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by Raymond Blum
Topics: Fourth Grade, Math
We did this activity

It's a race to see who can hit the target first by working math problems faster than their opponent.

 

Materials
A deck of playing cards

 

How to Play

  1. Remove the 12 face cards from the deck and set them aside.

  2. Shuffle the rest of the deck and deal four cards face down to each player. Turn the next card face up in the center of the table. This is the target number.

  3. At the count of three, all players turn their cards over at the same time. Then they add, subtract, multiply, or divide the numbers on their cards (Aces = 1) and try to equal the target number. All four cards must be used!

  4. The first player to equal the target number wins a point, and 3 points wins the game.

  5. If no one can equal the target number, turn over another card for a new target number, or deal again.

 

Winning Strategy

Keep rearranging your cards until you see the right combination. Also, try to group a pair of cards together.

 

A Variation

If the game is too hard, put in some of the face cards. They could be wild cards and used in your hand as any number. If the four-card game is too easy, deal five cards to each player.