Description
How it works
Deal eight cards face up to each player. Someone rolls a die to set the target difference — roll a 2 and everyone looks for two cards differing by 2, like a 5 and a 3. Find a pair and you discard it, one pair per turn. The die gets rolled again each round and the first player to clear their hand wins. Because the target keeps changing, children scan the same eight cards for a different relationship every turn.
What you’ll need
- A deck with kings and jacks removed (ace = 1, queen = 0)
- One die
Skills practiced
Subtraction facts, difference as distance between numbers, and searching a set for a specific relationship.
Grade level
1st through 4th grade. Ask children to show the distance on a number line, or allow expressions using more than two cards to reach the target.
Instant PDF download. Game instructions adapted from the ideas in Math Fact Fluency by Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling (ASCD / NCTM, 2019).
