn’t matter who goes first as I usually win and it makes them more eager to have another go.
It really gets the pupils fired up and after a few games someone might notice what the strategy is or rather part of it.

They’ll probably notice first that you alwasy get to 15 first so get them to explain why.
(it’s usually “…well if we add 1 you’ll add 5 or if we add 4 you’ll add 2…” etc
Get them to think about what they have just said 1+5,2+4 …so its something to do with 6
15 is 6 less than 21 … perhaps you can use this knowledge to make sure you get to 15 first etc etc

I have gone on to get them to investigate other target numbers eg 47 find the first number you need to get to
47 /6 is 7 remainder 5 so you need to go first and say 5 if the next player adds 2 you need to add 4 (2+4=6)

What would happen if you could place up to 10 barrels and target number was 100?