Primates
This is a level 5 number activity from the Figure It Out series. It is focused on finding prime factors of numbers. A PDF of the student activity is included.
About this resource
Figure It Out is a series of 80 books published between 1999 and 2009 to support teaching and learning in New Zealand classrooms.
This resource provides the teachers' notes and answers for one activity from the Figure It Out series. A printable PDF of the student activity can be downloaded from the materials that come with this resource.
Specific learning outcomes:
- Find prime factors of numbers.
Primates
Achievement objectives
NA5-2: Use prime numbers, common factors and multiples, and powers (including square roots).
Required materials
- Figure It Out, Levels 3–4, Basic Facts, "Primates", pages 22–23
- counters (two colours)
- two dice marked 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9
- classmate
See Materials that come with this resource to download:
- Primates activity (.pdf)
Activity
You may want to talk about the concept of prime factors, which can be found by using a factor tree to split composite numbers into their factors until only prime numbers remain. The final numbers are the prime factors of the composite number that you started with. For example:
Game
The game gives students practice in deriving prime factors and multiplying together more than two factors to give a product.
Some students may enjoy investigating whether the game board reflects the likelihood of certain numbers occurring.
It is a draw. Both have a sum of 17 uncovered.
Game
A game using prime factors.
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