Playing Cards Years K - 7

Summary Get out the playing cards and children know there is going to be a game. You have their interest straight away and that's the first step in successful learning. Games don't have to be complex to be valuable learning experiences. but they do have to be purposeful. The smörgåsbord below offers ideas for all levels to get you started. Once they have been learnt, consider using them as threaded activities at work stations. We would love you to send us more ideas like these and/or examples of your children working with playing cards. Our site also offers two more complex playing card activities ... Five Cards, for Years 1 - 8 and Cribbage, which is suitable for Years 4 - 8. Materials One pack of playing cards for 2 (or sometimes 4) One Poly Plug per pair One calculator each

Acknowledgement

Developing the Playing Cards activity was inspired by a workshop run by Liz Gibbs, Mathematics Consultant, UK.

Procedure For convenience these ideas are listed in three groups of primary school age children. However some teachers feel that many can be adapted 'up or down', so feel free to explore outside the level you currently teach. No doubt you will develop variations on these ideas, or develop your own new playing card activities. Please take the time to send ideas and photos to include here for others to share. Hint: Take cards out of the pack they come in and use a sandwich bag to store each pack. It is much easier to put cards you are not using into the bag and it makes packing up easier. Years K - 2 The Big Sort Matching Which Card Is Missing? How Many Ways? Guess The Total Find The Difference Make 15 Years 3 - 4 Walk Around Rows Of Cards Years 5 - 7 Make 15 Multiplication Cards Division Snap Exploring Times Tables Junior Primary (K - 2) The Big Sort A group of 4 sit around a table with one pack of cards. Emphasise that this is an activity in which ...we help each other. The pack is opened and spread out. Take out picture cards and put them in the bag. (Watch out for the Ace of Spades which usually has a bigger picture than the other aces and therefore can be interpreted as a picture card.) Spread out the rest and look for the love hearts - collect, stack and turn face down. What will we call the other red shape? Diamond is a common answer even with young children - collect, stack and turn face down. Introduce the names of the black suits - collect, stack and turn face down. Take a stack each and count them. Check everyone has ten (and if they don't it is probably because the Ace of Spades is in the bag). Put your cards in order. Let's call the A card one, because it has one picture and A is the first letter of the alphabet.

Content (Depends on the idea you use from those on the left.) 1:1 correspondence addition facts beyond 10 addition facts to 10 complementary addition counting division equations: creating/solving group (or skip) counting mathematical conversation multiples, factors & primes multiplication - array model multiplication number line - ordering, operations numeral recognition operations - whole number pattern generalisation pattern interpretation pattern recognition properties of number recording - calculator recording - written transformations (rotations, reflections, flips) sorting & classifying square numbers/square roots subitising subtraction times tables visual and kinaesthetic representation of number

Let's put the cards we don't want in the bag.	Spread them out...
...and collect all the love hearts.	I know I have 10 cards. They are all in order.

Matching

• Take your set of 10 cards from The Big Sort and sit with a partner.
• Spread the two sets of cards on the table face up and mix them around.
• Take turns to pick up a card. The other player has to find the matching card.
• Make pairs and place them face down side by side on another part of the table.
• How many pairs do you make?
• What happens if you are allowed to use the picture cards that go with your suit?

Which Card Is Missing?

• Four children gather around a table with one pack of cards.
• Take out all the picture cards and put them in the bag.
• One person (the Hider) is given all the cards. (S)He secretly hides one card (sits on it?)
• All the other cards are put in the middle again. The other children have to discover which card is missing.

How Many Ways?
An investigation for two children, each with a set of 1 - 10 cards and one Poly Plug set between them.

From the Classroom Sarah Sams, Year 1 St. Michael's Primary School, Kaleen

(The Big Sort can precede this activity to obtain the 10 cards.) Take turns to turn over five (any number) of plugs in the yellow/blue board. This is the answer. Now we have to find the questions. Spread out the cards (one set of 1- 10 to start) and find a way to make the answer by choosing cards. Yes, the five card is one way. It uses one card. Can you make the answer by choosing two cards? How many ways can you find? Would you like to write your ways on the calculator? This is no problem to children who know Ten Friends. After a while, try the challenge with two sets of cards 1 - 10. That allows answers such as 2 + 2 + 1 = 5. Also consider using paper and pencil records as well as calculator recording. In later years children can combine the numbers on the cards using any operation to make the answer, for example, 9 - (2 x 2) = 5, BUT be careful with calculator checking if your calculator hasn't been programmed with the order of operations.

As part of the six day professional development program, Working Like A Mathematician, organised by the Catholic Education Office, Canberra Goulburn, Sarah threaded How Many Ways with her class. This PowerPoint shows her class at work and the Investigation Guides she created to extend their thinking.

Guess The Total

• Each player has a set of cards 1 - 10.
• Cards are shuffled and placed face down.
• Each player turns over their top card, for example 8 and 9, which will represent 8 + 9.
• They write 8 + 9 on the calculator ...but don't press equals.
• The aim of the activity is to make the two numbers with plugs, work out the answer, then ...check if the calculator already knew the answer.

Yeah! The calculator got it! ... Photos from Year 1 Neerabup Primary School. Sometimes ask children to record the question and the answer in their books as an equation.

Two other activities which link with Guess The Total are Plug Catcher and Broken Calculator Problems.

Find The Difference

Encourage children to make and count towers of red plugs similar to those in the picture. One way is for them to work in pairs with a Poly Plug red board each and one set of cards 1 - 9 between them. They lay out the cards in order, then build a tower of plugs on each card which is as high as the number value of the card. Encourage them to compare the towers on any two cards, say 3 and 7. Are the towers the same height? No they are different. Can you show me the difference? These ones here. Can you count the difference? Yes, it's 4. That's great. Now try two different towers, and then two more and keep on going like that. Encourage children to find a way to write the difference of two towers with their calculator. Also encourage recording two towers in their journal and explaining how to find the difference.

