Ready, Set, Go! Math Games for Serious Minds

Transcription

1 Math Games with Cards and Dice presented at NAGC November, 2013 Ready, Set, Go! Math Games for Serious Minds Rande McCreight Lincoln Public Schools Lincoln, Nebraska

2 Math Games with Cards Close to 20 - Grades 1-2 Players: 2 or more Materials: Deck of cards, face cards removed, Ace worth 1 Skill: Addition How to play: Deal 5 cards to each player. Player chooses three cards that when added together get as close to 20 as possible. The player writes down his score as the distance his cards leave him from 20 i.e., if his cards equal 18, his score is 2. If they equal 22, his score is 4. At the end of several rounds, the player with the lowest score wins. Close to Grades 1-3 Players: 2 or more Materials: Deck of cards, face cards removed, Ace worth 1 Skill: Addition How to play: Deal 6 cards to each player. Player chooses any four of his cards to make two numbers that when added together get as close to 100 as possible. The player writes down his score as the difference between his cards and 100 i.e., if he makes 36 and 62 with his cards, they equal 98. His score is 2, the difference between his sum and 100. At the end of several rounds, the player with the lowest score wins. Close to Grades 1-3 Players: 2 or more Materials: Deck of cards, face cards removed, Ace worth 1 Skill: Addition How to play: Deal 6 cards to each player. Player uses these cards to make two (2) 3- digit numbers that when added together come close to The player writes down his score as the difference between his total and 1000 i.e., if he makes 365 and 642 with his cards, they equal 1,007. His score is 7, the difference between his sum and At the end of several rounds, the player with the lowest score wins.

3 Close to 0 - Grades 1-3 Players: 2 or more Materials: Deck of cards, face cards removed, Ace worth 1 Skill: Subtraction How to play: Deal 8 cards to each player. Player chooses any 6 cards to make two (2) 3-digit numbers that when subtracted, give you a difference that s close to 0. The player writes down his score as the difference between his total and 0. For example, if you choose 6, 6, 5, 2, 4, 7, you could make = 5. This player s score is 5. At the end of several rounds, the player with the lowest score wins. I Spy Sums - Grades 1 3 Players: Groups of two or more Materials: Deck of cards, Ace worth 11, Jack worth 12, Queen worth 13, King worth 14, scratch paper Skill: Addition How to Play: Deal out the entire deck of cards face up in a 13 X 4 array. One player challenges the other player to find two cards next to each other, either vertically or horizontally, that add to make a number by saying, I spy two cards with a sum of 7. The other player then looks for two cards that add to make the sum then picks this pair up and any other pair(s) that add to make the stated sum. If the second player misses any pair(s) that add to the chosen sum, then the first player may claim them. Players swap roles and continue until the table is cleared. The winner is the player with the most cards at the end of the game. As large gaps appear the size of the array may be reduced to help fill the gaps. Finders Keepers - Grades 1-5 Players: Groups of two or more Materials: Deck of cards, Ace worth 11, Jack worth 12, Queen worth 13, King worth 14 Skill: Addition, subtraction, number recognition, sequence, and order How to Play: Players split a deck of cards evenly amongst all players. The players cannot look at their cards. Each player takes turns flipping one card from their pile and placing it in the center of table. The goal of the game is to find one of the following rules: One More Rule: Players may grab the pile if the top card played on the pile is one more than the previous card. First player to find the rule can grab the center pile.

