Getting Even

Memorizing addition facts is an important step in a first grader's learning. Teach your child this fun card game in order to squeeze in a little extra addition practice. All you need is a deck of cards, and you are ready to get started! You will be helping your child build confidence with his math facts as well as develop the skill of differentiating between even and odd numbers.

What You Need:

• One deck of playing cards

What You Do:

1. Lay out all of the cards, face up, in a single overlapping line.
2. Scan for pairs of cards that are next to each other and add up to an even number. (For the purposes of this game, aces = 1, jacks = 11, queens = 12, and kings = 13.) In the example below, the 9 and 7 of spades on the right could be removed together, because 9 + 7 = 16, an even number.
3. Remove all even sums.
4. Continue until no plays are left. Count the remaining cards.
5. Play again and try to remove more cards the next time! If you can remove all of the cards, you are a champion!

Variations:

• For younger players, remove the face cards from the deck.
• Change the rules so that players must remove odd sums. Rename the game Playing the Odds.
• Try playing the game using subtraction or multiplication.