Compare and Pair

Match and compare numbers in this fun card game. Your first grader will love the challenge of trying to get rid of all of the cards!  Work together to find matches among the numbers and suits. Discuss the value of different numbers, and improve your critical thinking and problem solving skills as you try to make connections with all of the cards. Compare and Pair is an exciting way to improve your child's number sense and speed with numbers... Great for helping him become more fluent with addition and subtraction!

What You Need:

• One deck of cards (Print a deck.)

What You Do:

1. Shuffle the deck of cards. Deal 4 cards face up in a row. Place the rest of the deck face down nearby.
2. The object of the game is to discard all of the cards. There are two ways to do this. Firstly, any cards that have the same number or face value can be removed together (e.g. two queens). Secondly, if there are two cards from the same suit, the card with the smaller value can be removed. (e.g. If there is a jack of diamonds and a nine of diamonds, the nine of diamonds could be removed.) Place removed cards in a discard pile.
3. After all possible plays have been made, deal four new cards from the deck, replenishing the previous four. If a card remains from the previous round, deal a card on top of it. You must get rid of any top cards before playing the cards beneath.
4. Play continues until all cards are cleared and no more cards can be removed. At the end of the game, count the number of cards remaining in the piles and record your result. Try to improve your score next time!