After a while, turn this into a card game.

• Each player has a shuffled deck of one set of 1 - 10 cards which is held face down.
• They say 'go' and each turn over a card onto the table.
• The first person to say the difference between the two numbers wins the pair (if they are correct).
• Each player piles their winning pairs on top of each other crossed over.
• When all cards are played, the person with the most pairs wins.
• Differences can be checked with towers or by using the calculator.

Today I will give you one card each. That will be your difference number. All you have to do is build two towers with that difference and draw them in your book.

Make 15 The development of this activity was a co-operative venture between Claire Campbell, Year 2, and Paul Cecere, Year 6, from St. Matthew's Primary School, Page, ACT. It happened because they were both attending a 6 day professional development program on Working Like A Mathematician and were challenged to explore Crib Points & Cribbage as a class activity between Days 1 & 2 and Days 3 & 4. At both levels they felt they had to adapt Crib Points to get their children started. Claire writes: I just wrote the number 15 on the board, then I wrote a few examples the kids told me. They just went back to their desks and continued on. Some did mental calculation, some used cubes. Paul then got his kids to use the cards to Make 15. (Editor's Note: What Claire is doing here is further developed in Number of the Day - which has an extension to Year 8 - and in the direction of multiplicative thinking in Red Board of the Day.) Paul has contributed the following photos to indicate the growth from Make 15 to Crib Points. From there he hopes to introduce the full game of Cribbage.

   

Middle Primary (3 - 4)

On a signal, teams search for, and record, as many ways as possible to make an equation that equals the board number. They use some or all of their card numbers each time and any equipment they like to help them. After a given time, correct, collect and display the posters.

Notes:

1. Be careful with calculator checking if your calculator hasn't been programmed with the order of operations.
2. This activity links to Five Cards.

Children sort the pack so that each person has a set of cards 1 - 5. Each pair also needs one Poly Plug yellow/blue board. This is a co-operative activity with the aim of being able to demonstrate the 'rows of' determined by the cards.

• Each person shuffles their cards and holds them face down.
• They each place a card on the table and read it from left to right as a 'rows of'.
• Together, they make the picture the cards tell them.
• Write the equation on the calculator.
• Swap cards. Now what does the picture look like?
• Write the equation on the calculator.
• Use Poly Plug Paper to make a quick recording of each card play using spots of colour.

Photos from Year 3 Neerabup Primary School.

2 rows of 1	1 row of 2
5 rows of 3 in a Year 5 class.	It doesn't matter which way around our cards are, it's still 3 rows of 3. It's a square number.

After a while create a working backwards investigation guide with challenges like:

• There are 20 plugs in rows of 5. How many in each row?
• There are 12 plugs and 4 in each row. How many rows?
• There are 21 plugs out of the board. Find all the ways they can be arranged in equal rows?

Rows Of Cards links with the Add Town variation Times Town where the people on the street intersections have to arrange themselves in equal rows. Also, Maths300 members will find it an excellent to use with the software from Lesson 97, Tackling Times Tables.

Upper Primary (5 - 7)

Once children are confident with the array image supporting multiplication, as in Rows Of Cards above, the card set can be expanded to 1 - 10 (or 1 - 13 if picture cards are included) and become an automatic response game. Work in pairs with a cards set each. Shuffle the cards and place face down in a pile. On a signal each turn over the top card onto the table. First to say the product wins the pair. Answers can be checked with a calculator. Each player piles their winning pairs on top of each other crossed over. When all cards are played, the person with the most pairs wins. Play the same game for addition or subtraction facts.

18! ... 9 x 2 = 18, they're mine.

Division Snap
Teacher, or children, decide what ...we will divide by today, for example 5. This game is played in pairs and each person has a set of cards from 1 - 10 (or 1 - 13 if picture cards are included).

• Cards are shuffled and held face down.
• Players take turns to turn over a card and place it in a line beside any other cards already placed.
• If the total of the displayed cards is divisible by the chosen number, the first person to say Snap! wins the cards.
• A win can happen even if just one card displayed.
• Answers can be checked with the calculator if necessary.
• The winner is the person who has most cards when all the cards are played.

5 (snap - player collects 1 card) ... 2, 7, 6 (snap - player collects 3 cards) ... 3, 3, 10, 7, A, A (snap) ...

5 (snap - player collects 1 card) ... 2 (snap - player collects 1 card if they say the answer 0.4) ...

Maths300 members will be able to link this activity to the software for Lesson 97, Tackling Times Tables. Also, as they become more able to automatically respond to times tables questions, the multiplication option in the software for Lesson 156, Chart Strategies and Lesson 84, Number Charts.

Many children find it surprising - and indeed quite empowering - that four Poly Plug boards arranged like this contain every times table they need to know. For example, these children are pointing to 8 rows of 7, which is 8 x 7. The idea is explored in more depth in the activity Exploring Times Tables. Here a card game for 4 students is developed from the same concept. Four children sit in pairs facing each other. Each person has a yellow/blue plug board, a set of cards 1 - 10 and a couple of straws. They each turn the plugs in their board as shown and place it in the middle to make the square. Each person in Team A turns over a card. Team B reads the cards as a times table (or rows of) and has to place straws to show the required times table. (Note: Cards appear the same to both teams and the convention is to read left to right.) What is the total number of blue plugs isolated by the straws? Teams work together to find the answer in three ways (... because a mathematician asks Can I check it another way?). Teams record the times table on a calculator and in their books. Teams swap roles and the activity continues until all cards are played (or each team has a pre-set number of turns, or a pre-set time limit runs out).

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