Playing Cards

I sometimes tease the students in my classes when I let them play games that when their parents ask what they did in school, I'm hoping that they don't reply, "We rolled dice and played cards today!"

But cards and dice are useful tools for math classes. They are inexpensive and readily available. The game that we play using a regular deck of cards is one that involves adding, multiplying and dividing. I have seen my students' mental math abilities improve as well as the basic multiplication and division skills.

The game is best played by at least three people and no more than five. Everyone needs to have their scrap paper and pencil ready.

Face cards are worth ten, aces are worth one, and jokers can be used optionally as 100. All the other cards are worth the value that is on them.

The shuffled deck is handed to the first player. Whenever a player gets the deck, they have the choice of cutting it or taking their cards off the top. The player takes three cards and places them face up and one card which is placed face down. Then the deck is passed on to the next player. The student multiplies the values of the three cards together then divides the product by the value of the card that is face down. This is the number of points which they get for that round. They keep a running tally until the period is over. The deck is passed around the group until the cards are used up, then the cards are shuffled again. Each player keeps track of their own score.

This game provides a great opportunity for pointing out the pattern when multiplying or dividing a number by 10 or 100. Some students don't pick up on that unless it is pointed out several times. Then they are enabled to do more math mentally and to also come up with accurate estimates.

My students are now suggesting variations on this game that could make the points earned in each round a bit higher. They have suggested multiplying four cards together before dividing. We might be trying that soon!