Gather your cards, because we’re about to reveal one of our favourite tricks for getting kids to love math! Math card games don’t need much preparation and just a few basic materials. Use them to work on everything from simple counting to fractions and order of operations. These games are a foregone conclusion!
100-meter dash
To your running count, flip a card and add its weight. The first person to cross 100 points without exceeding it wins! (For younger players, remove the face cards; for older children, use these values: Ace-0, Jack-11, Queen-12, Queen-13, King-13.) Pyramid is one of those variants of solitaire that are actually all sly math card games. As you clear your pyramid row by row, try to find cards that add up to ten. At the link below, you will learn how to play.
Look for pairs that add up to ten.
Your students are probably familiar with the game of Go Fish, but this time they’re looking for pairs that add up to ten. “I have a 2,” they should say. “Can you give me an 8 to make a ten?” For this game, reduce the aces to one and exclude the face cards entirely. To know more about baccarat click here.
Use cards to practise counting.
Take out the face cards and a die for this one. Players take turns flipping cards and rolling the die. They “count on” using the number on the die after starting with the number on the card. “Seven… eight, nine, ten, eleven,” for example, if the player flips a 7 and rolls a 4. They hold the card if they get it right.
Aim for a total of ten.
Play this math card game by yourself or in a group. Place 20 cards face down on the table (leave out face cards or change them to equal 0, while aces equal 1). Kids attempt to delete all of the cards from the table by removing sets of cards that add up to ten. It’s more difficult than you thought!
Builder’s Paradise allows you to practise number sequencing. For Table Game Click here.
Simple math card games can assist children in learning how to order numbers. Discard the face cards and set out the four sevens in a deck side by side to play builder’s paradise. Each round, players compete to be the first to get rid of all of their cards by adding the next higher or lower number in each suit. The complete tutorial can be found at the link below.
This version of War introduces a fraction element to one of the original math card games. Students are given two cards, one each for the numerator and denominator, and are then asked to decide which fraction is the largest. The winner receives all four cards, and the game continues until all four cards have been used.
Remove the face cards and assign each student a 4 x 4 card “board” to play on. A caller flips over a card and the remaining cards (or another deck) are put face down. The card is turned face down by every player who has the number on their board. Play continues until one player calls “Bingo!” after flipping a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
Place the cards on the table and take turns providing clues. “I see two cards that add up to 12,” says the player. Differentiate for younger children with choices such as “I spy a card that is less than 4,” or “I spy two cards that are factors of 12” for older children.
Each player is dealt three cards and must calculate the highest three-digit number they can in private (you can use decimals or not, depending on age). Then it’s each player’s turn to keep the cards they have, swap with a card from the deck, or steal a card from another player. After that, each player puts down their best number to see who wins. More information is available at the following page.