4 Same Number Rule: Players may grab the pile if the top card played on the pile is equal to the previous card. First player to find the rule can grab the center pile. One Less Rule: Players may grab the pile if the top card played on the pile is one less than the previous card. First player to find the rule can grab the center pile. Double It Rule: Players may grab the pile if the top card played on the pile is double the previous card. First player to find the rule can grab the center pile. If a player makes an illegal grab, they have to give two cards to the bottom of the center pile. If player makes a legal grab, they get all the cards in the center pile. The player that collects all 52 cards, or no more rules can be found, wins! Reading Addition Minds - Grades 1-5 Players: Groups of three (groups of four or five for more advanced) Materials: Deck of cards, aces and face cards removed Skill: Addition, sum How to Play: In this game for three players, one student is the leader and the other two are the mind readers. The two players each draw a card and, without looking at it, hold it up to their foreheads so that everyone else can see it, but not themselves. The leader announces the sum of the two cards. Each mind reader must figure out which card is on his or her own forehead and say it aloud. When both mind readers have figured out their cards, a new leader is chosen and the game continues. With Reading Addition Minds, all players get practice with sums and addends in every round. Over-Under - Grades 3-6 Players: Groups of two Materials: Deck of cards with face cards removed, Aces worth one Skill: Multiplication How to Play: Players split a deck of cards. One player is the Under 30 player and the other is the Over 30 player. Player 1: Under 30 Player 2: Over 30 Each player turns over a card at the same time and the two numbers are multiplied together. If the product is less than 30, the Under 30 player keeps the cards. If the product is greater than 30, the Over 30 player keeps the cards. If the answer is exactly 30 each player takes back their card and places it back in their deck. When all the cards have been used the person with the most cards is the winner.

5 Hit The Target - Grades 4-8 Players: Groups of two to five players Materials: Deck of cards, Ace worth 1 or 11, Jack worth 12, Queen worth 13, King worth 14, scratch paper Skill: Multiplication, addition, subtraction, division, order of operations, and mathematical reasoning How to Play: Each group of 2-5 students selects a target number from One of the players will turn five cards from the deck face up and the object is for students to make a number sentence using all five cards with any operations to reach the target number. For example, suppose the target number is 20 and the cards in play are 5, 5, 6, 2, and Ace (worth 1). One winning combination is: 5 x = 20. Another is (6 x 5) - (2 x 5 x 1). Also, (6 2) x 5 + (5 x 1) works, as do many more. The first player to find a winning combination keeps the cards and chooses the next target number. If no combination is found in about a minute, flip over another card and try to make a combination using six cards. To keep the game fair for players of different abilities, introduce the rule that if a player hasn't made a combination in three rounds, he or she may make combinations using four of the five cards until they make a winning combination; other players must use five. The Chosen One - Grades 5 8 Players: Up to four players Materials: Deck of cards, Ace worth 11, Jack worth 12, Queen worth 13, King worth 14, scratch paper Skill: Adding positive and negative integers How to Play: The goal of the game is to reach a total of one by adding and subtracting. Deal 2 cards to each player. Player one plays a card, states its value and immediately picks up another (*players must hold 2 cards at all times.) The value can be positive or negative e.g. +5 or 5 Player two plays and adds or subtracts card 1. Player two can add to Play continues until a positive 1 is made. The player who makes positive 1 wins the cards. Play continues until all cards are played. The player with the most cards wins.

6 Reading Multiplication Minds - Grades 3-6 Players: Groups of three (groups of four or five for more advanced) Materials: Deck of cards, aces and face cards removed Skill: Multiplication, product How to Play: In this game for three players, one student is the leader and the other two are the mind readers. The two players each draw a card and, without looking at it, hold it up to their foreheads so that everyone else can see it, but not themselves. The leader announces the products of the two cards. Each mind reader must figure out which card is on his or her own forehead and say it aloud. When both mind readers have figured out their cards, a new leader is chosen and the game continues. With Reading Multiplication Minds, all players get practice with products and factors in every round. Give Some Percent! - Grades 4-6 Players: Groups of two or more Materials: Deck of cards, Ace worth 11, Jack worth 12, Queen worth 13, King worth 14, scratch paper Skill: Percentages and division How to Play: Shuffle the cards and place the deck face down in the center of the table. Decide on a percent for the first game. For example, let s use 50%. Turn over the top card. Players race to find the given percentage (50%) of the value of the card. (Let's say it is a four of spades.) The first player that can give a correct answer wins the card. (In this example, 50% of 4, the answer would be "2".) Play until the deck or time runs out. The player with the most cards wins. In the case of an odd number, have students use decimals or fractions to represent the answer (50% of 11 is 5.5 or 5 ). To increase the difficulty of this game, turn over two cards to make a 2-digit number, for example a 2 and a 4 to make 24. Then find the percentage of that so 50% of 24 would be 12. Allow the winner of each round to determine the percent used for the next round. Mean, Media, Mode Game - Grades 3-6 Players: Individuals Materials: a deck of cards, scratch paper, a pencil, a calculator Skill: Addition, Division, finding mean, median, mode How to Play: Using only the Ace through 10 cards, deal out 7 cards to each player. (Be sure there are a maximum of 4 players!) Ask each player to arrange

