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Take-away game (logic)

Grade 4 · Patterns, sequences and logic

A pile of 8 to 25 counters, shells or cookies, and two players who take turns to take some of them: 1 or 2, up to 3, or up to 4. Whoever takes the last one wins, or in some games loses. The student finds how many to take now to be sure of winning. In some questions a few moves have already been made, so the pile left has to be worked out first.

The key is the times table one more than the most you can take: leave the other player a number in it, and whatever they take, you make it up to that number. Once the answer is shown, the student can play the rest of the game against the computer.

A sample take-away game (logic) question

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