Card Games

A deck of cards is a remarkable math curriculum. Your imagination is the only limit on what you can do. The following are a few of the games we play. You will have to take the face cards out (King, Queen and Jack, or anything above 10) for most games and in a few games it you might need to take the 10's out as well. Please use your child's ability to guide you to what the highest number in the deck will be. You can also do many of these games with a simple deck you make with 3x5 cards with numbers written on them, but do know that a black Sharpie pen can be seen through normal 3x5 cards.

War

Many of us grew up playing War at sleep over parties or at family reunions with our cousins. I have fond memories of playing this game with my girl friends until the dawn underneath the blankets we had propped up with a broom handle. For children who are learning to match, this is a great game.

War is a very simple game. The object is to have the most cards when the game is called and that can be one time through the deck, until someone has all the cards, or until the timer goes off. Divide the deck in half giving each player half the deck. With the cards face down you turn them over one at a time, the player with the highest number (or lower if you decided to work on knowing what "less" is) takes both cards. If you are playing until all the cards are played do not add the won cards to your hand, just set them aside as the winner will be determined by who has more cards. If the cards match, then a "war" is called and each player places three cards face down and then flip the fourth card over. The highest number (or lowest) wins all the cards on the table; the ones that started the war, the six face down (three from each player) and the two that you flipped. They are either set aside or added to your hand.

This is a very simple game that is fun to use to teach "more" or "less," matching and counting (if you let the child count the cards at the end of the game to see who won.) Of course you do not have to remove the face cards to play this game, but to teach numbers you might want to remove them.

I grew up playing this game with a Rook deck and it had the numbers from 1 to 14 and so we used those when we played the game and if you use a Rook deck or any other numbered deck, you can choose the number of cards you use. For younger children who can count successfully to five then use the numbers 1-6 and challenge them to count one more each day you play.

Soldiers

This is a very simple preschool game. You give the child a bunch of cards and they must put them in order. You don't need a deck of cards to do this, but having the dots on the cards might help those who are struggling with their counting or number recognition. The object of the game is to put the cards in order from lowest to highest (or highest to lowest). You can use just one suit 1-10 or mix the suits or give them all the 1-10 cards so they put them not only in order but also in suits. If the child puts the cards in a grid system they might see where the numbers fit and not even need to count. This will help them recognize how a number chart works.

To make it a bit harder, set up a row and have them match the row. You might have your row just the even numbers and they would have to match just even numbers. You might set the cards up 4,3,5,2,7,8,1,9,6 and they will have to match it. You can then challenge them to put it in counting order. Have them fix the "soldiers" you put out.

If you want to each even/odd you can push the evens up or pull them down so they are set apart from the other cards and show skip counting. Counting by twos or even threes.

I call it "Soldiers" because soldiers have order in their ranks and you demand order in your ranks!

Evens or Odds

Teaching the concept of adding a odd with and odd will make an even number can be fun when taught with a deck of cards. Each player takes either even or odds as the tricks they will win. If the two cards that are played when added together make and even number then the player who is taking evens wins the cards. You play this way until all the cards are flipped over and a winner is declared. (An easy way to determine who gets to take evens and who takes odds, is to pull an even numbers card and odd number card from the deck, mix them up and have each player choose a card. That is the cards they win.)

You can set this game up by dividing the deck in half, giving each player half the deck and they blindly flip them over. You can put the cards won in your hand or set them aside, depending on how long you want to play the game.

Another variation on this game is that you can have five cards in your hand at any time that you can see. You have a pile of cards that you draw the top card to add to your hand after each flip. Each player chooses a card and on the count of three you flip them over to see who won the hand.

Hopefully the child will start to see patterns as to how even and odd numbers when added (or subtracted) together make even or odd numbers.

To make this even harder you can use subtraction (lowest number subtracted from the highest unless your child understands negative numbers), multiplication and maybe even division.

Add 'em

To play this game you will need a way to keep track of the numbers 0-20 (or whatever number you decide to go to). A piece of paper with the numbers written down so they can be crossed off is an easy way to keep track of the numbers.

You place the shuffled deck of cards (minus at least the face cards) in the middle and then take turns flipping over the top two cards. You can use additions, subtraction, multiplication or division to get the numbers you have written down on the paper. The first person to cross off all their numbers is the winner. For example if a five and seven are flipped over I can add them together to cross of my 12 or I can subtract crossing off my two. I can multiply them crossing off 35 (if our numbers went that high). Of course I can not divide these two numbers without having a remainder, so division isn't an option in this example.

