Building towers

Welcome back little mathematicians and I'm here with Barbara this afternoon. Hi Barbara.

Hi Michelle.

How are you going?

I'm good, keen to play.

I know! This game is really fun, it's called build your towers basically and so we each have... This is your board game and this is mine and we have to roll the dice and take turns to fill our tower. So would you like to go first?

So, five.

Five so you get to build five and you can put it on your tower here, here, here or here.

Ok.

Or where it fits.

[Silence while Barbara builds tower]

Oh, picked up an extra one. There we go. So I'm going to put it here, because that's five.

Yes, so that tower now is already filled for you. Alright, my go. I got a five too. Say I'm going to go one, two, three, four, five and I'm going to put that on my tower of five here too. I could put it on seven if I wanted, so I knew that I would need two more bricks, but I'm going to put it here for five because that's one tower that I have completed.

So at the moment we are the same.

The same. Oh actually and we could check that too, because we could pick up our towers and if we compared them. Exactly the same. See, even though they're different colors and different sized bricks, they're the exact same height. Ok, great. Sorry.

So four. Well, it can't go here but I can put it in either one of these is that correct?

Yeah. And you could put some here and some here and some here if you wanted.

Oh, really! OK. I think I'll just stick to putting my four with my seven.

And how many more would you need?

I'll need three more.

Did you go four, five, six, seven to count that?

I knew that I needed one more to get to five so I did that one straight away and then I knew that I needed two more.

Nice strategy. Ok, I got another five. So, I think I might fill my three here and then I'm going to put two bricks into my tower that's going to become eleven.

So, how many more will you need to make it eleven?

Oh well, if I have one here that's the one because eleven is made up of ten and one more. So that would be the one more part and I would need ten but I have one here so that means I have nine left.

Ok. Ok, two. I might put these ones on here, oh actually, I might leave them here with my three.

Hmm, ok. I got a four and I am going to... I don't know because I feel like it, put two here so and two here.

Oh, ok.

Because four is two and two, see you can see it there on the dice.

OK five. So, I might... I need three more to get to seven, so I might put those three there and then the other two I might put towards, I might put one here to complete this tower of three. And then put one with the eleven, so now I know I only need ten more for that one.

So we both have five and three, our towers are both built for five and three. Maybe we could lay them down like that? Oh it rolls?

So if you get stuck remembering which ones are ready.

Oh that's a good idea. I like that.

Oh your seven is ready too.

Yes.

Oops, sorry seven. Five, so, oh well, I've got two here, so I think if I had five more, that might make seven. So I'm going to check I've got two, three, four, five, six, seven and I think I counted on five number words so I had two - one, two three, four, five, and that is seven, so I can lay that down too. It looks like a king in a castle.

Having a nap.

Your go.

Ah, ok, so just another one towards my tower of eleven.

Three more for me. I smell victory coming but I often speak too soon. So I now have three. Three and three is six and one more is seven. So I need four more.

I need nine more.

Whoa, you got five.

Ok, well that will help.

So once I have this five in my hand, I can count on the two that are already there, so five, six, seven, so now I've got seven in that part too.

So it's the same. We both have seven and we both need four.

Aww, three. I don't know if three is good or not because now I'm, I'm hoping for a one. Yeah. Ok, I've got ten now. I need one more.

Ok and I need four more.

Look, it looks like a totem pole.

It does.

[Brabara rolls a three] Oh my goodness, so I think we're the same now. I've got three. I had seven and three more gets me to ten.

Oh my gosh.

So I just need one more.

And look, yeah, we can check they're exactly the same height, look.

It actually looks similar.

Ok, they both have ten. We both need one. Come on one! That's my lucky dice roll.

It wasn't that lucky.

Come on lucky.

Oooh, I got closer.

[Sounds of dice rolling as they both try to roll a one]

Oops. I feel like our dice is not friendly.

Ok, I'll see if my luck works.

We could ask the question how many more rolls do you think it will take? Here you go.

Ready?

Yes!

Yay! So that, no that mine. Oh, it's your turn...

Oh well, I am happy for you.

Thank you. So now look I can prove I'm the winner because I have one more on my tower of eleven.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

I hope everyone else has fun.

Good game.

It's good isn't it. Have fun playing mathematicians.