1.

Exponent Card Game

A fast-paced match for learning exponents.

What You Need

 A deck of cards

How to Play

 First, deal the cards so that the entire deck is distributed evenly among the
players. Players should leave the cards face-down in front of them.
 Next, each player will flip over their top card at the same time. The first card is
the base. Then, the players flip the next card which is the exponent. (e.g. if a
player flips a 5 and a 2, then s/he calculates 52, which is 25. In the same round,
the second player flips a 2 and a 10. Then, s/he calculates 210, which is 1024. In
this case, the second player wins that round.)
 The game continues until all of the cards have been flipped. In the end, the
player with the highest product wins!
2. Digit Deduction

This is a great 7th grade math practice activity to include some competition to math
learning!

What You Need

 A board
 A board marker

How to Play

 Write a mystery number on the board.

 Students can get some clues by asking you questions with math vocabulary
terms to guess the number. For example, they ask the number of digits, a
product of the number, or whether it is an odd or even number.
 After their guess, they learn how many digits they guessed correctly and put
them in the right or wrong places.
 The game continues until the mystery number is found. And the one who
guesses correctly wins!
3. Tic-Tac-Toe Match

Here’s one of the best seventh grade math problems to engage the students with
math.

What You Need

 Sheets of paper to draw tic-tac-toe boards.

 Fraction cards.

How to Play

 For each turn, each player draws four cards. Then, the player must use those
cards to get to 1/2 using multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division.
 When a player is able to get to 1/2 using her cards, she can place an X or an O on
a square in the grid.
 Play continues with the cards returned to the pile and shuffled before the next
draw, until a player gets three in a row.
 If a player is not able to get to 24 in any turn, that player must skip the turn and
try again the next round with a new set of four cards.
4. Match to make 11 (10, 14)

Lay out three rows of three cards each, face up. Then check to see if you can find any
two cards that add up to 11. If so, remove those cards and set them aside. Replace
them with new cards from the deck. Continue until you run out of cards or can’t make
any more matches.

The Deal
Shuffle your playing cards and deal three rows of three cards each. All 9 of these cards
should be facing upwards so that they are visible. The remaining cards become the
Deck for the duration of the game.

The Board

Elevens is extremely similar to Bowling Solitaire, except that the layout is a little
different and the goal is to make matching pairs that add up to 11 rather than adding
matching pairs up to 10.
Empty spaces in the 9-card formation are automatically filled by placing a card from
the Deck in the free space. Once you run out of cards in the Deck, do not fill the empty
spaces in the card formation with any other cards.

To play this game, look at your 9-card formation and see if any cards can be matched
that add up to 11 in total. If you have a matching pair that can create this sum, then
you may remove them from place. Once you’ve done so, remember to fill in the gaps
left by these two cards with two cards from the Deck.

Only cards in the 9-card formation are available to play with, and you may not build
any cards on top of each other during the game. Cards cannot be removed from the
Deck unless they are being placed in the table layout, and you should not look at the
cards in the Deck before moving them into play. They must remain unknown until they
are flipped over to be placed in the 9-card formation.

The ranking of cards matches their face value i.e. the two of clubs is equal to two. Aces
hold a value of one and Jacks, Queens, and Kings equal eleven only when they are
removed together. For example, if you have a Jack and King on your board you can’t
remove either until a Queen appears. Once all three cards are present on the board
they can be removed together to make “11”. They are the only cards in the game that
are moved as a trio, rather than being matched as a pair.

HOW TO WIN:
To win at a round of Elevens, you must remove absolutely all cards from play –
including those from the Deck. Once you have matched all cards in the Deck, then you
have won the round.

It is possible to play this game with more than one player. To do so, you could create a
scoring system by having each player keep their matched pairs and making each set
worth 1 point. The player with the highest number of points would win the game.
Typically, this is a solo player game, but it’s extremely easy to make into a family-
friendly or party game.

SIMILAR GAMES
There are a few games that are similar to Elevens.

Suit Elevens – is a solitaire game variation of this game where you can only match a
pair of cards that are the same suit.
Tens – allows you to remove cards from play that add up to 10. It’s like Bowling
Solitaire and Simple Pairs.
Fourteen Out – is a game where you match pairs of cards which add up to 14.
OTHER NAMES
This game is also known as “Block Eleven” and “Number Eleven”.
5. Race to 100

Flip a card and add its value to your running total. First person to reach 100 without
going over wins! (Remove face cards for younger players; use these values for older
kids: Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13, Ace = 0.)

For this game, you can either remove the face cards and play with the numbers 1-10,
or you can include face cards to represent the following values: Jack-11, Queen-12,
King-13, Ace-0.

