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Lesson Plan Image

It's In the Cards

Students will design and make colorful cards, then create math-themed card games to play with classmates.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Index Cards, Unlined

Steps

  • Step 1

    Have students form pairs or small groups and provide each pair or group with several unlined index cards (or heavy paper that can be cut into smaller cards). Have them draw numbers and operation signs on one side of the card (one per card) and illustrate the other side in a colorful way. Suggest that each player make and keep an "=" sign for use during the game.

  • Step 2

    Have each pair devise a math card game for the deck they created. Suggestions might be to deal out the cards. Each player then has to make as many equations as they can with the cards they have. So if someone has a 5, 3, 2, 1, , a plus sign, and a minus sign they could put out 2+1=3, or 5-3=2. Or they could play a variation of the War card game, where each player puts out a card and the highest one keeps the cards in their hand.

  • Step 3

    Have each pair or group explain their card game to other groups so others can enjoy different games.

Standards

MATH: Analyze, compare, create, and compose math ideas using written, oral, and drawn lines, shapes, forms, and patterns. 

MATH: Include knowledge of mathematics habits of mind and operations in writing, speaking, and artifact/model production. 

Adaptations

Have student pairs or groups create letter cards and then create a game to play with them. It might be a game where players pick a card and write as many words as they can that start with that letter in a given time frame, or any other word-based game.

Read a math-themed book such as "Numbers in Motion" by Laurie Wallmark and Yevgenia Nayberg (which tells the story of Sophie Kowalevski, the first woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics) or "Count on Me" by Miguel Tanco (which follows a young girl as she follows her passion for math and finds examples everywhere). Discuss how math is all around us all the time, whether in geometric shapes on a playground, concentric circles in a lake, or prices and discounts displayed in a store.