Stacey Hernberg
  • Home
  • Courses
  • For Students
  • For Educators
  • For Parents
  • About Stacey
  • Professional Development
Helping Children Learn and Succeed

A Math Game for Practising Basic Facts

7/7/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
A fun way to keep up on or improve math facts over the summer is a game called, Speed. It is actually very similar to the old card game called, War. However my daughter was horrified when I suggested we play a game called War so I switched the name to Speed. Anytime that I have slipped up and called the game War, I get the same horrified reaction which goes something like, “No! Why would I want to play War?! Mom, that’s awful! How could you even say that word in front of me?!” So if I just call the game Speed from now on then I’m less likely to slip up and use the old name.

You can use the game Speed to practise addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Let’s start with Addition Speed.

·         Use a deck of cards, remove all the face cards (Jacks, Queens, and Kings), explain that Aces have a value of 1.
·         Shuffle what remains of the deck and deal out all the cards between two players. Each player keeps all cards face down in a pile, as in the picture above.
·         Dealer gives a signal, which might just be the word “go” and both players turn over their top card. The first player to give the correct sum of both cards wins both cards.
·         If both players say the correct sum at the same time, then it begins a battle for the tie cards (not a war!) and each player turns over the top card again until there is a clear winner and that player wins the tie cards as well.  
·         Continue in this manner until all the cards have been played. The winner is the player who won the most cards.

Variations:

·         For Subtraction Speed, the players want to be the first to say the correct difference of the two cards, just have them take away the smaller number from the bigger number.

·         For Multiplication Speed, the players want to be the first to say the correct product of the two card numbers multiplied together.
·         For Division Speed, the players want to be the first to say the correct dividend by considering one card number to be the divisor and the other two be the quotient. For example, if a 3 and a 2 are turned over the players would need to think what? divided by 2 equals 3 or what? divided by 3 equals 2. However once a child plays this game, they will probably realize that it’s really just Multiplication Speed. But it forces them to think of the relationship between division and multiplication to reach this conclusion.
·         To make the Speed game easier, use two dice. That way the numbers to be added or subtracted are 6 or less.
·         To make the Speed game harder, include the Jack as 11, the Queen as 12, and the King as 13.
·         To make Addition Speed harder, include another player or more. You could do this for Subtraction Speed as well but if you take away the two smaller numbers from the biggest number, then the answer might be a negative digit.

Now if your child complains about having to practise their basic math facts, you can always give them a choice of Speed, flash cards, or worksheets. Choice always makes the work go down easier!
0 Comments

Fun with Language and Numbers Day 5

2/4/2014

0 Comments

 

*We discussed the adding strategy "nearly doubles". If you know your doubles then it can make adding questions like 6+7 easier because you can think of it as double 6 plus 1. Another example is 9+8 is double eight plus 1. Much easier than "counting on"!

*We read a new play today called "The Giant Rutabaga". It was exciting to notice that right off the bat the kids were using expression in their reading. We discussed and used the reading strategy "chunking it". This is when you read the syllables of a word rather than trying to take the whole word in at once.

*Today's math game was Subtraction Luck. Its just like Addition Luck except that each player finds the difference of the two cards they turn over and the player with the smallest difference wins that round of 4 cards.

0 Comments

Fun with Language and Numbers Day 3

1/21/2014

0 Comments

 

* We discussed and practiced the adding strategy "making ten". If you know all the numbers that add together to make ten then you can use that knowledge to add other addition facts more easily. For example, 5+8 can be thought of as (5+5) +3, which is much easier to do mentally. 
*We focused on reading with expression and some decoding and fluency strategies while reading the play, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".
* Math Game - Addition Luck - We used double dice but I explained to the kids that they can play the game at home with cards.  Deal out the entire deck to two players. Each player turns over two of their cards. The player with the highest sum wins that round. 

0 Comments

Fun with Language and Numbers Day 1

1/13/2014

0 Comments

 

Here are the games we played. They can be played at home as well.

ABC Travel Game: The first person starts the game by saying, "For my trip to _____, I packed a (something that starts with the letter A)". The next person repeats what the first person said and then adds an item that starts with the letter B. The game goes around and around with all the players repeating the previous items and adding one that begins with the next letter of the alphabet. For younger and/or newer students, it helps to have the alphabet written down. This game helps children learn alphabetical order, and develops memory and concentration.

Who is Bigger?: This game is played using a deck of cards with all face cards removed from the deck. Deal the whole deck out to two players. At the easiest level, each player turns over one card and the player with the biggest number wins that round of cards. At a slightly more challenging  level, the player who calls out the biggest card first, wins that round. Even more challenging, the player who calls out the biggest two digit number that can be made with the overturned cards, wins the cards. Keep turning over cards until all cards have been turned over. Cards won can be counted to determine a winner if there needs to be a winner. If there is a tie, then keep the cards up, turn over the next two, and the one who calls out the biggest number wins all four cards. This game helps solidify students understanding of place value and order of numbers. Although it seems simple to adults, it is a very important concept that gets build on in later primary grades and needs to be solid.


0 Comments

    Author

    Stacey Hernberg is a brain-based learning enthusiast. Passionate about parenting, teaching, and helping children get the most out of their education.

    Categories

    All
    Class Homework
    Learning Games
    Learning Resources/Aids
    Learning Strategies
    Life Skills
    Parenting
    Reading
    Student Success Strategies
    Summer Learning

    Archives

    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.