Then shuffle the deck well and place it face down in the middle of the playing area.

Addition Activity
The object of the game is to be the first player to reach 100 without going over.  To begin,
each player starts with a score of zero. Then player one draws a card and places it face
up in front of them. They then add the value of that card to their starting value (0).
Players then take turns drawing cards, on each turn adding the new value to their
previous score. Any player whose score goes over 100 is out of the game.

The first player to reach 100 exactly wins. Or, after all cards are drawn, the player
with a score closest to 100 without going over wins.
(Note: If you’re playing with a small number of kids, you may want to cut the deck in
half before starting, or determine a set number of turns for each player, such as 15.
Otherwise you may have every player go over 100 before depleting the deck.)

Race to 100 Game Rules

Depending on the age and ability of your kids, there are lots of different variations to
this game that you can try. This might be a fun way to change up a family favorite, or a
way to provide a greater challenge to older kids. For example, you could add a Joker
card to the deck to mean that a player must start over at zero. Or you could practice
subtraction by having each player start with a score of 100 and subtract the value of
each card to be the first player to zero. Or for older kids who need practice with
multiplication, change the rules so that the goal is to reach 1,000 without going over.
Then have kids draw 2 cards and multiply them, adding up the total as they go. (In
this variation, all face cards are equal to 10).

Finally, challenge middle schoolers by making black cards equal to positive

values and red cards equal to negative values. Then add/subtract integers on each
turn.
6. Play a game of 21

In Vegas, they call this one “Blackjack,” but it makes a great learning game for kids too
(no need to place bets). Not only do they practice their addition skills, but they’ll also
get a little practice at thinking logically and calculating the odds.

Age: 5+

Materials needed: Deck of cards

Aim: To work on addition skills and have fun.

How to play 21 Card Game:

There are many variations on the rules for 21 Card Game, but here is how we play:

 We don’t bet – it is just all about the numbers!

 We take turns in being the dealer – 5 hands each.
  Aim of the 21 Card Game is to get 21 or as close to as possible.
 Number cards have their face value, jacks, kings and queens are worth 10.
Ace can be either 1 or 11 and the player who holds the ace gets to choose
the value of the card.
 The dealer and all other players have two cards. With the exception of the
dealer the players have their cards face up. The dealer has one card up and
one card face down.
 The dealer goes to each player one at a time. The player needs to decide if
they want another card (hit) or will sit on what they have. You can have as
many cards as you like as long as you don’t go over 21.
 The dealer does this with every player. Players are not competing against
each other, but against the dealer.
 The dealer then turns over their other card and needs to decide what to do.
If the dealer has 16 or under then they must take another card.
 If the dealer has 21 (Ace and a ten value card) the dealer wins.
 If the dealer goes bust then everyone else wins.
 We reshuffle the deck of cards after every game.

Opportunities for learning:

The 21 Card Game provides many mathematical learning opportunities:

 Addition and subtraction

 Greater than / less than
 Chance – likelihood of an Ace turing up or for example a card lower than 5.

And non-mathematical skills like decision making – do I sit or take another card.
7. Pyramid Solitaire (alone or in teams)

Some versions of solitaire are really just sneaky math card games, and pyramid is one
of them. Try to find cards that add up to 10 as you clear your pyramid row by row.

Materials needed: one deck of playing cards, with Jokers, Kings, Queens and Jacks
removed

Shuffle your deck and place 21 of the cards face up in a 6-row pyramid.  You should
have 19 cards leftover which becomes the DRAW pile.  There are two rules that must
be followed when playing this Pyramid Solitaire Game: 
 1. Only fully exposed cards can be played at any time.  That means, to start, only
the bottom 6 cards can be considered until you start removing bottom cards. 
2. You can only remove cards that equal 10, and only up to two cards at a time. 
For instance, you can remove a 10, or you can remove a 6 and a 4 (because
added together they equal 10), but you can't remove a 2, 4, and a 4, even
though, added up, they equal 10. 

Continue play until all 19 cards that were not part of the original pyramid have been
turned over, or when you have no more cards to work with; that is, until no other card
can be combined to make a sum of ten. The number of cards remaining are your score.
4 cards = 4 points. Try to get the lowest score possible at the end of each game. The
lower the better! For step by step instructions of game-play that include pictures,
please visit: https://www.multiplication.com/our-blog/jen-wieber/sum-10-pyramid-
solitaire-card-game

 
8. Flip and Add one or Subtract one

There are a few versions of this basic addition and subtraction game. We like this one:
Remove the face cards from the deck. Flip a card. If it’s red, add one and say the
amount out loud. If it’s black, subtract one. Get it right? You get to keep the card!