Math Game Monday: Concentration with Math Model Cards

This game lays a great foundation for your child’s understanding of multiplication and fractions.

Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s play some math!

Concentration with Math Model Cards

Math Concepts: multiplication or fraction models, visual/spatial memory.

Players: any number.

Equipment: one deck of math model cards.

Set-Up

You can work with your children to create a deck of math model cards, sketching the pictures on index cards or on a stack of old business cards with blank backs. Each deck should include 10–15 sets (also called books). Each book consists of four cards — the multiplication equation or fraction, plus three pictures.

Your card deck need not include every possible fraction or every math fact in the times tables. But it should offer enough variety to cement the most common multiplication models in your children’s minds. For example, my multiplication card deck only includes products from 2×2 to 6×6, but students who master these models can extend the concepts to think about any calculation.

Take your time, making just two or three books each day while talking about real-life situations the models might symbolize. When you think the deck is finished, lay the cards out on the table in sets, to make sure each book has all its members.

The free 44-page PDF Multiplication & Fraction Printables file features two decks of mathematical model playing cards, plus hundred charts and all the game boards for the Math You Can Play: Multiplication & Fractions book.

Get Your Printables File ❱

Print either the Multiplication Models or Fraction Models card deck for this game.

How to Play

Shuffle the cards and lay them all face down on the table, spread out in a single layer. The cards may be placed in an array or arranged in a haphazard cloud, as long as no card covers any other card.

On your turn, flip two cards face up. If the cards match, representing the same product or fraction, then you get to take the pair. If they do not match, leave the cards showing for a few seconds so all players can see what they are. Then turn them face down and let the next player take a turn.

Keep the cards you capture in a personal score pile. When all the cards are claimed, whichever player has collected the most is the winner.

Variations

House Rule: How will you handle the frustrating cycle where a player turns up new cards and sees that one of them would match a previously exposed card, but the other player grabs that pair, leaving the first player to try unknown cards again next turn? At our house, if you find a pair, you get a free turn and can flip over two more cards — which means every player exposes new cards that the next player can use. Free turns expire when there are ten or fewer cards left on the table, to keep one lucky player from claiming all the last pairs.

Mixed Groups: When playing with a wide range of ages, let the younger players flip three cards per turn and keep any two that match.

Equivalent Fractions: Instead of matching the fraction and pictures exactly, players may take any two cards that name the same amount of stuff. A card labeled 3/6 can match with a picture of 2/4, since both of them are worth half of one whole thing.

History

Concentration is my favorite ice-breaker game for math club meetings because the game is quick to learn and easy to play in large groups. It is also a game that older children and adults can enjoy as much as the beginning students do. More than once, when my teenage daughter walked through the room where the younger children were playing, she asked to join in the game.