Contributed by Roger Rooke.
An addition game which uses a standard pack of playing cards with the court cards removed. The pack can be shared between 2 / 3 pupils, and they are encouraged to collaborate in this game of number PATIENCE.
After shuffling the cards, the pupils turn over the top seven cards to make seven “bases”. These are placed in a horizontal line as in standard patience. The pupils then take turns to turn over cards from the pack, which must be added to one of the bases. When a column of cards adds to make 10, 20, 30, 40 ….etc, it can be “turned over”.
The challenge of the game is to get all the bases turned over before the cards in the pack are exhausted.
Children get familiar with keeping a running total in this activity. The difficulty level of the game can be changed by varying the number of bases.