Any Which Way
Math Concepts
Addition / subtraction- single digit
Materials
Playing card deck
Players
1+
Set up
Set a target. A useful target is 10, but other numbers are fine. Use a deck that has had the face cards removed.
Play
For a round, each player is dealt five cards. Players then find as many ways as they can to get the target amount, or get as close to the target as possible, using any combination of addition and subtraction with any of their cards.
You can make this competitive by giving each player a score based on how many of their cards they used and how close they got to the target. Perhaps 3 points for hitting the target, 2 points for one away, and 1 point for two away. Then add to that the number of cards they used.
Goal
When played competitively, the player with the highest total after several rounds wins.
Discussion and Tips
Discuss the different ways to get the same amount. Some of the different ways will be minor rearrangements of the numbers, and some will be more interesting.
Discussion and Tips
Do this as a group activity where the whole group is given five cards to use to cooperatively come up with ways to achieve the total.
Your students may enjoy coming up with their own scoring system.