7 his cards in sequential order. Aces count as the number 1. Then, depending upon which game you want to play, follow the directions below: 1. Finding the Mean Game. Each player finds the total value of the digits on their cards, then divides the total by 7 (the total number of cards) to find the mean. For example, if the cards in your hand are Ace, 2, 4, 6, 8, 8, 9, then the sum of those digits is 38. Dividing the sum by 7 yields 5 (rounding to the nearest whole number). If this was your hand, you'd have scored 5 points in this round. Because computation can be tricky without paper at this age, feel free to give your child a pencil and paper to find the mean. Or, to keep the game moving at a faster pace, you may allow use of a calculator. 2. Finding the Median Game. Each player finds the median card in their hand and that number is their point value for that round. Thus, using the hand above, the median of the cards is 6, since it's the value of the middle card. 3. Finding the Mode Game. Each player finds the mode in their hand of cards, which represents their point value for that round. If there is no mode, then they don t score any points in that round. However, if there are two modes (two numbers occur the same number of times), then the player snags the point values for both modes! In the example above, the mode would be 8, since it occurs most often. The winner of each game is the first person that scores 21 points. (If you're dealing with a very short or very long attention span, feel free to change this value and substitute a number more appropriate for your child.) Exponent War - Grades 4-6 Players: two Materials: deck of playing cards with face cards removed, calculator (optional) Skills: multiplication, knowledge of exponents How to play: Deal the cards so that each player has an equal number of cards. The first player turns over two cards, one at a time. The second number acts as an exponent to the first number. The next player also turns over two cards. The player with the highest number wins the round and takes all the cards. The game ends when one player is out of cards. That player with the most cards wins. Prime Time - Grades 3-6 Players: 2-4 Materials: deck of playing cards Skills: addition, knowledge of prime numbers

8 How to play: Shuffle the deck and deal five cards to each player. Aces =1, Jacks = 11, Queens = 12, Kings = 13. Players take turns discarding cards, face up and one at a time, into a discard pile. Players may only discard prime numbers or a group of cards whose sum is a prime number. If a player is unable to discard a prime number, they must draw from the deck until they find or create one. Play continues until the pack is depleted. The winning player is the player with the fewest cards left in their hand. Dice Games 18 Game (Gr. 3-5) Rolling 3 dice, players get 19 chances to make numbers 1-18 using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. (The 19 th chance is a freebie!! You could increase the number of chances to 20 or 21 if you like.) Pig - Grades 1-3 Each turn, a player repeatedly rolls a die until either a 1 is rolled or the player decides to "hold": If the player rolls a 1, they score nothing and it becomes the next player's turn. If the player rolls any other number, it is added to their turn total and the player's turn continues. If a player chooses to "hold", their turn total is added to their score, and it becomes the next player's turn. The first player to score 100 or more points wins. For example, the first player, Ann, begins a turn with a roll of 5. Ann could hold and score 5 points, but chooses to roll again. Ann rolls a 2, and could hold with a turn total of 7 points, but chooses to roll again. Ann rolls a 1, and must end her turn without scoring. The next player, Bob, rolls the sequence , after which he chooses to hold, and adds his turn total of 22 points to his score. Stuck in the Mud Grades 1-3 Skills: Addition (mental) Addition (scoring) Equipment: 5 dice Paper and pencil Scoring chart (optional) How to play

