Math Beyond Workbooks

The Four-Card Shuffle

• skills involved: number sense, basic operations, order of operations


• materials needed: a set of 20 cards, numbered 1 - 20, paper and pencils

This game was adapted from an activity in Family Math (see Resources and Links). This can be played briefly as a warm-up at the beginning of a class, or students can play at greater length for more in-depth practice. Encourage students to neatly record their results for each round.

1. Write the numbers 1 ‚ 20 on index cards, one number per card, and shuffle them well.



2. Players turn over the top five cards. Using each value on the first four cards, and any of the four basic operations, they try to obtain the value on the fifth card. The first four cards can be used in any order.
   For example, if the five cards turned over are: 3, 7, 16, 14, and 5, you use the first four numbers any way you like to arrive at an answer of 5. For example,
   
   
   16 — (14 — 7) ‚ 3 = 5


3. Be sure students record their number sentences, using parentheses when necessary and keeping in mind the order of operations, so that the instructor can check their work.



4. Players can play cooperatively, or if skills are evenly matched, the player who finds a solution first scores a point. Play until all cards have been used (four rounds).