In January I always think about calendars. (?? How’s your “BRAIN Calendar” going that I blogged about last week? No pressure. Just a reminder.) Anyway, here’s a fun card game you can play alone. Your kids can play too. Great math practice for them.
[Materials: January calendar, deck of cards, 31 pieces of paper, pencil; paper]
- Shuffle deck, turn up three cards and identify their values. [Ace=1, Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13]
- Using all three values, write as many different number sentences as you can to equal a number 1 thru 31. [Example: 2, 5 & Jack can be written 11-5+2=8; 5+(11×2)=27; (5)2 [squared] -11=14, etc.]
- Cover the days/numbers on the calendar so that they cannot be used again. [8, 27 and 14 would be covered in the example above.]
- Turn up three more cards and continue making number sentences that equal the days still showing. The object is to cover all 31 numbers before you have gone through the deck.
- Optional: If days are still left uncovered, shuffle and turn up four cards and go through the deck again.