Five Math Games You Can Play With an Ordinary Deck of Cards

You do not need a box labelled “educational” to get a useful math game going. A slightly battered deck of cards will do. The trick is to choose a rule that makes your child use the skill you want to practise.

Start with the skill your child is practising at school. Make Ten uses addition pairs; Place-Value Builder asks them to arrange digits. For multiplication, try Product Pairs and let them explain how they found the answer.

These five games use a standard deck. They are designed for a table, floor or tray, with no printer, account or internet connection.

Prepare the cards for your game

Remove jokers, jacks, queens and kings. Keep aces through 10, with each ace worth 1. Suits do not matter. For Make Ten, also remove the 10s; for Place-Value Builder, remove them because each card must represent one digit.

Start with number cards your child can read. If they are still learning quantities, counting the hearts or clubs is part of the activity. The suggested ages below are rough guides, not entry requirements.

1. Make Ten: find the missing partner

Players: 1–2. Good starting point: ages 6–8, addition pairs.

1. Use aces through 9. Deal six cards face up and put the rest in a draw pile.
2. Find two cards that add to 10. Say the equation before removing the pair.
3. Replace the pair from the draw pile. Two players alternate turns; one player works through the board alone.
4. If there is no pair, discard the six visible cards and deal up to six new cards. Stop when the draw pile is empty and no more pairs remain.

With 2, 7, 5, 3, 8 and 4 showing, you can take 7 + 3 or 2 + 8. The 5 must wait for another 5. Ask, “What are you looking for?” and you will hear whether your child knows the partner or is testing every possible pair.

Collect pairs together, or give each player one point per pair. For an easier start, use only two pairs, face up. Our number-bonds guide shows how to build the idea with objects first.

2. Difference Duel: subtraction without a stopwatch

Players: 2. Good starting point: ages 7–9, subtraction within 10.

Deal the number cards equally into two face-down piles. Both players turn over two cards and subtract the smaller value from the larger. Whoever has the larger difference earns one point. Put all four cards aside and repeat. If the differences match, both players earn a point.

A 9 and 4 make a difference of 5. An 8 and 6 make a difference of 2, so the first pair wins. Notice that the largest single card does not tell the whole story.

Play until both piles are used, then count the points. If subtracting is tricky, draw a short number line and count the gap. You can also aim for the smallest difference on the next game to change the decision.

3. Product Pairs: multiplication you can explain

Players: 2. Good starting point: ages 8–12, familiar multiplication facts.

Split the number-card deck equally. Both players turn over two cards and multiply their values. Compare the products, award one point to the larger, and set the cards aside. Ties earn one point each. The game ends when the piles run out.

If you draw 6 and 7, you might explain 6 × 7 as 5 × 7 plus another 7: 35 + 7 = 42. The answer matters, but that explanation gives you something useful to practise next time.

To work on just one table, put a 4 face up in the middle and take turns drawing a single card to multiply by 4. Work together through ten cards. Use the 4 times table guide or a multiplication chart to check uncertain answers; hide the answer before trying that fact again later.

4. Place-Value Builder: where should the 8 go?

Players: 1–2. Good starting point: ages 7–10, tens and ones.

Use aces through 9. Each player draws three cards and chooses two to make the largest possible two-digit number. Write both numbers, compare them, and explain the tens and ones. The larger number earns one point. Discard the cards and play five rounds.

With 3, 8 and 6, the best choice is 86: eight tens and six ones. Putting the same cards in the opposite order makes 68. Have your child explain the difference instead of treating the rule as “biggest card goes first” to memorise.

For solo play, make both the largest and smallest possible number from each draw. For older children, draw four cards and build three-digit numbers. With two players, play four rounds: the 36-card deck is too small for five rounds of eight cards. Ties earn one point each in either version. To introduce zero, add four homemade 0 cards and agree that a two-digit number cannot start with 0.

5. Target 20: more than one way to get there

Players: 1 or a team. Good starting point: ages 8–12, flexible calculation.

Deal five number cards face up. Try to make 20 using any of them, with each card used at most once. Begin with addition and subtraction only. There may be several solutions or none.

For 9, 8, 5, 3 and 2, one solution is 9 + 8 + 3 = 20. If you allow multiplication, (9 − 5) × (3 + 2) also makes 20. Write brackets so everyone can follow the calculation.

If you cannot find a solution, agree to replace one card or choose a different target. Looking carefully and deciding to move on is allowed; this is a puzzle, not a test of endurance.

What the research supports

In a study by Scalise, Daubert and Ramani, low-income preschoolers played either a number-comparison card game or a matching game. The comparison-game group improved on an immediate measure of symbolic number comparison. The children were younger than much of this guide’s audience, and the study did not test these five arithmetic games.

That is a reason to be specific about the skill a game uses. Comparing cards gives comparison practice; finding a pair gives addition practice. A child being entertained is welcome, but it is not by itself evidence that every part of their mathematics is improving.

When the game stops being fun

Change one thing before abandoning the deck: use fewer cards, work together, or remove the score. If your child needs help on almost every turn, the calculations are probably too demanding for independent practice. Show an example and make the next round easier.

Agree on a finish before you start: five rounds, ten cards, or one board cleared. Put the cards away at the agreed stopping point, even if a few rounds remain in the deck.

Can we use UNO cards?

You can adapt the number-based games using only the numbered cards. Remove action and wild cards and decide whether to include zero. Duplicate numbers are fine; the deck composition changes which pairs you see, so use the no-move rule from Make Ten.

Do we need an app as well?

No. The deck is enough for these games. If you want a separate option for independent practice, Tiger Math offers ad-free math activities with local progress tracking. For travel, our offline-games guide explains what to check before disconnecting.