This game can be tailored to fit the child's ability and can also be played with multiple players. It is also a very simple game to play with a pair of dice.

Five Up

This game helps kids understand sequence of operation. You are dealt five cards and you see if you can come up with the highest answer. You have to use addition once, subtraction once, division once and multiplication once to come up with the answer. You can play this as teams, against each other or alone. It might help to have paper and pencil handy. For example the cards flipped over are seven, three, two, two and five. I can add the two and five and get seven, then multiply by seven and get 49, divide by three and get 16 (remainders just get lost) and then subtract two and get 14. Not the highest number with that combination of cards, but not bad.

You can make it less difficult for those not in higher grades by lowering the number of cards and operations needed. A second grader might not be comfortable with multiplication to do multiplication and division part. The number of cards flipped over can vary.

You can also add difficulty to it by using parentheses to set different operations apart before coming up with your highest answer. This game also works well with dice.

Count 'em

For this game you keep a running total of your cards. The object of this game is to quickly add numbers in your head. You can use as many cards as you want (except for face cards). The player sets the cards face down and then as quick as he can he turns them over one at a time and adds the number to the next card he fliped over. This continues until the player messes up or can't add any higher. You then count how many cards that player added correctly and the next player tries to do more cards.

You can add difficulty to this by changing the operation. Instead of adding, have them multiply. You can set a timer and see how fast they can do it (adding or multiplying). You can alternate between addition and subtraction or even addition and multiplication. This can be a single player game and the player just tries to do better next time or beat the clock or whatever was set as the goal.

Solitaire

The old standard solitaire is actually a very good game in teaching sequencing. You lay seven cards in a row face down. You then lay six cards on top of them face down, missing the first column. Next you lay five cards face down missing the first two columns. This continues until you have seven columns of cards each with one more than the column before. (Hint: the seventh column should have seven cards in it the sixth column should have six cards in it. You can also see the layout on your computer if you have a solitaire game in your "games" menu.) You then flip the top card over in each column. The rest of the cards are face down and are now your "draw pile."

The object of the game is to turn over all the cards so you can place all the cards in numerical order in their suits starting with the ace and going to the king. The traditional placement for the aces are above your columns.

Now the game begins. You move cards around by placing them in descending order while alternating colors. In a typical red and black deck you would place a black ten on a red jack or a black five on a red six. You can move cards from column to column as long as you continue the black/red alternating sequences as well as the lower card being placed on the higher card. If you column doesn't have a face up card in it, turn over the next card in the column. If a column has no face down cards then only a king can be placed in that column. You use the cards in the draw pile by turning them over one at a time. If you can use that card then you may play it as long as you continue the alternating black/red sequence and the descending order. Once an ace as been found you can move it out of the columns or off the draw pile and place it above the columns. You then try to place the two of that suit on it and so on until you have completed that suit. Once you have gone through the draw pile, turn it over and continue until you can either not play anymore or you have won the game.

You can change the level of challenge by turning over every third card in the draw pile. My younger children have a hard time having seven columns so they play with four columns and that helps them see the possibilities a bit easier.

If you have Solitaire on your computer you can play there to get the feel of this game.

Go Fish

This is a great game to teach matching skills and number recognition. If you can't remember how to play this game, go ask your preschooler.

You deal however many cards your child's hand can hold and then you take turns asking for a card. If your opponent has this card they give it up and you have made a match. You can then lay it down in front of you, and take another turn. If your opponent doesn't have that card they say, "Go fish," and you draw a card from the draw pile. If you get your match you get another turn. If you don't get the card you were asking for but it matches another card in your hand you just lay the pair down. It is now your opponent's turn and they ask for a card. Play continues until all the cards have been matched.

You can play with more than two players. You can play that it takes four to make a match. How about a run of four cards to lay down? How about the sum has to be more than 10? You can play most any way you want.

Slap

A simple game of matching. Dividing the deck in half (or evenly among more player than two) you take turns turning over the cards you have in your hand until the top two cards match. The players then try to place their hand on the pile before any of the other players do. The player with their hand on the bottom is the winner of the cards and they add those cards to the bottom of their pile. Play continues until all the cards are in one player possession or until the time is up.

There is so many wonderful card games to play and the best thing about them is you can store a deck or two in your purse, diaper bag or the jockey box of your car and have "school" wherever you go; doctor's office, hair salon, long car ride, DMV waiting room, even the park. But don't tell your kids they are learning, after all they are having fun.

posted February 2006

Last updated:
November, 2006

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