Activity:
A Mathematical Card Trick
Teach your child a fun magic trick! All you'll need is a deck of cards and some basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication skills. Your student will love the excitement of using magic (well...more math than magic really) as he practices his computation skills. Allow him to perform the trick in front of the whole family! After playing a few times, challenge your child to help you figure out why this trick works.
Click to find similar content by grade or subject.
What You Need:
- Deck of playing cards
- Pencil and scratch paper (for computation)
What You Do:
- Find someone to trick.
- Ask that person to pick a card from the deck and keep it secret.
- Have him double the face value of the card (aces = 1, jacks = 11, queens = 12, and kings = 13).
- Ask him to add 3 to their result.
- Ask him to multiply this by 5.
- Have them add 1 if his card is a club, 2 if it is a diamond, 3 if it is a heart, and 4 if it is a spade.
- Ask them to tell you their number.
- To predict the card, subtract 15 from the final total. The right digit of the answer represents the suit of the card (1 = club, 2 = diamond, 3 = heart, 4 = spade). The left digit or digits is the number value of the card. For example, if their result is 83, the card is the 8 of hearts. If the result is 134, the card is the king of spades.
Can you figure out how this trick works?
Guided Lessons are a sequence of interactive digital games, worksheets, and other activities
that guide learners through different concepts and skills.
They keep track of your progress and help you study smarter, step by step.
Guided Lessons are digital games and exercises that keep track of your progress and help you study smarter, step by step.
Third grade is the year of multiplication. Though it was most likely introduced to kids in second grade, third grade is when kids are tasked with mastering their times tables and developing a stronger understanding of this key operation. This guided lesson in understanding multiplication can help give third graders a leg up. For even more practice, consider downloading the recommended multiplication worksheets that accompany the lesson.
Third grade is the year of multiplication.
This lesson includes printable activities:
Download All (5)
Exercise: One-Digit Multiplication and Equal Groups
Exercise: Multiplication and Repeated Addition
Exercise: One-Digit Multiplication with Skip-Counting
Exercise: One-Digit Multiplication and Arrays
Exercise: One-Digit Multiplication and the Commutative Property
Exercise: One-Digit Multiplication Using a Number Line
Exercise: One-Digit Multiplication with Area Models
Exercise: Relating Area to Addition and Multiplication
Exercise: Multiply by 1
Exercise: Multiply by 2
Exercise: Multiply by 10
