Montessori Activity: Teaching Big & Small Numbers with Playing Cards

Age: From 3 years old

Objective(s): To teach big and small number comparison in a fun way.

Materials:
- 1 set of playing cards

Directions:
1. A set of playing cards from number 1 - 10.

2. Shuffle them and divide them equally face down into 2 stacks one for you and the other for your child.

3. Your child and you each turn over a card from own stack.

4. The person with the bigger number of the two cards win and get to keep the other's card.

5. At the end of the game, invite your child to count the number of cards he has and the number of cards you have. The person with the most number of cards win.

Additional Information:
I got this idea from a Chinese book. Joshua (3Y2M27D) tried it this evening and enjoyed it more than the other game I posted earlier with playing cards. He could point to the card with the bigger number for most of the time. At one point, there was a tie with the same number one. He looked at the two cards and laughed (see below picture) He then got impatient, because he wanted to work with Montessori activity with water. I asked him whether he liked this activity. He said he did, but he couldn't wait for the next activity, which is with water.

Montessori Activity: Teaching Number Recognition with Playing Cards

Age: From 3 years old

Objectives:
To teach number recognition and sequence of numbers in a fun way.

Materials:
1. Playing cards from 1 - 4

Directions:
1. Bring out 1, 2, 3 and 4 cards one at a time and point out the corresponding number on the card for your child to recognize.

2. Arrange the cards nicely in a row on ascending order on the mat.

3. Turn over one of the cards and let your child guess the number that is overturned.

4. Shuffle the cards and invite your child to arrange it in ascending order.

Tips:
Increase the complexity of the game by increasing the number of cards, once your child has mastered number recognition with 4 cards.

Cost:
Large size playing cards: 20 DKK from Tiger

Additional Information:
I got this idea from a Chinese Montessori book. I was a little hesitant to use playing cards to teach Maths, but they are typically the cards the Chinese use, when they gamble. But playing cards are very cheap and versatile to use to teach Maths. I used to have free playing cards when travelling on Singapore Airlines, but I have thrown them all away, as I don't play cards. So I bought it from Tiger.

References and Resources:
http://numeracy.cumbriagridforlearning.org.uk/getfile.php?src=673/ideas_using_playing_cards.pdf
http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/math-with-playing-cards.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4548465_use-deck-cards-improve-math.html
http://krystald.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Use-Playing-Cards-to-Teach-Children-Addition-Facts