The thousands game

Each child in Class 3 took four numbers out of the bag. Who had made the highest even number?

Problem

The Thousands Game printable sheet

Class 3 were playing a game. There were ten cards with the digits $0$ to $9$ on them.

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Cards with digits 0 to 9 in order.

 

 

These cards were put into a bag and players took out four cards and made a number out of them. At first they made the highest number they could. Sinita took out

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Cards 3, 8, 2, 5 in that order.
 and made 
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Cards 8, 5, 3, 2 in that order.

Then they made the lowest number they could. Jamie took out

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Cards 5, 0, 4, 7 in that order.
 and made 
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Cards 0, 4, 5, 7 in that order.

"You can't put zero at the beginning of a number," objected Paul. The class discussed this and decided that Jamie had made four hundred and fifty-seven.

 

Next they played to make the highest even number. Jill took out

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Cards 7, 8 ,6, 3 in that order

and Vincent took out

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Cards 4, 2, 9, 1 in that order.

Who won? Why?

 

Then they played to make the highest odd number. Belinda took out

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Cards 4, 0, 6, 9 in that order.

and Ali took out

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Cards 5, 2, 1, 7 in that order.

Who won? Why?

 

Next they played to make the lowest even number. Rohan took out

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Cards 8, 1, 5, 4 in that order.

and Ben took out

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Cards 7, 0, 3, 9 in that order.

Who won? Why?

 

The last game they played was to make the closest number to $5000$. Alice took out

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Cards 7, 8, 4, 9 in that order.

and Chloe took out

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Cards 1, 0, 3, 5 in that order.

Who won? Why?

 

Play some of the different versions of this game with a friend. Which digits are the most helpful? Why?

Once you've played this game a few times, have a go at playing Nice or Nasty. This game is very similar except you draw and place the digits one at a time, so you'll need to think carefully about where to put each one!