Our girl is motivated by games and competition. Best way to get us out the door….”I’ll time you.” So, I embraced her true self and tried to come up with math games to make it fun to learn first and second grade math. It actually makes learning fun and no tears from kids or dad : )
Let’s get into it.
What I love about these games is you probably have everything you need already.
What you need: Deck of cards. That’s it!
If you don’t have a deck of cards or Uno you can grab some here.
Go Ten
I remember when I was in school, learning the number combos that added up to 10 was a big leap. When we started the worksheets she gave me sad, frustrated eyes and said she didn’t get it.
So, in comes Go Ten. If you’ve played Go Fish, you got this.
This game has been huge for her learning the combos to make 10.
To get started: take all the face cards out except for the aces. You should have numbers 2 – 10 plus four aces. The aces are worth one.
Now deal out five cards to each player.
Take turns asking for matches to make ten. For example, if you were holding a seven, you’d ask for a three.
If the player doesn’t have your card, then you draw from the deck and the other player goes.
When you have matches put them to the side. I usually have her tell me the addition that makes the combo – two and eight make ten.
That’s it. Easy Peasy.
Doubles
Next big leap is doubles. 1 + 1 is easy, but get up to 7+7 and things get a little harder. After reinforcing them through repetition on paper so she could see them, we got the cards out again.
To get started: put the face cards to the side, but keep the aces in the deck.
Rules: Just like above, this is based on the Go Fish rules, but this time we’re looking for doubles matches.
When we first started it didn’t count if you didn’t know what the doubles was, i.e. you had to know what 8+8 added up to.
After she was more comfortable we added a speed element to see how fast we could go through the game.
Math War
Ah, we have reached the pinnacle of playing card-based math. Just as vicious as those epic games of war you’d play with your friends, but now with addition. Nerdy!
This game also introduces the concepts of adding three numbers and math facts or literacy. I just call it ‘easy math.’ At this point she was well practiced in making ten, adding doubles, doubles plus one, and adding a tens place value. This game was showing her the practical application of finding easy combos that added up to ten, for example. It made adding three numbers, which was overwhelming sometimes for her, easy to break down methodically.
# of Players: 2 unless you mix two decks together
Set up: All cards, except for jokers, are dealt out evenly between the players. All face cards, including aces, are worth 10.
How it works: Instead of ‘warring’ one card at a time we each lay down three cards. Those three cards have to be added up. Highest score wins the hand.
Keeping score: We’ve also kept a tally sheet with a running score. This is good practice on working with larger numbers, because the totals will get into the hundreds by the end of the game.
The biggest thing I’ve learned during this period of being a quasi-teacher with my kid is learning can be fun if we (the parents and adults) are able to let go of the seriousness to teach and practice it in a way that works for our children.
And somedays the end-of-day drink isn’t optional.