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]

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Teach the Teacher Printable Worksheets: A Fun…

France is a country in Europe that’s officially the French Republic, but it also has overseas regions and territories include French Guiana, the French West Indies and islands in the North Atlantic, Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Let’s learn more about France!

France Basics

France is the largest country in western Europe. Its 18 integral regions, five of which are overseas, combine to make an area of 244,288 square miles, or 632,702 square kilometers, with a population of more than 69 million. The mainland borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra and Spain.

Paris is the capital and largest city, as well as the cultural center of the country. About 2 million people live in Paris, which was originally inhabited by the Parisii people as early as the third century BC. The oldest evidence of humans in what’s now known as France is from about 1.8 million years ago.

Neanderthals once lived there, but were replaced by Homo sapiens around 35,000 BC. France is where some of the oldest cave paintings have been found. Because of its long history and rich culture, France is known as a leader in art, food, philosophy, fashion and more throughout history.

The official language is French, and about half of French people identify as Christian.

The government is a semi-presidential republic, with both a president and prime minister, as well as parliament.

The word France comes from Latin, in which the region was referred to as Francia, “realm of the Franks.” It’s unclear where the term Franks came from.

France National Symbols

The French flag features blue, white and red vertical bars. The design was adopted during the French Revolution and has been used ever since (that’s more than 230 years!).

The national anthem, known as La Marseillaise (or “The Song of Marseille”) was adopted in 1795.

The motto of France comes from around the same time, with liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity) showing up in speeches and propaganda starting in the 1970s.

The fleur de lis, a heraldic symbol meant to symbolize a lily, is still considered a symbol of France, as it was used on the traditional coat of arms for the country and still represents it on the coats of arms of Spain, Canada and Quebec, and is featured in the coat of arms of Paris.

Marianne is considered the personification of France, and was chosen during the French Revolution as a symbol of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason. She typically wears a Phrygian cap, which was originally worn by emancipated slaves in Greece and Rome and is considered a symbol of freedom.

The rooster is also considered a symbol of France because the Gauls used to live in what’s now France, and in Latin the same word means rooster and Gaul.

France Activities for Kids

Learn to draw a fleur de lis with this video tutorial from Draw Stuff Real Easy.

Learn more about the Lascaux cave paintings and make your own cave painting inspired art. The Natural Homeschool has some images of cave paintings you can download, and Deceptively Educational has printable templates you can trace to make your own cave painting style art.

Take a virtual tour of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, classic landmarks of Paris. You can also look at online tours from the Louvre.

Learn the history of the Notre Dame Cathedral, or take a trip through history at the Palace of Versailles.

Because there’s so much history and culture in France there are a ton of landmarks and historical sites you can talk about depending on the interests of your kids. Grab a learning pack for kids from Proverbial Homemaker.

Learn to count to 10 in French (they have lots of other basic French videos, too) with help from Blabber Beasts.

Check out more resources for learning about France from Teachers Pay Teachers.

There’s lots of fun food from France, too, which you can sample or make for yourself, from baguettes and croissants to crepes, quiche and fondue. Some say pot-au-feu is the national dish, but I don’t think there’s an official one. It is the French version of pot roast, beef with vegetables. You can find a recipe at Serious Eats.

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Have you read?

France Basics

France Activities for Kids

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