Learning about Math with a Deck of Cards

One of the best low cost math learning items you can have at home or in the classroom is a deck of cards.

There are so many simple things you can do with a deck (especially if you make it a “math deck” as Denise at Let’s Play Math calls them, which is a regular deck with jacks, queens, kings and jokers removed).

Call the ace a one and practice identifying numbers and counting from one to ten.

Use cards to count out a number of items to reinforce one to one correspondence.

Draw a card and then count up or down from that number. Or arrange cards by suits and then put the cards in number order.

Pull several cards and add, subtract, multiply or divide those numbers. Or draw several cards and write out and say the number that you get (so drawing a four, six and two would give you 462).

And of course you can play lots of games with playing cards that help reinforce math concepts.

Math Geek Mama has a great collection of math games you can play with cards for learning various math concepts, including sorting and counting, addition and subtraction, place value, prime numbers, fractions and decimals, multiplication, exponents, order of operations and metric conversions.

One of the ones that caught my eye because it’s such a great thing to do with a couple of kids, or a kid and a parent, or in pairs in a classroom, is playing variations on war. This idea comes from Denise Gaskin’s Let’s Play Math, and it goes beyond the basic whose card is higher to include ideas like adding two cards together and the winner is the higher number.

Of course there are tons of variations there, too, because you could also subtract, multiply, make numbers into fractions, decide some suits or colors are positive or negative numbers and more.

Check out both posts for lots of fun ways to play and learn math with a deck of cards!

[Photo: Math Geek Mama]

Learning numbers actually involves a few different skills, from recognizing the shape of the number and knowing the word that goes with it to understanding one to one correspondence for counting and what order the numbers go in.

A lot of this is learned best through play and activities that get kids counting and tracing and otherwise interacting with numbers. These activities can help.

I specifically mentioned tracing above because of these number formation rhymes cards from Teaching Mama, which can be used in lots of ways to practice making the shapes of the numbers, including tracing, lining up items on the number shapes (and counting them!), using playdough to shape the numbers and so on. Each number has a little rhyme to help you remember how to make it, which is cute.

And speaking of playdough, you can find lots of playdough number mats with different themes for kids to use as they learn about numbers. Preschool Play and Learn, for example, has these cute apple themed ones that also teach one to one correspondence as you learn the numbers and count to 10.

Or use these tree-themed ones from Live Over Cs to form the numbers, count out items on a ten frame and place the correct number of items in the tree to match the number (do this with playdough, little buttons or whatever manipulatives you have on hand). Your little builders will also love these Duplo number mats from Life Over Cs, which allow you to shape the number out of blocks and count out the number of blocks that corresponds to each number.

I also love these mats from The Savvy Sparrow that include the number and the word you can trace with playdough or marker, showing how to count the number on your fingers, a tens frame and a number line.

Finger plays and counting songs are lots of fun for little ones, too, and Childhood 101 has a great collection of songs and rhymes having to do with numbers (as well as printable song cards you can use with them.

This cardboard roll number chain form Hands On As We Grow would be a fun addition to singing number songs or to use in other play and counting games. And we all love something easy to make with stuff we already have.

Older kids who already know the order of numbers can also use these connect the dot number printables from Fun Learning for Kids. Or use the shapes for playdough mats or to practice tracing even for kids who don’t know all the numbers in order yet.

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