9 The aim of the game is to achieve the highest score. You can only score on a roll which does not include the numbers 2 and 5. Any dice which shows a 2 or a 5 becomes stuck in the mud. Choose a player to start. Roll all 5 dice. If you have rolled any 2s or 5s, you do not score any points for this throw. If you have not rolled any 2s or 5s, add up the total of the dice and remember it. Set aside any 2s and 5s, and throw the remaining dice. Again, if you have rolled any 2s or 5s you fail to score this turn. Throws without 2s and 5s are added to your previous total. Continue in this way until all your dice are stuck. Write down your score, and pass the dice to the next player. Agree a number of rounds (five works well) and total up the score. You can use the score charts we have provided. You will be surprised at how much the score can vary and just how tricky the dice can be! Thirty-Six - Grades 1-3 Number of Players: 2 or more Materials: 1 die, pen and paper How to Play: This game is played in 10 rounds and the goal of the game is to get as close as possible to 36, but not to go over it. When you do get over 36 you are out for that round. The first player throws the die several times and continues to add the number of the die to his total. The turn of the player ends when he goes over 36 points or when he decides to stop. The player who gets 36 points or closer to 36 than everyone else, wins the round. If two players have the highest score, they both get a point. Play 10 rounds and the player with the most points from winning rounds is the overall winner of Thirty-Six dice game. Dueling Exponents - Grades 4-6 Roll two dice. Square each number and subtract the larger number from the smaller. For example, if you roll 5 and 3: 5 squared is 25; 3 squared is 9; 25 9 = is the answer. First person to state the answer wins.

10 Get There by 4 s - Grades 4-6 Roll two dice. Use the larger number for the ten s value, and the smaller number for the one s value. For example, 6 and 3 makes 63. Now, get to 63 using four 4 s along with these mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponent and factorial. For example, in the case of 63: You could say = 63. (That s = 63). That wasn t very creative, but it works. Out loud this answer is stated as four to the third minus four to the zero, plus four to the zero, minus four to the zero equals sixty-three. First person to state the answer wins. The Factor Game Gr Player A chooses a number on the game board and circles it. Using a different color, Player B circles all the factors of that number, except the number itself. For example, the proper factors of 12 are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Although 12 is a factor of itself it is not a proper factor. 2. Player B circles a new number, and Player A circles all the factors of the number that are not already circles. 3. The players take turns choosing numbers and circling factors. If a player circles a number that has no factors left that have not been circled, that player loses a turn and does not get the points for the number circled. 4. The game ends when there are no numbers remaining with uncircled factors. Each player adds the numbers that are circled with his or her color. The player with the greater total is the winner. (Factor Game Board attached.) The Product Game Gr Player A puts a marker on a number in the factor list. Player A does not mark a square on the product grid because only one factor has been marked; it takes two factors to make a product. 2. Player B puts the other marker on any number in the factor list (including the same number marked by Player A) and then shades or covers the product of the two factors on the product grid. 3. Player A moves either one of the markers to another number and then shades or covers the new product. 4. Each player, in turn, moves a marker and marks a product. If a product is already marked, the player does not get a mark for that turn. The winner is the first player to mark four squares in a row up and down, across or diagonally. (Product Game Board attached.)

11 The Factor Game

12 The Product Game

13 Sources Positive Enhancement Project - This website has free downloads for English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Engagement Strategies, Test Review Strategies and Character Education. Investigations in Number, Data and Space: Mathematical Thinking at Grade 1 Investigations in Number, Data and Space: Mathematical Thinking at Grade 5