Description
How it works
One player leads and hands a card to each of the other two, who hold them against their foreheads facing out — visible to everyone but themselves. The leader announces the sum. Each player then works out their own card from the sum and the one addend they can see. Both explain how they got there, the cards are discarded, and the lead rotates. It takes ten seconds to teach and children will play it far longer than you expect.
What you’ll need
- Ten frame cards, or a deck with kings and jacks removed (ace = 1, queen = 0)
- Exactly three players
Skills practiced
Missing addends, the relationship between addition and subtraction, and explaining a strategy out loud.
Grade level
1st through 4th grade. Limit the deck to 1–5 to start; add a fourth player and three cards to make it considerably harder. See Game 38 for the multiplication version.
Instant PDF download. Game instructions adapted from the ideas in Math Fact Fluency by Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling (ASCD / NCTM, 2019).
