Fun Card Games to Reinforce Math Skills

Dec 7, 2023 | Littleton

School will be out soon and kids will be looking for ways to fill the 1,208 hours of free time. How can you have fun with your kids and at the same time support their learning? Try these card games to reinforce mental math skills and numerical fluency. These classic games are fun, easy to learn, and all you need is a deck of cards.

Kids won’t even know they’re practicing math!

1. Blackjack

Number of Players: two or more

Age of players: 1st grade and up (or the ability to add numbers up to and beyond twenty-one)

Math skills reinforced: adding and probability

How to play: Go to this website https://www.grandparents.com/grandkids/activities-games-and-crafts/blackjack for complete instructions.

 

2. War (with variations):

Number of Players: two

Age of players: Preschool to 6th grade (choose the variation that matches your child’s math abilities)

Math skills reinforced: addition, multiplication, greater than, and less than, fractions and more

How to play: Go to this website https://www.bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/war/ for the basic instructions.

Variations for older players:

Addition War - When a “war” occurs players put two cards face up. Players add the two cards. The player with the highest sum wins that war.

Multiplication War - When a “war” occurs, players put two cards face up. Players multiply the two cards. The player with the highest product wins that war.

Fractions War - When a "war" occurs, players each put two cards face up and create a proper fraction from their two cards (eg. 1/2 or 3/4 or 7/12, etc.). Players compare the two fractions and the fraction with the highest value wins that war.

The beautiful aspect of playing these games with your kids (at least the way we do it at Mathnasium of Littleton) is the children do all the work!

 

3. Go Fish (with variations)

Number of Players: two or more

Age of players: Preschool to 6th grade (choose the variation that matches your child’s math abilities)

Math skills reinforced: addition, multiplication, addition, subtraction, divergent thinking.

How to play: Go to this website https://www.bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/go-fish/ for the basic instructions.

Variation for elementary students working on numerical fluency: Visit our YouTube channel and watch the video 10 Buddy Go Fish

Variation for older players:  Before looking at their cards, players agree on a target number. Then they must find four cards that will equal that target number. Use the following values for face cards: jack = 12, Queen= 13, King = 14 and Ace= 1 or 11. When a player gets the cards to equal the target number, they have to explain how they got to it. For example, if the group agrees to use twelve as the target number, a player could win the round with the cards 2, 2, 3 and an Ace by saying, (2+2)3 x 1=12, or they could win with a jack, 3, 6, 4 by saying,(6x4+12)/3.  They win that round and they get to choose the next target number, again, without looking at their cards.

At Mathnasium of Littleton, we love card games to reinforce math skills. In fact, we have our own Mathnasium cards and card games. The Mathnasium cards are similar to regular decks, except cards are numbered 0-12 and there are no face cards. This makes card games like the ones above easier to understand because kids don’t have to translate Aces, Jacks, Queens and Kings into numbers. To find out how to get your own deck of Mathnasium cards and more card game ideas, give us a call today at 303-979-9077.

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