Playing Cards Math Activity

Table of Contents:

1. Grab a deck of cards for a quick playing cards math activity
2. Making this playing cards math activity is so simple!
3. Introducing the numbers and the activity
4. The goal of this activity was to link numerals to quantity.

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Grab a deck of cards for a quick playing cards math activity

I love coming up with quick and simple math activities for my son. I’m not looking for drill and kill – just fun ways to help him (3 years old) develop his math skills. Lately, he’s been super into numbers so I came up with this simple playing cards math activity that focuses on number sense.

Number sense is more than just counting and it’s way more than just recognizing numerals, although both are key components. In this activity, we focused on 1:1 correspondence and identifying the quantity of numerals 1-10.

Making this playing cards math activity is so simple!

Materials:
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• Playing cards
• Buttons

Playing cards and buttons are great math manipulatives and make any activity an instant hit.

To set up this simple math activity / lesson, grab playing cards ace through 10 and set them out. I taped them to a piece of Kraft paper, but admittedly, that’s because my floor is dirty and we needed nice pictures of this (hashtag blogging truth).

Introducing the numbers and the activity

We started this activity by counting to 10, touching each playing card as we counted. Not only does this correlate the number to the numeral, but it provides yet another great chance for 1:1 correspondence practice.

The goal of this activity was to link numerals to quantity.

To accomplish this goal, I grabbed a bowl of buttons to use as math counters. I had my son count out the correct number of buttons for each playing card – this is great for the tactile learning aka touch learning.

Sometimes, he placed the buttons below the card and counted them out.

Other times, he used the suit of the card as a reference for the number of buttons he needed.

Either method is great – placing the buttons on the actual cards is especially great if working on quantity is a new concept for your kiddo.

Extending this activity for elementary aged siblings is a snap – use the cards and buttons to represent number sentences to practice addition skills.

What I love about this activity is that it’s a simple, quick way to practice and play with number sense. Playing cards are fun, buttons are fun – just those materials in an activity together meant this was a winning game.

What will your child think of this play cards math activity?